Product Management × Product Design · Sync

TV Navigation

Where we are & what's left to decide

A look at the journey, the prototype, the open decisions — and where we want your input. Conversational by design; please jump in.

The journey

How we got here (≈3 weeks)

MAY 26
Kickoff — align on side-nav as an overlay; architecture first
MAY 27–29
Figma explorations by category + early functional prototypes
JUN 2
Round‑2 filter — left panel + flyouts, minimized icons
JUN 9
Options review — Apple-style adopted, drill-down shelved
JUN 10–11
Async review — discoverability question resurfaces

Weekly syncs + a lot of async (Slack, recorded crits) across timezones.

What we explored

Wide first, then narrowed

Figma explorations overview
Sidenav-Explorations — early round, broken down by category
  • Nav hierarchy models — Flyout · Drill-In · No-Subnav
  • Menu organization / IA — what lives in the side-nav & order
  • Collapsed sidebar styles — how the menu rests on content

Round‑2 then filtered these down to the strongest few.

Where we've landed

Aligned AGREED   Shelved DROPPED

  • Side-nav is an overlay, not content-push
  • Left main panel + flyouts for section pivots
  • Apple-style top pills + sliding panel
  • Minimized icons use backgrounds
  • Live TV / OTA fold into the personal library
  • Flyouts behind a dev toggle → dogfood & user-test
  • Drill-down navigation — shelved (no consensus)
Round 2 iterations
Round‑2 iterations (filtered)

The prototype · live

A real, drivable model jason-tv-navigation.pages.dev

Dev toggles (press `):

  • Nav mode: Flyout / Drill-In / No-Subnav
  • Show vertical rail · Home pivots
  • Tab position · submenus-on-focus

Keyboard arrows or a gamepad. Lets us A/B behaviors live in dogfooding.

The open crux

Discoverability on Home OPEN

Original proposal — full panel
Original proposal — main panel
Indicator variant — top pills, minimal rail
Indicator variant — top pills, minimal/no rail

Hiding the side-nav on Home keeps it clean — but is a <, an avatar, or a few dots enough for users to find primary nav? Clean 10‑foot UI ⟷ discoverability.

Key decision areas

What we still need to choose

1. Home indicator — hidden vs minimal indicator vs collapsed rail; chevron or not
2. Flyouts vs top-pivots-only — dogfood + user-test to decide
3. Top nav behavior — scroll-away vs always-on-top (tech lift)
4. Library view — sidebar present vs tabs-only; tabs tucked hard-left
5. IA & labeling — Live TV/OTA naming, Discover order, Services, display name
6. Cross-device parity — same model on iPad / app.plex.tv
7. Remote ergonomics — up vs left to open; guard "right-from-popup" for swipe remotes

Why it's been hard

The decision-making challenges

  • Async + timezones — people miss meetings, return out of sync
  • Summaries overstate consensus — "decided" in notes ≠ settled in the room
  • Proto drift — the Figma proto (loved) and the full prototype differ in small but felt ways (tab alignment, sidebar-in-library, the transition)
  • Imperfect analogy — Apple TV inspires us, but Plex has secondary nav Apple doesn't
  • Taste tension — clean/minimal vs discoverable
  • Tech lift — always-on-top vs scroll-away top nav; flyout complexity

Organized feedback

What the team is saying

Discoverability — don't rely on users stumbling onto the side-nav (Craig, Ruud, Amanda, Rob)
Indicator style — "there's a menu here" > page-icons; maybe drop the chevron (reads as "back") (Matt, Ruud)
Interaction — overlay not page-slide; back → tabs then menu; guard right-from-popup (Ruud)
IA / content — Services feels out of place; display name vs full name; dividers; Live TV labeling (Ruud)
Cross-platform — must also work for iPad / app.plex.tv (Ruud)
Positives — Apple-style direction has support; the Figma proto got strong positive feedback (Craig, team)

What's left to decide

Next steps

  • Align on the Home indicator — review the original proposal + indicator variants; everyone gives (A) concerns with the original, (B) feedback on the indicators
  • User-test the flyouts — do people intuitively find & use the menu? (Jason + Amanda)
  • Feature-flag + dogfood build — toggle in real usage (Douwe)
  • Defer (intentionally) — sidebar ordering & Live TV/OTA labeling

Where we want PM input

Let's talk

  • How much discoverability risk are we willing to take for a cleaner UI?
  • Appetite & timeline for user testing before we commit?
  • Prioritization vs the Apple TV / Android TV release windows?
  • Any constraints we should design to that we're missing?

Live prototype → jason-tv-navigation.pages.dev  ·  Figma → Sidenav-Explorations