If you haven’t heard the latest news, Google has released their brand new Television/ Internet viewing 1-2 punch, so cleverly dubbed: Google TV. Here’s a little video courtesy of Google for a little run-down of Google TV’s features and functionality.
Pretty cool, right? So basically what Google TV does is seamlessly integrates the internet and your television together as one, to provide you with the ultimate viewing experience right from your couch.
Why optimize for TV?
As new platforms continue to emerge, we find ourselves constantly adjusting so we can provide our users with the best experience possible. Just as more people are releasing mobile versions of their site for all those users accessing the internet from their mobile phone, it may now be just as important to start optimizing your site for TV as well.
Since Google TV has a full web browser already built in, almost every site that currently exists should already work. But to provide the user with the best TV experience, you might want to create what Google calls a “10-foot User Interface” version of your site. Seeing as Google TV users will be viewing the website from their couch about ten feet away (instead of inches), and (instead of a mouse) they will be using a remote and a keyboard, it is very important that they are able to navigate through your website easily, and actually be able to see what they are navigating through from 10 feet away. (Simplicity is key here)
Some basic steps to optimize your site for TV.
Google recommends:
- Make sure that your text is large enough to easily be read from a long distance (around 21pt on 720p and 28pt on 1080p)
