FitNudge for the big screen.
Designed from the couch.
People already work out in the living room, squinting at a phone propped on the coffee table. This concept brings FitNudge to Apple TV: a focus-driven interface you navigate with a remote, readable from ten feet away, with your iPhone and Apple Watch along for the ride.
The workout already happens in front of the TV.
In my FitNudge research, 75% of participants trained three to six days a week and most already used a wearable or a fitness app. For anyone following along at home, the phone is the weak link: too small to follow form cues from a mat, and buried under notifications. The TV is already in the room, already on the wall, and already the biggest screen people own.
Small screens, big rooms
Form cues, timers and reps are hard to read from a mat six to ten feet away on a phone.
Start in one click
From the home screen to a running workout in one selection, with today’s plan already waiting.
Glanceable mid-workout
Time, move and heart rate readable at a glance, without a single extra button press.
- Content is the interface. Art and type carry the screen; chrome steps back.
- Focus is the cursor. Every state must be obvious from across the room.
- Fewer, bigger decisions. Each click costs more with a remote, so every screen offers one clear next step.
- The phone is a partner. Heart rate, typing and sharing move to the device in your hand.
Targets for a future usability study. This is a concept; no results are claimed.
Pick up the remote.
Click the TV, then use your keyboard as a Siri Remote: arrow keys move focus, Return selects, Esc goes back, Space plays or pauses. Or use the remote on the right. Move your pointer over a focused card to feel the parallax.
Try: Start a workout from the top shelf, open a program, then send a SharePlay invite.
Big type, safe edges, obvious focus.
I studied Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines for tvOS before drawing anything, then set the concept’s own rules. Turn on the overlay to see the title-safe area on the live prototype.
Legibility at ten feet
Body text never goes below 29 pt on a 1920 × 1080 canvas, and titles sit at 57 pt and up. Light text on dark art, with a scrim wherever imagery runs behind type.
Safe areas
Primary content stays 60 pt from the top and bottom and 80 pt from the sides, so nothing is cropped by overscan.
Focus is the cursor
There is no pointer, so the focused item scales, lifts and catches light. Rows keep their horizontal position when you move up and down.
One remote, few buttons
Swipe or arrow to move, click to select, Back to go up a level. Text entry and heart rate move to iPhone and Apple Watch.
Tune the focus effect, see the spec.
Focus carries most of the interface, so I treated it like a component with tokens. Switch states, adjust scale, lift and timing, and move your pointer over the card for parallax. The spec on the right updates as you go.
| Moment | Motion | Duration | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Focus moves | Scale 1.0 → 1.1, shadow lifts, sheen follows touch | 250 ms, ease-out | Fast enough to keep up with a swipe, slow enough to read |
| Click | Scale settles to 1.04, then returns | 100 ms | Confirms the press without delaying the next screen |
| Row change | Rows slide up; top shelf fades and lifts away | 550 ms | Keeps your place while revealing more content |
| Open details | Background blurs, content fades in over the art | 400 ms | You stay in context and can step back with one button |
| Reduce Motion | No parallax or scale; focus shown by brightness and outline | Instant | Respects the system accessibility setting |
From the couch to cooldown.
The core journey, step by step. Each step names the device doing the work, because the best multi-device experiences hand off quietly.
Start · 30 min
Family Challenge
214 kcal · 18 min
Hardware as part of the design
Remote clickpad for navigation, Watch for biometrics, iPhone for text and sharing. Each device does what it is best at.
Shared screen, personal data
Profiles switch from the top shelf. Heart rate and history stay with the person, not the TV.
Siri as a shortcut
“Start my workout” skips straight to the timer. Voice is an accelerator, never the only path.
Accessible from the first sketch.
- VoiceOver reads each card as title, length and progress, in visual order.
- Reduce Motion swaps parallax and scale for a brightness change and outline.
- Bold Text and Increase Contrast keep timers legible on bright art.
- Captions on by default for coaching, with audio descriptions of each move.
- Low-impact alternatives on every move, one click away.
Adaptive, but explainable
Up Next reorders based on what you skipped and how recent sessions felt. Each suggestion says why (“Lighter day after two strength sessions”) so it never feels random.
More directions, faster
I used AI tools to generate early layout and naming variations, draft VoiceOver labels and pressure-test edge cases. Every final decision, visual and line of copy was mine.
What I would test next.
This is a concept, so the honest next step is to put it in front of people on a real TV. Here is the plan I would run.
Couch test
Five participants, a TV at 10 feet, and the prototype driven by a Bluetooth remote.
Observe
Time to start, wrong turns, and whether people can read cues from a mat.
Iterate
Tune focus scale, type sizes and row order from what we see.
Build natively
Rebuild key screens in SwiftUI previews to test real focus behavior.
I haven’t shipped a living-room product yet, so I designed one to learn the platform’s rules. I’d love to do it for real.
