User Experience in Action

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Jonathan Hassell Chris RourkeHead of Audience Experience & Usability Managing DirectorBBC Future Media & Technology User Vision

Internet World

29th April 2009

User experience in action

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Agenda

• Why a good user experience is important for media broadcasters

• The main challenges of usability & accessibility across platforms

• Effective ways to understand and improve the user experience through research

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Why UX is essential for broadcasters…

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TV is simple…

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The web often isn’t…

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Which wouldn’t be a problem,except…

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Web as TV extension – how to be a fan

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Web as part of TV – how to participate

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And even more so…

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Web as TV

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Wherever & however you want to get it…

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With whoever you want to watch it with…

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And whoever you want to share it with…

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Platform challenges…

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Screen-size and your closeness to it…

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How you interact with it…

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What it can do…

CSSWAP

ATs

MHEG

XHTML

CSSBrowser options

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User challenges…

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Not just for your obvious audience…

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But for these people too…

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How can we to understand and improve the user experience through

research?

TM

Researching New Media Experiences Deep understanding of usersApplying proven and innovative UCD

methods Learning and applying the resultsConfidence & control

Challenges Audience recruitment

Formative tests

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Persona Development

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Traditional User Research

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More advanced Usability Testing

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Researching the experience in context

http://tinyurl.com/6cukzt

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Researching the experience in context

Diary Studies let users record their experience

Can enhance other findings

TM

+++ My Programmes+++ My Channels+++ My Messages+++ My Stuff+++ Manage My Programmes+++ Manage My Channels+++ TV+++ Radio+++ Films+++ [catch up TV categories ]+++ Viewed+++ Favourite Channels+++ Available+++ Categories+++ Brand New+++ Days+++ Channels+++ All+++ Guide+++ Scheduled+++ [a specific user account]+++ Gmail+++ Services+++ A to Z+++ Favourite Apps+++ Featured+++ New+++ [a specific web application]+++ Web Apps+++ Manage+++ Most Popular+++ Last Chance+++ On Demand+++ BBC iPlayer+++ iTV Player+++ 4OD+++ Demand 5+++ [catch up Radio categories]+++ Trailers+++ Saved Searches+++ [a specific recommended channel]

Appearance

Guide

My Stuff/Profile

Researching how things are organised

TM

(M) Some people will not know how many days the iPlayer covers. Despite having lots of publicity, it should not be presumed that everyone will understand that the iPlayer covers 7 days. Some of the participants did not know this and the site did not explain it.

Recommendation: Tell the user clearly that the iPlayer is for the last 7 days with a clear message on the homepage or even better, in the masthead of the page.

Presenting & Discussing research results

Facilitator: “So if you did that and the Radio stopped. What would you think?”

Participant: “I’d be annoyed and think why has it stopped?”

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EMP - OverviewBBC wished to test their next generation,

accessible media player with disabled users.

8 day diary study involving 6 blind, visually impaired users 2 physically disabled users

Users used a range of screen reader and switch technology.

Post test debrief of all participants.

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EMP - Positive feedback

Being blind, I can’t read newspapers or TV guides in the traditional sense, I often only realise programmes have been on a few days after they have been broadcast, Being able to go back and watch again is of tremendous benefit to me.

Finding programmes using the category system is very easy. I chose FACTUAL then HISTORY. Easy.

iPlayer has the opportunity to become the main way blind people can easily access TV content. iPlayer allows you to navigate television programmes using a screen reader. That’s a big benefit.

I discovered that if switch users want to pause the clip, all they have to do is scan once which gets them on to the Play/Pause button to pause the video, and then scan and select again to resume. Easy. Very good. It was easy to use, on

the whole, and very user-friendly.

Signposting was logical and clear throughout.

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EMP – Negative Feedback

Can we have some consistency please? For most programmes you use a Flash based player but to listen live to Radio Scotland I need to download and install RealPlayer which I have had numerous accessibility issues with in the past.

Lacks sufficient tab focus highlighting for Switch Users. It is unclear.

it took a while for me to find radio programmes on History. I eventually did a search within the Radio Link, where I input “history programmes”. This brought up various documentaries on History. Therefore, Switch Users would find it tiresome without a Skip Navigation to jump to the main content.

I found the IPlayer Flash controls to be quite inaccessible. I was never able to access controls during playback.

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Why doing testing with your users is so important…

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Accessibility => usability => user experience

• whether all your users can get the right value out of what you create

• because this is supposed to be entertaining, right…?

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The benefits of knowing how people will actually use it…• for example:

if you were designing a way of navigating through a 30min - 4hour programme, just using two buttons, how would you do it…?

• is there a best way…? for everyone…?for the programmes that they want to watch…?

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Goal: a great user experience for all…

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Thank you

Further questions? – [email protected]– [email protected]

• Come see User Vision at Stand E7075– Try out eye tracking– Recession proof usability guide