The Problem
mySecondTeacher worked great on phones and laptops. But TVs are a different world. No touch, no mouse, just a remote with arrow keys and an OK button. Every interaction pattern from the web version was useless here. Students needed to browse lessons, watch content, and track their progress, all from a couch, on a screen three meters away.
What We Did
We built the entire navigation around focus states. Every element needs a visible, high-contrast indicator so you always know where you are. We capped the navigation depth at three levels because anything deeper and you lose people when the only way to move is up, down, left, right.
Typography got scaled up significantly. What reads fine at 16px on a phone needs to be 32px or more on a TV. We tested at actual viewing distances to make sure nothing felt like squinting.
We reorganized content into horizontal scrolling rows instead of vertical lists. Left and right feel natural on a remote. Up and down feel like work.
The Result
Shipped as part of the mySecondTeacher ecosystem. This was probably the most technically challenging design problem the team worked on, and it proved the product could live on a completely different type of device without losing its identity.
