You sit on your couch. You hold the remote in your hand. The remote is made of black plastic. The remote has a circular button. You look at the television screen. The screen is large. The screen is dark. You want to watch a show. The show starts at eight.

The screen changes. You see a row of boxes. The boxes are colorful. The boxes show posters. The posters show the faces of actors. The posters show the titles of movies. You see a poster for a space movie. You see a poster for a drama.

You do not see the time. You do not see a list of hours. You do not see a list of channels. The grid is gone.

The Tool of the Eye

The grid was a tool for the eye. The grid had two directions. The horizontal direction was time. The vertical direction was the channel. You could look at the top of the screen. You could see the hour. You could see the half-hour. You could see the duration of a show.

The width of the box told you the length of the show. A long box was a movie. A short box was a news program. The grid was dense. The grid had many words.

Designers changed the guide. The designers wanted the screen to look clean. The designers removed the lines. The designers removed the numbers. The designers replaced the data with art. Art does not tell you what starts at eight.

You scroll to the right. You see more posters. You scroll to the left. You see old posters. The axis of time is missing. You feel lost in the menu.

The Memory of the Page

Walter sits in his chair. Walter is seventy years old. Walter remembers the old guide. The old guide was a book made of paper. The book had a blue cover. The book had pages of grids. Walter could see the whole night on one page. Walter knew exactly what was on every channel.

Now Walter looks at the smart television. Walter sees the row of posters. Walter does not know how to find the news. Walter clicks the button five times. The posters move fast. Walter stops on a picture of a car. The car is red. Walter does not want to watch a show about cars. Walter wants the news.

Density is Not Clutter

Information density is not the same as clutter. Clutter is useless. Density is useful. A map is dense. A map has many lines. A map has many names. You do not remove the lines from a map to make the map look clean.

If you remove the lines, the map is just a picture. A guide without a time axis is just a gallery. A gallery is for looking. A guide is for choosing.

“The menus are slow. The menus hide the clock. The menus make the viewer wait. Timing is the most important part of television. The new guides ignore timing.”

– Jordan J.-P., Timing Specialist

Jordan J.-P. works with subtitles. Jordan J.-P. knows the value of a second. Jordan J.-P. syncs the words to the voices. If the words are late, the joke fails. If the words are early, the surprise is gone. Jordan J.-P. thinks about time all day. Jordan J.-P. looks at the new menus.

The 109-Hour Tax

Most people spend eighteen minutes every day looking for a show. Eighteen minutes is a short time. Eighteen minutes adds up over a long period.

Eighteen minutes a day is 6,570 minutes a year. This is 109 hours. 109 hours is more than four days. You spend four days every year looking at posters. You spend four days pressing a button on a remote. You spend the time it takes to walk 100 miles. You do not move from your couch. You only move your thumb.

The frustration is real. You want to know what is on now. You want to know what is on next. The carousel only shows you what the computer wants you to see. The computer likes posters. The computer does not care about your schedule. The computer does not care about the eight o’clock news.

A Better Way to Watch

You need a better way to watch. You need a system that handles many channels. You need a service that respects the viewer. You find this with apollo tv.

The service works on your phone. The service works on your tablet. The service works on your smart television. You get all the content in one place. You do not need five different apps. You do not need five different logins. One subscription covers every screen in the house.

The company owns the servers. The company does not rent the stream from someone else. This is a technical detail. The detail is important. When the big game starts, many people watch. Other services slow down. Other services buffer.

The dedicated servers from this service stay strong. The stream stays clear. You see the kickoff. You see the goal. You do not see the spinning circle.

The Freedom of Choice

Traditional providers use boxes. The boxes are rented. The boxes have wires. The wires are messy. The traditional providers have contracts. The contracts last for two years. The price changes after one year. The bill gets bigger.

The price is clear. The price does not change. You get the same channels on every plan. You get the same movies on every plan. You get a money-back guarantee. You can talk to a human on the phone. You can send an email to a human. This is different from the big corporations.

Walter Finds the News

Walter tries the new service. Walter sees the channels. Walter sees the live sports. Walter finds a guide that makes sense. Walter sees the time again. Walter knows that the news starts in ten minutes.

Walter saves sixteen minutes. Walter uses the sixteen minutes to talk to his wife. Walter uses the sixteen minutes to make tea.

The Designer’s Blind Spot

A designer sits in an office. The office is in a city. The designer has a large monitor. The designer uses a mouse. The designer does not use a remote. The designer thinks the grid is ugly. The designer thinks the grid looks like a spreadsheet.

The designer hates spreadsheets. The designer wants the interface to look like a magazine. Magazines have big photos. Magazines do not have clocks. The designer forgets the user. The user is not in an office. The user is on a couch. The user is tired.

Visibility is a function of design. If the time is hidden, the design has failed. If the duration is hidden, the design has failed.

The Loss of Dimension

We live in a world of dimensions. The physical world has three dimensions. The digital world often has two. The grid was a two-dimensional map of a night. The carousel is a one-dimensional line.

When you reduce dimensions, you lose data. You cannot fit a square into a line without cutting the corners. The corners are where the time lived. The corners are where the channel numbers lived.

The loss of the axis is invisible. You do not notice the missing line. You only notice the feeling of being lost. You notice that you are clicking more. You notice that you are frustrated.

You look at the screen again. You see the space movie poster. You click the poster. The screen shows a description. The description is long. You read the description. You look for the start time.

The start time is in small text. The movie started twenty minutes ago. You missed the beginning.

You go back to the menu. You see the drama poster. You click the poster. The drama ends in five minutes. You are frustrated.

Coming Home to the Screen

This is the tax of the modern guide. You pay the tax in minutes. You pay the tax in patience. You want a service that understands the value of your time. You want a service that gives you the world of television without the mess.

You find these things when you stop searching and start watching. You choose a provider that owns the technology. You choose a provider that respects the axis of time.

You sit on your couch. You hold the remote. You press the button. You see the show. You are not lost. You are home.