Creating an Intuitive Android TV Application

One of the world’s largest telecom companies approached a leading cloud technology company to build an intuitive Android TV application. As a long-time technology partner for the cloud company, Modus Create’s team of experts joined forces to launch the app on Google Play in less than five months. The final solution helped provide a seamless cloud experience across mobile and TV to the users.

Our Work Involved

• User story mapping
• Prototyping
• Agile software development
• QA automation
• User authentication and provisioning
• Localytics integration

Impact

• New direct-to-consumer channel
• Seamless cross-platform cloud experience
• Better reporting and insights
• More efficient QA process

5 Months – End-to-end App Development

A pioneer in cloud-based technology and IoT had created white-labeled cloud solutions for some of the world’s leading enterprises. It wished to create an Android TV application for a major telecom company.

Given how consumers were consuming content, it was important that the UX of the Android TV app appear as an extension of their mobile app experience, rather than a separate interaction. As long-time technology partners, Modus Create joined the company’s IT team for the project. Working together, we went from idea to product deployment in just five months.

Envisioning an Android TV App

If you’ve used an app on a smart TV, you would know how frustrating the entire experience can be. TVs aren’t usually built for smart apps. Their processors are slow, navigation is completely different from touchscreen devices, and remote controls are notoriously clunky. In short, developing an app for Android TV is a niche, highly specialized engagement.

The client wanted its TV app to work seamlessly with its existing mobile app by supporting nearby connection pairing. It also wanted to retain the core functionalities of the mobile app on Android TV, including the ability to:

• Browse photos, videos, and music, including albums, stories, and playlists
• Search for objects, scenes, and faces
• Search for music albums, artists, and songs.
• View photos
• Play videos and music

Additionally, it had the following critical requirements:

• Authentication – the Cloud for Android TV should authenticate users via Access Manager and provide user name/password entry.
• Provisioning – The app should not allow new user subscriptions, as that may lead to zero storage accounts.
• Persistence – The app should persist last known state and recreate it next time.

Road to the MVP

Once the requirements were finalized, a team of six technologists from Modus Create started working on an MVP with the client’s in-house UX designer.

Modern digital natives expect seamless interactions across devices. To do that, it’s important to have clarity in workflows and rules. The team started their work on the MVP by visualizing various user interactions. For example, the below workflow explores how the Cloud TV App would interact with the user’s mobile app for a quick setup.

The design inspiration for the TV app came from the client’s mobile application, which allows users to upload pictures, watch videos, and listen to music on their phones. Close collaboration between the in-house designers and Modus Create’s engineers ensured that the MVP aligned with the client’s expectations.

The team used a story map to break the project into activities, epics, and user stories. After that, they evaluated whether the user stories would be part of the MVP or taken into consideration at a later stage.

Within three months, the team had a working MVP, which allowed the client to interact directly with the application and share feedback. The feedback was encouraging and included a few specific requirements:

• Gallery View for the App – Providing thumbnails to the users to navigate through various media files.
• Localytics Integration – Integrating with a third-party platform for analytics and engagement insights.

Next, it was time to build out the MVP into a full-fledged product.

Rapid Product Development

Following Agile practices, the team planned sprints in Jira and work closely with the client throughout the process to give demos and receive real-time feedback.

The team also optimized the process of installing builds on test machines. Instead of multiple devices and accounts that caused confusion, they created a standard testing account that could be used as a reference for running all tests. This simplified QA during development.

The team spent three months on the MVP to ensure that it wasn’t just a glorified collection of wireframes but a working application that the client could interact with. This gave them a foundation based on actual user data and set the stage for rapid product development.

It took only five months to develop the complete application, ready for release on the Google Play Store. The Android TV app received a great response from the users. And, it moved them one step closer towards a seamless cloud experience across multiple devices.

Create User-Centric Experiences

Modus Create builds customer-centric products, processes, and platforms to help businesses succeed in the digital economy. We have helped the world’s biggest brands deliver powerful digital experiences to their clients.

If you are interested in developing an intuitive application on any device, talk to Modus. We’d love to help you create seamless, cross-platform experiences.