Opening Netflix may look different when testing smart TV UI changes

What do you want to know

• Netflix’s Pat Flemming has detailed upcoming changes to the user interface of smart TVs for a “new TV experience.”
• The changes involve providing a preview of a show/movie on the card when you hover over it with your remote, along with content descriptions, genre, episode count, and more.
• The company plans to launch this redesign test with a “small group” of smart TV subscribers before rolling it out to more people if all goes well.

Netflix is ​​starting to test a new home screen design that only a handful of smart TV owners will receive for an initial review.

According to an interview between Netflix Senior Product Director Pat Flemming and The edge, the changes should help users reduce the “gymnastics they do with their eyes”. Flemming was referring to the current experience Netflix offers with the current home screen, as users often have to scan the screen to see a preview of a show/movie.

Flemming added: “We really wanted to make it easier for members to determine if a title was right for them.”

The proposed redesign will always feature a recommended or new major title as the initial offering; however, shows and movies will receive a preview card when hovered over. When selected with your remote, the show/movie title card expands and displays a quick teaser video.

Below the expanded card, users will find the content description, release year, number of episodes, and genre.

Removing the Netflix app sidebar on smart TVs joins this “new TV experience” for finding shows and movies. The top row of the app will now host your profile icon on the far left and options like Home, Shows, Movies, and My Netflix will be in the center.

Another change that should happen is that users will no longer have to mash their remotes to get back to the top of the Netflix app. Flemming said users can press the “back” button to go back.

Flemming informed The Verge that this test should start arriving for a “small group of subscribers” who watch Netflix on a smart TV. If reception is positive, the service will look to roll out the UI overhaul to more users in the “coming months and quarters.”

Separately, Netflix announced earlier this year, during its 2023 financial report, that another price increase would be planned in 2024. It appears that the company is turning to the consumer to help in its efforts to bringing new investments to the platform for additional content. The exact details of Netflix’s next price hike are still unknown, so we have to wait for it to happen.