Apple TV and a new UI
Quick, I’m going to go on a short font and UI rant, so I guess you should look for that unfollow button.
The choice to switch to Helvetica Neue1 for the interface is a little confusing. They’re using it in a regular weight, which lacks the heft Lucida Grande had. This is most striking on the Now Playing screen, where the type looks so fragile.
What would improve the Now Playing screen, ever so slightly, would be to use a bold weight, which I thought I’d spied in one of the browse screens, more. It can bring a little prominence to the song title, or section headers, which will detract from how awkward Helvetica Neue looks at that size. Here’s a rough sample of my idea:
Another problem exists with the main navigation bar and the features above it. In the home screen, the main navigation is non-selectable, but uses the same blue glow used for selections elsewhere. I’m unsure what would be better (a spotlight, perhaps), but it’s distracting at times.
The new menu setup improves movement across sections, but the Remote application feels even less precise than before, and selecting “My Movies” or “My Music” at the top of sections is nigh-impossible; you end up accidentally selecting the features area.
I’ve finally become acclimated to seeing Helvetica Neue instead of Lucida Grande, and the new software is a good improvement on the large part. But there still seem to be rough edges to the software, as if it was rushed ahead of important hardware improvements. My hope is for an Apple TV that can actually do 1080p or 720p at 30fps (or 60, but I’m not holding my breath), and there’s a lot of potential in that largely-empty Internet menu.
- N.B.: They didn’t totally switch to Helvetica, according to Ars Technica, but I’m pretty sure the only Lucida left is for the numbers in top lists. A little too pedantic for me blood, even for this rant.
