ExperienceLab

Top ten apps for TV

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.

Could property websites do more to improve the house hunting experience?

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.

Seesaw - some nice touches but still room for improvement

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. 

What will TV be like in 2020?

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.

Why are radios not more user friendly?

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.  

Revolution in connectivity for mobile devices?

I got to play with one of the Flip video cameras for the first time yesterday. These are video recorders, the size of a compact camera that seem to work brilliantly even in very low light and some models can even record in HD quality.

Beyond the video recording functionality, the aspect I was particularly excited to see was the reason for the name 'Flip'. The camera has a built in USB socket that 'flips' out from the side. I gather it also has any software required to transfer the videos built in. Whilst not exactly rocket science, this is a real innovation in connectivity and so user experience, and one I am delighted to see. No more hunting around for a memory card adapter or USB cable to transfer content could have a big impact on the regularity with which users transfer their content. 

Could we start seeing similar built in USB features on camera and mobile phones in the future? I do hope so.

Teen perspective on social networking

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.