I wanted to give some feedback on the new Modern Content Layout that went live in the tvOS app today - beta 7.20 (397). On balance I think I quite like the new look albeit with a few reservations.
I love the use of artwork on Home and the way it’s been implemented looks great - I haven’t found a single item that gives a weird result. I think it makes the UI far more rich. My only niggle with that would be the delay for the art to pop in when moving from item to item. Maybe some sort of local/background caching could make the transition smoother.
The episode/media summary and details being shown on Home without having to click in and out of items is a useful addition. I would personally appreciate having resolution and audio formats tags show there as opposed to just the age rating. One thing I’m missing is seeing the episode season / number under non-focussed items in rows. It means there’s no longer a way to quickly see where I’m up to at a glance without actively scrolling across each item to bring it into focus.
The banishment of yellow dog-ear unplayed indicators from Home is and I think that’s a welcome default in this view. I actually feel the reverse would be useful though - a new icon like a green circular checkmark on items that have been played so that those are easily distinguishable. Or if you’re avoiding icons maybe the poster for played items could be dimmed/darkened/faded. I know I can get a “Played” indicator in the media summary by hovering over a particular item but that’s not helpful when glancing at the whole screen. I feel like this logic with the indicators could also carry through to the library view to get rid of the yellow corners everywhere whilst having a modern way to indicate which items have been played.
When clicking a tv item and going to the season view the transition could be much smoother (I’m on the ATV 4K 2021 and notice this so I imagine it may be worse on older devices). I like the way the art increases in size slightly as it gives an effect of the show coming in to focus and you being drawn in. At present there seems to be a lot of wasted and empty space in this view but I think that’s because per-episode cast information isn’t showing on a lot of shows.
On the interface more generally I think space utilisation would be my greatest concern. There seems to be a lot of large spaces and what is on the screen is often only partially shown. For example on Home the Continue Watching row is fully visible but my second row is cut off about 25% of the way down and in season views where cast info is available the cast photo bubbles are only half visible without scrolling down. In a show view the season posters are visible but the season name and episode count below is not. There seems to be enough screen real estate spare that a combination of spacing changes and sizing adjustments could give an improved view without requiring scrolling or displaying partial information.
My last point is on badges for unwatched episode count within TV library views. This is vital information for me and I’d hate to see that go. Whilst it still appears on a show level, I notice now that if I click into a show there is no longer an unplayed item count shown on individual seasons which I’m hoping is only an oversight as I’d find that a bit of a stumbling block, especially for shows with multiple seasons where it’s no longer easy to see what you have or haven’t watched without jumping in and out of seasons. Perhaps the unplayed count badge could be retained and modernised (the current square badge with one rounded corner is a little rough and jarring).
Overall I think the new design is moving in a positive direction and the “Modern” name is quite apt. I appreciate that the classic look can be restored via the settings menu as choice is good but personally I think I’ll sticking with the new look for the time being to see how I adapt to it. I’m hoping there can be some tweaks and refinements before it’s fully rolled out and I’m looking forward to seeing how it develops.
