It’s a fascinating and fast-moving time for the TV. Not only
is 3D in the living room becoming a reality, but the advent of internet
connections to the TV is inevitably leading to new ‘on demand’
services straight to the TV as well as internet widgets/applications (apps). Apps have had a dramatic effect on mobile phones, with the
popularity of the iPhone and iPad underlining how useful these are perceived to
be. But will they be so popular on the TV and if so which apps will thrive on
the TV screen?
There are various dilemmas for the TV which mean different
apps will be popular here compared to mobile devices:
- Entering text is much harder than on a computer
– even with a keyboard the distance between the keyboard and screen leads to a
lot of looking up and down.
- The screen is often monopolised for watching
programmes and splitting it can disrupt viewing too much.
- The TV is a social entertainment system with
many viewers at once.
So, my prediction is that the following apps will be most
popular:
- Apps that
require minimal text input (are you really going to write emails or long
text messages into your TV?)
- Apps that
are TV centric – providing video content, augmenting programmes, helping
with discovering and choosing what to watch
- Apps that
avoid disrupting TV viewing – apps that sit neatly to the side or beneath
the viewing area or are designed to fill short periods of time (between
programmes, in advert breaks, if your fellow viewer needs a bathroom break!)
- Apps that
are designed for multiple viewers – whether that’s games, shared calendars,
music, photos or potentially new ‘family/household’ social networking
applications.
Continue reading "Top ten apps for TV" »
So, I’ve been house hunting recently and have to say that property
websites have progressed a lot since the last time I was looking, but I am
surprised at how limited they still are.
It’s great that several of them now summarise the available properties in
a map – a quick way to rule out those ones that look surprisingly
good value until you realise they are positioned actually on the M25! Also, several of the sites now let you save properties you are interested in too
and send you alerts, but a few extra personalisation features would be a huge help.
Continue reading "Could property websites do more to improve the house hunting experience?" »
Seesaw is a new online TV service that provides catchup content from the BBC, Channel 4 and Five, as well as some additional on demand content from other sources.
Having played around with the new service both in beta and post launch, I have to say I quite like it. Generally it's reasonably easy to use, visual and nicely laid out. It's handy to be able to go to one place to access content from various different sources (channels or otherwise) - although I admit I still go to BBC iPlayer to access BBC content - and the 'turn lights down' feature is a particularly nice touch. The easy links to other episodes in the same or previous series is well implemented too.
Continue reading "Seesaw - some nice touches but still room for improvement" »
The rapid changes in consumers’ viewing habits brought about
over the last decade by such services as Sky+ and
Freeview show
what can change in a short period in the TV domain. VOD and
IPTV services through a set-top box have also emerged over the last decade but have
been slower to make real changes to viewing habits. However, their impact is set to accelerate over the next decade. User interest in VOD is definitely present (as high usage of BBC iPlayer suggests) but ‘discovering’ content in broad VOD libraries, particularly on a TV screen, (or
even thinking to consider VOD content instead of on broadcast channels) requires a
substantial change in user behaviour. This change will only be brought about by
UIs that really take account of user needs and so facilitate this change.
Continue reading "What will TV be like in 2020?" »
So picture the scene, my new husband and I are on honeymoon in the Cook Islands just finishing a nice lunch by the beach when we hear there is a tsunami warning. So we head to our hire car in an attempt to get away from the waters edge and turn on the radio for more information. The reception isn’t great so, as the announcer starts to reel a list of where and when the tsunami is expected, in a bid to sharpen up the reception I hit the tuning button once. Sadly instead of sharpening up the signal it loses it altogether and persists on ‘searching’ through the stations perpetually without ever finding one.
Continue reading "Why are radios not more user friendly?" »
Work experience students can be a rich source of insights. Two teenage interns spent a week teaching us (older internet users!) about how they use social networking websites.
They told us what they loved about the sites, what they felt was missing and how the sites fit into their lives. Naturally Facebook was a firm favourite, used whenever possible, but it was interesting to learn that Twitter did not seem to hold any appeal for them.
Continue reading "Teen perspective on social networking" »