Most common complaints about channels

seriously, this comes up a lot as i scour the web looking for channels. in forums, on twitter, on facebook. there are some things that users seem to predominantly vent about.

so if you are developing a roku channel and looking for things that will make your channel popular and user friendly, don't do these things:


1. hundreds of subchannels/titles in a single line side scrolling format. if you have to side scroll, use subchannels and menus. break it up into categories. but if you can, the grid layout seems to be the most appreciated by roku users

2. clips, clips, nothing but clips. if there's a way to get a full program on there in one chunk, people prefer it overwhelmingly

3. having to go out to the menu to choose each segment/video. people aren't used to a la carte yet and like to put a channel on and let it go. if you can put a "play all" feature on your videos, go for it. it makes the viewers happy.

4. automatic play-all. if your channel automatically goes to the next video after a program plays. without the chance to opt out, that seems to annoy the viewers too. frankly, we're roku users because we want choices, we want to op-in, not opt-out. make opt-out the default and don't force people to watch what you want them to watch