Amazon tweaks Navigation Menu on New Fire TV Interface for a 3rd time

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Amazon is continuing to tweak aspects of the new Fire TV interface. With the release of the new interface on more devices last week we’re getting their 3rd iteration of the main navigation menu on the Fire TV’s home screen. While each change has been relatively minor, they have been improvements in my opinion. The latest change includes moving the “Library” tab out of the navigation bar and into the “Find” tab. This simplifies the navigation menu slightly, but, more importantly, allows for app icons to become larger and more legible.

First unreleased navigation menu (left) and Second version (right)

When Amazon first revealed images of the new Fire TV interface, the “Home” navigation menu item was on the far left. By the time the new interface actually reached customer’s devices last year, the “Library” tab had been moved from the far right to the far left. This reduced the number of clicks it took to reach your installed apps, which was a welcomed improvement.

Old (top) navigation menu and New (bottom) navigation menu

A complaint that was voiced by many commenters when the new Fire TV interface was unveiled was the small size of the app icons on the home screen. While they still pale in comparison to the movie and TV show icons on the home screen, the removal of the “Library” tab has allowed the app icons to grow by about 13%. Since there is now ample empty space to the left of the app icons, their size now seems to be restricted by the height of the navigation menu, which has not changed. The only other change is a new image used for the all apps icon at the end of the navigation menu.

As mentioned, the “Library” section of the Fire TV interface has been moved to within the “Find” tab. The “Library” section is where you’ll find your watchlist, purchased content, and rented content. If you have a Fire TV Recast, the “Library” section is also where you’ll now find your DVR recordings and DVR management options, like scheduled recordings, recording priority, and DVR settings. Amazon says they made these changes to the navigation menu based on customer feedback they’ve received, which indicated that larger app icons and a simpler navigation menu would be appreciated by a majority of customers.

SOURCE: AFTVNEWS.COM