One Screen, Many Minds: A Smart TV Interface Development for Co-viewing through a Mental Model Framework

Advancements in smart TV technologies have enhanced digital entertainment by providing personalized services to households. However, their role as a group device and the complexities of co-viewing experiences are often overlooked. To better understand user expectations in co-viewing contexts, and create more intuitive and satisfying experiences, we adopt the concept of mental models. By employing a mental model framework, we study co-viewing sessions and conducted semi-structured interviews to capture how groups browse and select content when co-viewing. Our findings reveal five design implications for interface designs including social factors, active user engagement, and adaptive interaction design. Based on these design implications, we propose an interface design prototype informed by four actionable design insights that align with co-viewing usage contexts. By investigating how group dynamics shape content exploration and decision-making, our work delivers practical insights with a visual prototype for designing more satisfying co-viewing experiences on smart TVs.