Sling TV: Patterns and Flows
Sling TV is becoming popular because it was one of the first live tv/cable services that was strictly through the internet. It has all the capabilities as the old cable companies as far as local channels (Fox, CBS, PBS, etc.), paid cable channels (TBS, TNT, ESPN, etc.), and premium channels (HBO, Showtime, etc.). As well as the ability to record shows to the users own virtual DVR. It was a concept that took too long to come out and now every cable company and satellite tv company has adopted it along with YouTube TV and FuboTV.
The app is setup wonderfully for the user to easily get around it without gettting frustrated because they could not understand how to navigate it on their tv/phone/computer. It’s not like the old days of trying to figure out the buttons on a remote. The app has a good flow to it when you login to your account. It has a home page that has the users favorite channels, recordings, options to continue watching past shows, and other suggestions based off what the user has watched before.
The nav menu is possibly the best part. It is very simple with five options to choose from. All have a similar flow to them. When the user selects on ‘Guide’ it takes me to where I can channel surf. This gives me similar options as the homepage, but I can scroll through all available channels. When the user selects on a channel it will show what is currently live, what is upcoming, and what the channel has on demand. If the user selects on the show that is live it pulls up a side menu to the right asking to ‘Watch Live’ or ‘Record’. The ‘Watch Live’ option takes you to the live show and ‘Record’ starts recording into the DVR which can be accessed from the homepage.
The other options on the nav menu have a similar flow and this makes the usability of Sling TV extremely easy. This is why I think Sling TV became so popular besides its low price to have something similar to a large cable company. The patterns and flow of the design was created to give the user an experience like they haven’t had with TV before.
Sling TV does a great job of using multiple patterns to keep it clean design. When watching live tv the accordion style navigation on the bottom of the screen opens up a carousel that the use can scroll through to see what shows are live. The navigation also seperates shows that are on my categories as well. This can be complicated for the user since it is harder to navigate than a guide that shows whats live for shows in a list format.
Another navigation Sling TV uses is by ways of cards. They display the show title, when the show is on, and how long the duration its. It also has a rail that shows a highlight of how much of the show is left if the show is live.
Sling TV does a good job of using multiple patterns to create a good user flow throughout the app. Although some of the navigations can be complicated for some users. The overall design is made for a great experience that is simple for the user to operate.
