10-foot user interface
{{Short description|Graphical user interface designed for televisions}}
{{Use American English|date=February 2021}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2021}}
File:Main Screen Confluence 14.1.jpg is an example of home theater PC software, which is designed to be displayed on a TV. It can be controlled using a remote, a game controller, or a keyboard.]]
In computing, 10-foot user interface, 10-foot UI or 3-meter user interface is a graphical user interface designed for televisions. Compared to desktop computer and smartphone user interfaces, it uses text and other interface elements that are much larger in order to accommodate a typical television viewing distance of {{convert|10|ft|m|abbr=off|sp=us}}. In reality, this distance varies greatly between households.{{Cite book |last1=Bertolus |first1=Cédric |last2=Bailleul |first2=Daniel |last3=Mersiol |first3=Marc |chapter=Viewing distance requires large characters to ensure legibility on TV-set |date=2017-08-29 |title=Proceedings of the 29th Conference on l'Interaction Homme-Machine |chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1145/3132129.3132133 |series=IHM '17 |location=New York, NY, USA |publisher=Association for Computing Machinery |pages=147–155 |doi=10.1145/3132129.3132133 |isbn=978-1-4503-5109-6|url=https://hal.science/hal-01578483/file/1015.pdf }} Additionally, the limitations of a television's remote control necessitate extra user experience considerations to minimize user effort.{{cite web|url=https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/MIX/MIX06/BTB029|title=The Digital Home: Designing for the Ten-Foot User Interface|website=Channel 9|access-date=8 March 2019}}{{cite web|url=http://www.easyclasspage.de/mac/seite-16.html|title=easyclasspage.de|website=www.easyclasspage.de|access-date=8 March 2019}}
In the past, these types of human interaction design (HID) interfaces were driven by remote controllers primarily using infrared (IR) codes signals, which are increasingly replaced by other two-way radio-frequency protocol standards such as Bluetooth while maintaining the use of IR for certain wake-up situations. The voice interfaces are also now purposed to provide a near-field experience in addition to the far-field experience of the likes of smart speakers. One of the requirements of voice-input 10-foot user interface usually require a device like smart speaker, over-the-top (OTT) TV box or smart television with Internet connectivity supported by an advanced software operating system.{{Cite web|date=2020-09-01|title=Comscore's new trends report reveals significant spike in US OTT usage|url=https://www.clickz.com/comscores-new-trends-report-reveals-significant-spike-in-us-ott-usage/263027/|access-date=2021-08-03|website=ClickZ|language=en-US}}
Design
The term "10-foot" or "3-meter" is used to differentiate this user interface style from those used on desktop computers, which typically assume the user's eyes are only about two feet (24 inches, 60 cm) from the display. This difference in distance from the display has a huge impact on the interface design, requiring the use of extra large fonts on a television and allowing relatively few items to be shown on a television at once.{{cite web|url=https://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/36892/10-foot-user-interface|title=10-foot user interface Definition from PC Magazine Encyclopedia|website=www.pcmag.com|access-date=8 March 2019}}{{cite web|url=https://developer.android.com/design/tv|title=Design for Android TV|website=Android Developers|access-date=8 March 2019|archive-date=27 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190327085640/https://developer.android.com/design/tv|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=https://developer.nvidia.com/android-tv-developer-guide|title=Android TV Developer Guide|date=3 July 2014|website=NVIDIA Developer|access-date=8 March 2019}} The name "10-foot user interface" is criticised for indicating a distance that is more symbolic than objective. In fact, a 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution UI has a size in space that varies with the size of the TV set. This is why, in television, distance is expressed in picture heights (H) and not in metres (or feet).{{Cite web |title=BT.500: Methodologies for the subjective assessment of the quality of television images |url=https://www.itu.int/rec/R-REC-BT.500/en |access-date=2024-05-06 |website=www.itu.int}} Furthermore, this 10-foot distance does not correspond to the optimal viewing distance or the Lechner distance (3.2 H for 1080 HD resolution and 1.6 H for 4K UHD resolution). Nor does it represent the actual distance at which televisions are used.{{Cite journal |last1=Yagi |first1=Nobuyuki |last2=Itou |first2=Yasuhiro |last3=Fujisawa |first3=Shuichi |date=2019 |title=[Invited Paper] A Survey of Television Viewing Conditions at Home in Japan |url=https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/mta/7/3/7_112/_article |journal=ITE Transactions on Media Technology and Applications |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=112–117 |doi=10.3169/mta.7.112|doi-access=free }}{{Cite web |date=2004-01-01 |title=Results of a survey on television viewing distance |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/publications/whitepaper090 |access-date=2024-05-06 |website=BBC R&D |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=A Study of Ergonomic Requirements for Japanese Character Size and Matrixes on Computer Displays {{!}} NDLサーチ {{!}} 国立国会図書館 |url=https://ndlsearch.ndl.go.jp/books/R100000136-I1570854175244960128 |access-date=2024-05-06 |website=国立国会図書館サーチ（NDLサーチ） |language=ja}} The actual distance is greater than 10 ft in half of all households, but above all it varies greatly between households. This is why, when designing an interface for the TV set, it’s important to position oneself at various distances to see what different parts of the population will actually see.
A 10-foot UI is almost always designed to be operated by a simple hand-held remote control. Rather than the mouse or touchscreen which are commonly used with other types of user interfaces, the remote's directional pad is the primary means of navigation. This means that a 10-foot UI needs to arrange items on screen in a way that clearly shows which item would be next in each of the four directions of the directional pad – usually a grid layout. Also, without a mouse cursor, the currently-selected item must be highlighted in some way.{{citation needed|date=September 2019}}
Ten-foot interfaces may resemble other post-WIMP systems graphically, but do not assume the use of a touch screen.{{cite web|url=https://www.avermedia.com/avertv/upload/avermediatvsoftware/index.html|title=Sound x Vision – AVerMedia|website=www.avermedia.com|access-date=8 March 2019|archive-date=March 27, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190327085654/https://www.avermedia.com/avertv/upload/avermediatvsoftware/index.html|url-status=dead}}{{Cite web |url=http://appdevconf.engagedigital.com/sessions/keys-to-successfully-building-a-10-ft-ui/ |title=Building a 10 Foot UI: Dealing With Platform Diversity |access-date=2011-11-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111114121831/http://appdevconf.engagedigital.com/sessions/keys-to-successfully-building-a-10-ft-ui/ |archive-date=2011-11-14 |url-status=dead }}
The goal of 10-foot user interface design is normally to make the user's interaction as simple and efficient as possible, trying to achieve a more laid-back and relaxed user experience with as few button presses as possible while still having an intuitive layout, in terms of accomplishing user goals—what is often called user-centered design. Good user interface design facilitates finishing the task at hand without drawing unnecessary attention to itself. Graphic design may be utilized to support its usability; however, the design process must balance technical functionality and visual elements (e.g., mental model) to create a system that is not only operational but also usable and adaptable to changing user needs.{{cite web|url=https://developer.android.com/training/tv|title=Android TV overview|website=Android Developers|access-date=8 March 2019}}
One of the additional feature in 10-foot user interface design is also to repurpose the on screen display (OSD) for providing a clear menu-driven interaction for users.{{Cite web|last=Franklin|first=Eric|title=Monitor OSD Quick Guide: (Some of) the ins and outs|url=https://www.cnet.com/news/monitor-osd-quick-guide-some-of-the-ins-and-outs/|access-date=2021-08-03|website=CNET|language=en}} This complements the navigation available in most handheld remote controllers. The rise of the use of voice-based input (as found in some remote controllers and smart speakers) also provides a direct control interface enhancing the user experience.{{Cite web|date=2017-12-06|title=User experience key focus for smart TVs and media players|url=https://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2017/12/06/user-experience-key-focus-for-smart-tvs-and-media-players/|access-date=2021-08-03|website=Broadband TV News|language=en-GB}}{{Cite web|date=2020-01-27|title=52% of Smart Speaker Owners Are Controlling TV With Voice: Strategy Analytics|url=https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200127005430/en/52-of-Smart-Speaker-Owners-Are-Controlling-TV-With-Voice-Strategy-Analytics|access-date=2021-08-03|website=www.businesswire.com|language=en}}
See also
References
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External links
{{Home theater PC (application software)}}
Category:Graphical user interfaces
Category:Human–computer interaction
Category:Interactive television