How many clicks does it take?

Five. That’s how many clicks it takes to buy a TV show on the Apple TV and start watching it. How many clicks should it take? Two.

Around six months ago, I canceled cable and decided to watch television exclusively using the Apple TV. The experience has been a success and I enjoy the Apple TV very much. Except that it takes too many clicks to buy a show. From the first page with a buy button available, there are five clicks of the remote required to buy and watch a show:

  1. Move default selection from ‘Preview’ to 'Buy’
  2. Select 'Buy’
  3. Select 'OK’ confirming that you want to buy
  4. Select 'OK’ confirming that you know the show has been bought
  5. Select 'Play’ to watch the show
It should only take two:
  1. Select 'Buy’
  2. Select 'Play’ to watch the show

It might seem nitpicky to complain about clicks, but it’s a subject that Apple usually takes very seriously. Interaction with devices should be as simple as possible. From Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs:

His main demand was “Simplify!” He would go over each screen of the user interface and apply a rigid test: If he wanted a song or a function, he should be able to get there in three clicks. And the click should be intuitive. If he couldn’t figure out how to navigate to something, or if it took more than three clicks, he would be brutal.

The Apple TV user interface needs to be simplified before it graduates from a 'hobby’ to a real product category. Hopefully there is still someone at Apple willing to be brutal over details like this.