Creating a Compelling User Experience for IPTV

Let me start by stating: if you think designing for the Web and the TV should follow the same blueprint, you’re wrong. Designing for the Web and TV are extremely different processes and every person within the IPTV industry should know that a design for the Web doesn’t automatically translate to the TV.

The main difference between designing for the TV and the Web is simply the medium of delivery. The process of designing for both can be fairly simple if certain sets of guidelines are followed. However, if it is looked upon as 'just another interface design project' instead of an ‘overall TV experience’ the project can snowball into a tedious and never-ending process. IPTV is a totally different medium; with experience and requirements that are very distinct. A designer should understand the critical difference in these mediums of delivery to fully design a user interface that will attract audiences and increase interactions with their chosen medium.

To design and create a compelling user experience, a designer requires a clear understanding of both the context and the target audience. In the case of TV, the audience is the viewer who watches television to relax and be entertained. For this very reason, TV design has to be extremely simple, linear and easy to follow. This limits distraction and doesn’t allow the viewer to shift their focus from watching TV to another form of entertainment. This experience has been coined the "Sit Back Approach". You can compare that to the “Lean In” experience, which means direct interaction with something, such as using a computer. The TV experience is a shared, entertaining experience. It is less of an interactive experience and more of an immersive interaction. A user decides to use the interface, only when a decision has been made to change something on the TV. This means that any activity performed as a part of interface interaction is secondary to watching of the TV. Needless to say, designing the user experience for TV goes beyond physical issues of resolution, pixel grid, Standard and High definition or palette configurations.

But get ready for even more change now because Interactive IPTV is all about involvement. A designer is attempting to convert the "Sit Back Approach" into an active experience by giving the user complete control of their entertainment choices. The key thing to remember here is that the quality of experience (QoE) needs to be very consistent and stimulating. The key difference between the experiences of Digital TV versus the experiences of IPTV is the interaction. And this interaction is increased by the number of services that can be accessed. For example, a viewer can surf through a plethora of programs that are available to them at any given time. While doing so, the TV watcher can also place a voice call or IM their friends for a quick conversation about their favorite programs. At the same time, they can place an order for pizza and invite friends over for a bite. All this can be achieved just while relaxing on a couch, at the touch of a remote. This is precisely why IPTV gives a whole new meaning to "Immersive Experience". It can thus be maintained that successful interaction is born from a concept that intrinsically enhances the experience through its content.

Here are a few simple steps (The Basics of Experience Design) as applied to creating the best IPTV experience:

1. Understand and reflect on product/client requirements.
2. Ensure that the conceptual and functional specifications are as detailed as possible.
3. Sketch and Draw - Invest a significant amount of time white-boarding concepts and thinking of every possible element, scenario etc. so you can prepare an acceptance test plan.
4. Storyboard the concepts. This will allow you to easily take your client / potential viewer through the concept. At this same time, this will also help you discover your own mis-steps. As in any design process, navigation will dictate how the experience will be perceived and used. It is therefore important for the designer to solidify the navigation at this point.
5. Once the basics are ready, the designers can focus their attention on creative development. The most critical aspect to remember here is ATOT -- “Always Test on TV”. Whatever design concepts are implemented, make sure to transfer them from your computer screen and test them in the TV environment. What looks good on computer doesn't always look good on TV. Colors, proportions, scales and dimensions all vary largely from computer to TV. And remember that the viewing distance of TV versus the computer is different too. This will dramatically alter how the user interface is viewed and perceived on TV.
6. Finally as always, translating all this effort into a successful implementation is the most challenging task. As all designers will concur, the designs they create don’t always get translated exactly during implementation. Steps 1 through 5 will help you reduce that gap significantly and ultimately help to provide your TV viewers with what you have envisioned.
7. Needless to say, user testing, focus groups and other methods are the final items in this process. Make sure that you test with a variety of viewers within your target market. This will help you consolidate the design more succinctly.

Keeping things simple is a Design Mantra. What may seem like a really simple piece of interaction may ultimately prove to be a deciding factor of your product’s fate.

IPTV has a great future and it has a lot to do with its immersive QoE. But the ultimate judge for it though, will be the viewers who watch TV.

Written for : Espial IPTV on TMC Net. (Ofcourse some references have been taken from the web and other articles).

The Design Basics

Apologies for the delay in this post. It was a very busy few weeks of IBC 2006, Amsterdam.

Here are some basics of TV environment that will ready a designer for his next task - Design!

The TV Resolution:

NTSC Format: 640 X 480 pixels
PAL Format: 720 X 576 pixels
HDTV Format - 1280 X 720 pixels

These dimensions are full dimensions inclusive of safe area. Generally its good to assume 20% on all sides as a safe area. In case of PAL TV this dimension brings the actual viewable resolution to 576 x 440 pixels.

Pixels on TV:

The shape of TV pixels is a little bit rectangular. Its not a perfect square. For designers who design the TV user interfaces using Photoshop as a standard tool, please be sure to use "Image/Pixel Aspect Ratio/ " option to select the correct format you are designing for. If that is not the case, most of your designs will look different on TV than they look on your PC. For example if you have a circular object in your design, it will appear oval in actual on TV.

Interlacing:
Our generic computer screens use progressive scan - each frame is made up of the entire screen area from top to bottom.

On a CRT television set, however, each frame is made up of two fields that are interlaced. This makes thin horizontal lines vibrate or flicker.

TV sets that use plasma or LCD technology convert the interlaced picture to progressive frames before displaying them. (more details can of course be found on the eternal source -Wikipedia)

However LCD and HDTV technologies are still at their beginning and most users are still using TV's that use CRT technology. Thereby, the designer is now challenged with two sets of design - One for CRT format which is 4:3 resolution and one for HDTV format which is 16:9 resolution.

Color and Contrast modes on TV:

The range of colors is limited on TV's. However this trend is now changing fairly quickly. A designer should although be strongly aware of the color mode supported by the destination TV. The mode could be either 8 Bit or 16 Bit or 32 Bit depending on the middleware and the Set-top-box hardware being used.

Navigation Methods on a TV

The primary mode of navigation on a TV is a remote control. Although keyboards and roll mouse buttons have been in existence, remote control still remains the preferred way. The important pieces for a designer to consider here are - up/down/left/right is a "one click at a time" process. Most newer remotes have certain specific buttons for special functions such as bringing up an internet browser etc. The conventions of buttons on a remote are different in the America's and Europe. Hotkeys predominantly rule the way in Europe where as custom keys as needed by the service provider dominate the US interactive TV scene.

Special Effects and Animations

Depending on the type of middleware and the set-top-box being used, the special effects used to generate interactivity may differ.

For example the Microsoft TV UI uses a very fast performance STB with a heavy middleware. Thereby rendering the visual effects very crisp and smooth. However the price to performance ratio is a very critical factor and even though its for the business folks to worry about, it is important that a designer touches the aspects of it. In perspective, the designer should always have all the technical details of the STB and the middleware at hand before proposing performance intensive visual effects.

Differences to Note - TV versus The Web

Designing usability and navigation for TV can sometimes tend to be very tricky. Most of us are strongly acquainted with how an Internet Browser works. But TV is a whole new paradigm.

The best example that can be sighted here is the function of the 'Back' button. In case of the web, pressing the back button on your browser will take you to the previous page where as in case of interacting with the TV, pressing the back key will take you one level up in the navigation. This is because we are looking at a more confined and restricted navigation realm.

The best example here is a 'DVD of a Movie'. You can choose from the main menu what you would like to watch - movie, credits, interviews or xtras. Once you are in one of those sections and you decide to go back, you arrive at the main menu.

This is where it gets interesting - On one hand, you have several functions that need to make your TV experience interactive. And on the other hand, you have only a handful of keys available to perform those tasks.

REMEMBER - In most of the cases, there is no MOUSE. You will have keys from 0-9, +, -, Back, Forward, Up, Down, Select or OK and in certain cases Multiple function keys called as 'Hotkeys' - Red, Green, Yellow, Blue. (Refer to the picture of Generic Remote in the previous post).

So what are the things that we need to consider while designing for TV?

.......coming up in the next post.

Common User Interaction Behaviours on a TV

There are several ways and methods with which a user can interact with a TV. However the most commonly used are:

Ability to browse through current/future programs and channels. This ability is named as "Electronic Program Guide" or the EPG.

There are a few sub-sets of this ability such as being able to set a reminder to watch or record a future program or block a program that contains restricted content etc.

"Video on Demand" or VOD enables a person to be able to watch a movie of their choice, whenever they want to, and be able to pause, rewind or fast forward the same at the click of a button, just like a DVD player.

Other modes of interaction include Games, ability to search and select content and customizing the overall experience into a personalized format, ability to perform activities such as check your e-mail or chat with your buddy or order a pizza etc.

Further more, some forms of interactive TV require the user to participate actively while a certain program is being broadcast. For example - Polls (Asking questions like - Who do you think will be fired - Linda, Chandra, Alex or Jasmine; and then having the user to provide a key input for an answer).

There is however much debate as to how effective and popular this kind of truly interactive TV can be.

We shall delve into each of these methods of interaction in detail later.

What is 'Middleware'

Middleware is computer software that connects software components or applications. It is used most often to support complex, distributed applications.

In simple words, the software which helps bring the TV environment into an interactive mode is called a middleware.

In case of interactive TV, the interactivity is supplied by the manipulation of the API of the particular software installed on a set-top box. The middleware can be in the form of a native application or an application such as a "browser"

Examples of commonly-found middleware software include:

• DVB-MHP (Java) - Global standard widely deployed in Europe and Asia
• OCAP (Java) - US cable industry standard based on DVB-MHP
• BD-J (Java) - Interactivity layer for Blu-ray Disc based on DVB-MHP
• OpenTV (ANSI C) - BSkyB, UPC, Viasat, TPS
• Mediahighway (Java, MHEG-5, Pantalk) - UK terrestrial, Canal+
• Liberate (HTML/JavaScript) - NTL, Telewest
• ICTV (HTML/JavaScript) - NTL, VNL
• MHEG-5 (used in UK DTT)
• Alcatel Open Media Suite - Sasktel, BBTV, Kingston
• Microsoft TV (XHTML)
• BML - Standard used on ISDB platforms in Japan
• Espial - Escape (Browser) & Evo (Native C++ based middleware)

The current challenge faced by these companies is limited capacity of set-top-boxes* which process content through this middleware. Large amounts of testing is required to ensure that the speed and performance of the 'User Experience' is not affected. Almost all of these middleware are proprietary and subject to heavy licensing restrictions.

* - More about STB's in later posts.
References: www.wikipedia.org

What is IPTV

What:
IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) describes a system where television content is digitally delivered using the Internet Protocol over a network infrastructure, which may include delivery by a broadband connection. For residential users, this type of service is often provided in conjunction with Video on Demand and may be part of combined Internet services such as Web access and VoIP, where it may then be called Triple Play, and is typically supplied by a broadband operator using a single infrastructure. If in addition to the three services (voice, video and data), mobility is also offered, it is called a Quad Play.

Types:
Residential IPTV has two major architecture forms: free and fee based. As of June 2006, there are over 1,300 free IPTV channels available. This sector is growing rapidly and major television broadcasters worldwide are transmitting their broadcast signal over the Internet. These free IPTV channels require only an Internet connection and an Internet enabled device such as a personal computer, iPod, HDTV connected to a computer or even a 3G cell phone to watch the IPTV broadcasts.

Because IPTV uses standard networking protocols, it promises lower costs for operators and lower prices for users. Using set-top boxes with broadband Internet connections, video can be streamed to households more efficiently than current coaxial cable. ISPs are upgrading their networks to bring higher speeds and to allow multiple High Definition TV channels.

Methods of Interaction:
IPTV provides two-way capabilities, lacked by traditional TV distribution technologies. Interactive television allows for data to be sent back to the TV service provider, which can be used in many ways - such as altering what you are watching (eg: switching camera angles or changing commentators on a sporting event), requesting more information (eg: interactive news, or advertising), or for statistics.

Source: www.wikipedia.org

What is Interactive TV (iTV)

Interactive television describes any number of efforts to allow viewers to interact with television content as they view.

Interactive TV is often described as "lean back" interaction, as users are typically relaxing in the living room environment with a remote control in one hand. This is in contrast to the personal computer-oriented "lean forward" experience of a keyboard, mouse and monitor. In the case of "two-screen" Interactive TV, however, there may be a mix of "lean-back" and "lean-forward" interaction. There has been a growing proclivity to media multitasking, in which multiple media devices are used simultaneously (especially among younger viewers). This has increased interest in two-screen services, and is creating a new level of multitasking in interactive TV known as "coactive TV."

For one-screen services, interactivity is supplied by the manipulation of the API of the particular software installed on a set-top box, referred to as 'middleware' due to its intermediary position in the operating environment. Software programs are broadcast to the set-top box in a 'carousel'.

The set-top box can then load and execute the application. In the UK and European countries this is typically done by a viewer pressing a 'trigger' button on their Remote Control (e.g. the red button, as in 'press red'). Hence the name of the Blog!

More to come...

Source: www.wikipedia.org

Welcome to 'The Red Button'

Hello,

Welcome to 'The Red Button'.

In the coming days, you will see a lot of posts from me chatting about how 'The Red Button' or the most frequently used key on a remote control has created a whole new paradigm of user experience.

Stay tuned!