nX was created at a time when most Television User Interfaces used an EPG, or Electronic Program Guide, to help viewers find what to watch. The EPG was never pretty but it was useful during the times before Recording, On Demand, and Apps rose to popularity. Yet even after all of these features became popular, TV operators were still behind the times in relying on an EPG as a suitable content discovery solution.

nX was different. We designed a next generation media center that sidestepped the traditional EPG in favor of a more modern, elegant and useful platform for premium content discovery and consumption.

We focused on 3 big ideas.

1. Video is the centerpiece of a successful user experience for media consumption. Rather than filling the screen with an EPG that feels like a spreadsheet, the UI should complement the production quality of the media by letting the video shine. Our philosophy is that the best UI is no UI.

We tested our philosophy via the “Metrics of Commitment” model in which the user’s commitment level to the content determines the amount of screen space the menu occupies. The menus progressively expand to take up more of the screen as the user navigates deeper through the UI.

2. Rich Media experiences go far beyond Live TV. We wanted to build a unified, consistent, intuitive Media Center that gave you no reason to switch to another input or screen. You could access Live TV, Video On Demand, Recordings, Photos, Music and Apps with a modern UX that was simple and fast.

3. The best content recommendations come from friends, not algorithms.  How many hours have we all wasted navigating strip after strip of thumbnails with recommendations for shows and movies that just don’t speak to us. Yet whenever our friends recommend something, it almost always resonates and we have a great follow up after watching. TV Together, our social recommendation engine, allowed for trusted friends to directly recommend content of interest.