Remote control buttons

The Roku remote is unique to the platform, with a specific set of
buttons each triggering different commands. Some buttons, like the dPad,
are likely familiar to any user or developer. Other buttons, like the
Instant Replay or Star buttons, might seem a little more unique. Below
is an overview of the buttons on the Roku remote, how they work, and the
standard behavior users expect when pressing them.

4-way directional pad (dPad)

Conventional uses of the Roku remote's buttons:

• While on a standard UI screen:

  • Use the directional pad to move the onscreen focus highlight
    up/down/left/right from one screen element to another.
  • Alternatively, in a "fixed-focus" model, use it to move the
    content or choices into the focus highlight.

• During video playback:

  • dPad left/right: Pauses the video, reveals a horizontal row of
    Roku BIF (Base Index Frame) files, HLS/DASH thumbnails, or video key-frames, and users can navigate backwards/left
    and forward/right through the video via these
    key-frames:

    

  • A single dPad pressed for left or right moves 1 key-frame in the
    corresponding direction. Continual press and hold of the
    left/right key scrolls horizontally through the row of
    key-frames. Pressing OK or Play/Pause resumes video playback
    from the key-frame in focus.

  • dPad up/down: Some apps with playlists use up/down key to
    navigate to the previous or the next video.

    See Trick Mode for more information.

• During music playback:

  • Pressing left or right on the dPad skips to the previous or next track/item in the playlist.

OK

• While on a standard UI screen:
  • Selects or activates the item in focus.
• During video playback:
  • Preferred: OK button should reveal a Heads Up Display (HUD)
    containing video-relevant information and actions (which should
    dismiss when it times out or when the Back button is pressed).
  • Alternative: Toggle between video play and pause.

Back

• While on a standard UI screen:
  • Navigate users to a previous screen. Note that there are at
    least two different back-navigation schemes:
    • Hierarchical: Navigate to the screen that is one level up in
      the UI hierarchy.
    • Historical: Navigate to the previously viewed screen,
      regardless of where that screen is within the UI's
      map/hierarchy.
    • Users expect and more easily understand the 'historical'
      model. Where it is important to navigate to other screens or
      levels of the UI hierarchy, offer better on-screen
      navigation choices.
  • While users can press the Back button to exit a popup dialog,
    Back is not used to navigate from a screen to a popup dialog.
• While on your app's home screen:
  • It is critical that people be allowed to exit your app via
    the remote's Back button. This ensures they can get to the
    original Roku UI screen from which they launched into your
    app.
  • Consistent exit strategy: Users can press the Back button enough
    times to eventually get to your app's home screen. From
    there, one more press of the Back button should reveal an "exit
    opportunity". For example:
    • A Popup Dialog asking for exit confirmation.
    • A menu offering "exit" as a choice.
  • Hence, pressing Back from your app's home screen should
    either exit your app or reveal a way to exit your app
    (E.g., A popup dialog confirming a user's intent to exit).
• During video playback:
  • Exit video playback and return to the referring screen (E.g.,
    Content details page).

Instant replay/skip-back

• While on a standard UI screen:
  • No system-response
• During video playback:
  • Auto rewind the video 10–25 seconds and resume playback.
  • The amount of time required to rewind takes into account that
    users may need to reach for a remote, find, and then press the
    Instant Replay button.
  • Note that within the Roku settings users can set Closed
    Captioning to be on during instant replay. The idea here is that
    most people skip back because they didn't hear what was said.
    Hence, when Instant Replay is pressed, the last 20 seconds are
    replayed with Closed Captioning on only during that replayed
    portion of the video.
  • Some Roku remotes do not have an Instant Replay button. If you
    want the functionality to be available consistently, you could
    also offer it via the first dPad left press during video
    playback. If users press dPad left more than once in rapid
    succession, then revert to standard dPad behavior during video
    playback.
• During music playback:
  • Restart current track from beginning.

Star/Options

• While on a standard UI screen:
  • It is used to access a popup menu of contextual and/or global
    options or information.
  • Options can be contextual to the screen and/or the screen item
    in focus.
  • Global options can be navigational (E.g., Home, Search) or
    features/settings.
  • While the popup menu is visible, pressing the Star button again (or the Back button)
    should dismiss it.
• During full-screen video playback:
  • Only video is displayed:
    • The Star button reveals a Roku options menu offering users
      standard options, like Closed Captioning, and audio tracks.
  • App UI/HUDs displayed over
    video:
    • The Star button is passed to the app to handle and decide
      what to do.
    • For example, app is displaying a mini-EPG over a video,
      so the Star button press would be handled by the app.

Play/Pause

• While on standard UI screen:
  • Can be used as a shortcut to activate or play something.
    • For example, showing a featured item elsewhere on the screen
      and activating/selecting it without having to move the focus
      highlight to it.
    • For example, when highlighting a movie poster within a grid,
      pressing OK would select it and take you to the movie's
      details page, but Play could just play the movie or its
      trailer.
• During content playback:
  • If the video is playing, a button press pauses the video (and
    reveals BIFs).
  • If the video is paused, a button press resumes video playback.
  • If the video is rewinding or fast-forwarding, pressing the Play
    button switches to video playback at the current rewind or
    fast-forward position.
• During audio playback:
  • A button press pauses the audio track.
  • If the audio track is paused, a button press resumes audio playback.
• During ad video playback:
  • Allow users to play/pause advertisements.
  • Play/pause behavior should be the same as with content video.

Rewind/Fast-forward

• While on a standard UI screen:
  • When focus is on a vertical or horizontal list of text or
    images:
    • Rewind: Vertical pages list up and horizontal pages list
      left.
    • Fast-forward: Vertical pages list down and horizontal pages
      list right.
• During content video playback:
  • For long-form content (E.g., 30 minute TV show), usually 3
    rewind/fast-forward speeds are offered.
  • For short-form content, it's okay to reduce the number of speeds
    to 2 or just 1.
  • Each press of the rewind button increments the rewinding speed
    by one step: Current state >> Rew x 1 >> Rew x 2 >> Rew x
    3 >> Rew x 1 >> Rew x 2 >> etc.
  • Each press of the fast-forward button increments the forwarding
    speed by one step: Current state >> Ffwd x 1 >> Ffwd x 2
    >> Ffwd x 3 >> Ffwd x 1 >> Ffwd x 2 >> etc.
  • Pressing and holding the rewind or the fast-forward button
    accelerates the video to the fastest speed: Current state >>
    Rew x 3 or Current state >> Ffwd x 3.
  • Note that in all the cases above, the "current state" could be:
    video paused, video playing, rewinding, or fast-forwarding.
• During content music playback:
  • Pressing the rewind or fast-forward button skips to the previous or next track/item in the playlist.
• During ad playback:
  • Usually, users are not allowed to fast-forward an ad that is
    playing.
  • Users should be allowed to rewind within an ad, and even rewind
    past the ad back into the content video.
  • If users are rewinding or fast-forwarding from content video
    playback, they must be allowed to go past any point an ad would
    normally play. For example, users can fast-forward from the
    5-minute mark to the 45-minute mark, passing by several ad play
    points.
  • If they do fast-forward past an ad play point, when playback is
    resumed the system can play an ad first before resuming the
    content video (As compensation for having fast-forwarded over an
    ad).