“Generally for TV displays serif fonts get blurred out, and that can affect readability,” says David Polensek, a senior UX designer for the media software firm Alticast. The reason: alternative fonts of the serif variety, with their hair-thin curls and graceful slants, show up poorly on the television set, where the density of available pixels isn’t sufficient to support the design subtleties of these finely detailed typefaces. TiVo’s adoption of Helvetica Neue, a thinned-down variation of the mothership font, makes the TiVo look similar to Roku’s on-screen UI from a typography standpoint. Apple’s signature on-screen font, San Francisco, is a close cousin to Roboto Condensed, the typeface favored by Google for its Android TV platform. Line up the on-screen UIs from Roku, Apple TV and X1 (along with others) side-by-side and you’ll observe a neat symmetry: each screen makes use of clean, elegant typefaces that borrow from elements of the familiar Helvetica family of fonts. That, plus the tendency among platform developers to encourage the use of pre-fabricated design templates, limits how far designers can go.Ĭonsider typography. It’s mainly that limitations of television screen displays constrain the range of typography, color palette and screen dimensions designers can use to create distinctive UIs.

It’s not for lack of will or creativity that many video services appear to be rendered from a copycat formula. From Roku to TiVo to Apple TV to Comcast’s Xfinity X1, modern-day video UIs are cut from a relatively narrow cloth in terms of visual display. The prevailing motif for the visual presentation of video services that end up on the TV set is notable for its uniformity. But one aspect we can all but bank on is what its user interface will look like on the screen: lots of sans-serif type set against a dark background. We can’t predict what the Next Big Thing in video will revolve around from a content standpoint. Or it may follow in the footsteps of Sony’s Crackle or CBS’s All Access by presenting a mix of scripted and reality series. It may deliver a steady dose of Japanese animation, ala Otter Media’s Crunchyroll. It may be a documentary/ non-fiction SVOD service, like CuriosityStream. Given the quickening deployment of digital video platforms, it’s all but certain that somebody, somewhere will launch a promising new addition to the category within the next, let’s say, three months. Modern-Day Television UIs Tend to Look More Similar Than Distinctive. User interfaces introduced by Comcast (top), Roku (above left) and Turner Broadcasting (above right) share similar visual characteristics including bright typefaces against dark backgrounds.

Helvetica neue similar font