ADAM GLAZIER: Hi.
I'm Adam Glazier, a UX designer on the Google Cast team.
If you're new to Cast, Cast is a way
for people to get content from your app to their TV.
In this video, I'll show you why Cast works the way it does,
so that you can be informed while designing your app.
Now, for the sake of simplicity, the examples
I'll share focus on Casting and controlling video.
However, it's worth noting that you can also
Cast other types of media, such as music, photos and games.
When designing for Cast, there's three main things to consider.
First, your app is the remote.
So just like a TV remote, your app
should make it easy for anyone to control a Cast at any time.
People need instant control, no matter
what state their device is in.
Second, it's a shared experience.
When your app's casting, expect that others are in the room.
Some will be watching, some will contribute,
and some will need to take control.
The third is that it's cross-platform.
The living room has many devices in it,
and the more devices that can control your Cast,
the more seamless it will feel.
Because casting is a new action, its usage
depends on people being reminded that it's available.
An easy way to do this is to show a one time
Cast introduction screen.
This intro helps users new to Casting,
and it also helps experienced users know that your app is now
Cast enabled.
Additionally, placing the Cast icon
at the top right of every screen in your app
allows users to start and control casts at any time.
And to be clear, the Cast icon should always
be visible whenever the Cast receiver is available.
Once users are ready to cast, there's
two ways they can connect.
They can connect to a Cast receiver and then play content,
or they can start playing content
and then connect to a receiver.
Either way, they start Cast as a mode of the app.
So just like Bluetooth, once you're connected,
whatever you play in the app should Cast to the TV.
Now, once content starts streaming to the TV,
the phone allows users to browse and control Casts
while the TV displays the streaming content.
So when designing your TV UI, do not
make it look touchable or simply reuse the tablet UI.
For example, in research I have observed,
people attempted to use the actual physical TV
remote when the UI on the TV looked interactive.
So with this in mind, when you tap pause on the phone,
it should change to a play icon, but the TV
should show a paused icon.
This is because the TV is showing the state paused,
and the phone is providing the action to play.
The second tip is to help the TV UI stay out of the way.
For instance, people will sometimes
pause a video to examine a frame or read text on the screen,
like closed captions.
So when someone pauses a video, fade the TV UI away
after 5 seconds.
Keeping the UI within the lower fourth of the TV
will also help, since most of the important content
is typically above that.
And the last tip is to provide the ability
to control a Cast from every state of your app.
At any given time, the most critical controls for people
are play and pause and volume.
Remember, this is super important,
because your app is the only remote they have.
Now, for Android there's five places to surface controls.
You could provide a full set of controls in your app
for the content currently playing,
and when navigating elsewhere in your app,
provide a persistent controller.
This is commonly a control bar at the bottom of the screen.
Also provide controls within the Cast menu,
because this is where users start and stop Casting.
And when users exit your app, make
sure to provide controls in the notifications
and the lock screen.
Doing all of these together will ensure the most seamless
experience so your users can relax and use
their phone however they like.
Now, once something is casting, expect that more users
will want to join in.
At a minimum, when multiple users are connected,
each user should be able to take control.
An example of this is that you just
left the room while Casting, and your friend
needs to take control.
Another possibility is that you started a Cast and your friend
wants to add to the queue.
So designing your app to work for anyone at any time
will help it feel extra natural.
Now, from time to time, expect that the phone's connection
to a Cast may go in and out.
This can happen from the Wi-Fi going out
of range, the battery dying, or your app's process
is being stopped by another app.
When this happens, automatically reconnect
users that dropped off whenever they're in your app.
And the final step to a Cast is disconnecting.
Users can disconnect from the Cast menu
or from a notification in Android.
To prevent users from accidentally stopping a Cast,
only stop the Cast when the last connected user disconnects.
For the complete set of Cast UX guidelines,
don't forget to check out the design checklist on the Cast
SDK site.
Thanks for watching, and I'll see you next time.
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