By
tobiasm
I registered this account literally because I am frustrated with you LG. I need you to change because I'm tired of buying other devices to replace features you have promised and not delivered.
I really want to use your OS and apps on my TV but you make it too hard. The user experience for navigation and writing is terrible. This has to improve or I won't use it. I will not spend my time on this when it's much easier on other systems, but I want to use your system. Please help me and your other customers.
On any device, it should be very easy to type
* a password to connect the TV to a wireless network
* search terms when browsing apps on the app store and in other search engines on the device
To be clear, I really tried to figure this out on my own before coming here but found it too difficult to give them another chance. I used the onscreen keyboard and ThingQ app.
The first problem is extreme. Absolutely extreme. Using the onboard keyboard to write in the wifi password is a nightmare. I have secure passwords that are long and which combine upper and lower case characters and special characters. I will NOT lower my security in order to make it easier to use your keyboard. The problem is on your end so you fix this.
There's something in this for you too, LG: Letting us connect by WiFi is undoubtedly going to be the most preferred option for most users, regardless of how technical they are, and it is definitely the biggest barrier to your app store having any chance of success. You won't get users if people can't connect and download apps.
Right now my options are
* suffer through this user experience of using the onscreen keyboard
* making my wifi password less secure
* using the Apple TV instead
I'm going for the Apple TV instead, and I bet your customers are doing the same. It's time to look into why they do this.
The second problem is also really serious. Typing in any search word using the onscreen password is in fact also too painful. Using the ThinQ app with the cursor did not make things easier. I honestly don't know why you chose to put a cursor in this app instead of letting me navigate with buttons like on a TV remote controller but it's unpleasant. Very unpleasant. I don't think of my TV as a computer and neither should you. The cursor is an unwanted and poor choice for navigation on a TV screen. Stick to navigation keys: up, down, left, right. User test it and see for yourself. People will NOT prefer the cursor over navigation keys.
Again, this also impacts usage of your other services, so if you want people to use them you need to make this easier. Please.
Here's how you stack up right now to the competition. My alternative device right now is an Apple TV and it makes this much easier. I reckon a Roku and Chromecast do similar magic, at least I recall Chromecast being wonderful on an older Android 4 device I had years ago.
When setting up the Apple TV I can choose to connect to it with my smartphone immediately using their apps. I don't know if it's on bluetooth or something else but it's not wifi and it works well. Once connected I can use my keyboard on the smartphone to write input for the TV and connect it to my WiFi and search within apps for my favourite TV shows, movies and the list goes on.
This makes it much easier to search and of course to paste in passwords from my phone to the TV.
In my case I have a password bank called Bitwarden. Other users probably have at least the built-in password managers from Apple and Google.
You want me to be able to do the same on your LG TV but the aforementioned reasons are why that's never going to happen. Never. Until you change this I will not give your OS another chance.
Here's my recommendation:
Similar to Apple you should have an app for setting up the TV that connects over bluetooth. WiFi is not an option. Remember that we want to use our phones to type in the WiFi password since it is easier and it will let us copy paste in passwords from our phones.
What options are there for this? I bet bluetooth is an option amongst others. Please figure this out.
My biggest hope is that you will actually do some user research: Make prototypes and test them with real people. Ask them to try to use your apps and listen to their feedback. Ask them if they can connect to WiFi, why not if they can't, and listen to what they say.
User research is cheap and it works. Please do it.
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