Separate Viewing Profiles in a Shared Home
Design a TV profile experience that keeps recommendations, watch history, and age boundaries useful on a shared household screen.
The brief
Understand the problem
Background
A household television is shared, but viewing history and maturity settings belong to different people. Profile switching must be quick from a remote while protected profiles still need meaningful boundaries.
User context
The Chen household has two adults, a teenager, a young child, and frequent guests. Their current shared profile mixes recommendations and lets the child reopen adult content from continue watching.
Product problem
Household members need fast profile access without making child protections, privacy, or guest cleanup easy to bypass.
Objective
Create profile selection, protected switching, guest viewing, and household management for one shared TV account.
What to design
Define the experience
Required experience
- Choose a household or guest profile using a TV remote
- Unlock a protected adult profile without exposing the secret on screen
- Start a temporary guest session with clear history behavior
- Manage profile protections and clean up an expired guest session from mobile
Screens and states
- TV profile chooser
- Protected profile unlock
- Guest session setup
- Mobile household settings
Core user flow
Follow the critical path
- 01
A guest turns on the TV and chooses temporary viewing
- 02
An adult approves a seven-day guest profile from a nearby phone
- 03
The guest watches without changing household recommendations
- 04
The child later attempts to open an adult profile and reaches a protected handoff
- 05
The account owner reviews and ends the guest session from mobile
Product rules
Requirements and constraints
Requirements
- Make the active profile persistently recognizable during browsing
- Keep child profile restrictions consistent across search, history, and deep links
- Support secure approval on a personal device when remote text entry is unsuitable
- Explain whether guest watch history is saved, isolated, or deleted
- Let account owners review active TVs and profile sessions
Constraints
- TV input must work with directional controls and limited text entry
- A profile PIN alone is not sufficient for high-risk account changes
- Downloaded content may remain on a device after a profile session ends
Reality check
States worth considering
Finish line
What to deliver
- Three TV screens and one mobile settings screen covering guest use and protected switching
Optional direction
Visual resources
Use these as a starting constraint if you want one. They are not part of the required solution.
Quattrocento & Quattrocento Sans
Clear interface writing gives people the confidence to understand what changed and decide what to do next.
Quattrocento & Quattrocento Sans
Clear interface writing gives people the confidence to understand what changed and decide what to do next.