✦ Task type · App testing
TV apps fail at a distance nobody tests from
Everything about a television interface is decided by two constraints your desk does not have: a directional pad instead of a pointer, and three metres instead of forty centimetres.
TV interfaces fail in a way no other platform does: the user knows what they want, can see it on screen, and cannot work out which sequence of directional presses will reach it.
What to put in the public brief
- The TV platform, named exactly
- That a physical device is required, not an emulator
- How they will get the build
- That a video of the screen is required
- Roughly how long
Keep the app identity, build and credentials private.
What to put in the private instructions
Give a goal reachable only by navigating
"Start playing the third item in the second row." A goal that can be reached by pressing OK twice tests nothing about the layout.
Ask them to film the remote as well as the screen
The hand hesitating over a direction is the finding, and it does not appear in a screen capture even where one is possible.
Ask about the back button explicitly
Back behaviour is the single most common TV app defect and the most platform-specific. Ask where it took them and where they expected to go.
Ask them to sit where they normally sit
Not close to the screen to read it better. If text is unreadable from the sofa it is unreadable, and a tester leaning in has removed the problem you are paying to find.
Proof worth requiring
Ask for
Video of the screen with the remote visible, the exact device and platform version, and where they got stuck.
Do not ask for
Screenshots. A TV navigation problem is a sequence, and single frames cannot show a sequence.
When this task type is the wrong tool
If the app is not yet installable on retail hardware, this cannot run — the constraint is the device, not the tester.
If your problem is content discovery rather than navigation, that is a catalogue and metadata question, and a findability test on the web version will answer it more cheaply.
Common questions
Why can I not test this on an emulator?
An emulator gives you the layout and none of the input. Every real problem with a TV interface is a focus problem — which element is highlighted, where the D-pad goes next, what happens at the edge of a row — and those are felt through a remote in a hand, not clicked with a mouse.
Which platforms should I cover?
Name one per campaign. Roku, Fire TV, Android TV, tvOS and the manufacturer platforms on Samsung and LG differ in remote layout, back-button behaviour and store rules, and averaging them produces a result matching no actual device.
What reward is fair?
Twenty to thirty-five dollars. The pool of workers with a specific TV platform and the ability to sideload or join a test channel is small, and scarcity sets this price rather than the length of the session.
How do they record it?
A phone on a tripod or propped up, filming the screen. It is less tidy than screen capture and it is the right artefact here, because it captures the remote in their hand and the pauses between presses, which is where the finding is.
Thinking of taking this task?
The same job, from the other side. Rewards are set by the poster, so treat these as the range this task type usually sits in rather than a promise.
- Usually pays
- $20 to $35
- You need
- A specific TV platform and its remote
- Proof expected
- Video of the screen with the remote visible
Sit where you normally sit. Leaning in to read the screen removes the problem the poster is paying to find.
Create a worker accountTest your TV app
Set the reward and the platforms you need covered. Workers with the right hardware reserve a spot; your build and test account stay private until they do.
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