Digital Convergent Design considerations
for Interactive Television

WARNING !
To be consistent with the theme
of the presentation. The movie clip
you are about to see was
intentionally shot using a mobile
phone … a great example of a
convergent device.
Please excuse the shaking quality
of the video … it's really not our
fault
f lt … merely a by-product of
l b d t f
convergence

Introduction
shot with my mobile phone ☺
Ian Valentine, CEO MiniWeb Interactive
Valentine

“ With digitisation, all of the media become translatable into
each other - computer bits migrate merrily - and escape
from their traditional means of transmission …”
Stuart Brand

Convergence

Chaos

“Although convergence has been a popular topic of
discussion within the field of HCI for more than a decade,
very little empirical data has been reported on the use of
converged solutions.”
d l ti ”
Lyn Pemberton

Convergent Media Design
is a design strategy that focuses on identifying and providing
solutions to implications of convergent media systems and
p g y
the challenges of convergence.

Because of the subjective and qualitative
nature of “design” we felt it was important to introduce
certain concepts that constitute our framework for thinking
about design criteria.
This criterion we felt provided a good framework to interpret,
evaluate and present the data we have collected in a
consistent manner
manner.

Semiotic Design
Design as a form of communication between two actors (the
designer and user). This is an idea introduced by Clarisse de
Souza in her book “Semiotic Engineering and
Semiotic Engineering”
furtherpromoted and expanded upon by Don Norman in his
book “Psychology of Everyday Things”

Affordance
The designer can create clues that naturally guide
the user to “perceive-able action”

According to Norman there are also constraints: three basic
categories exist - physical logical and cultural
physical, logical,and cultural.
Physical constraints are closely tied to real affordances e.g.
it is impossible to move the cursor outside the screen.
screen
Logical constraints use reasoning to determine the
alternatives,
alternatives and are valuable in guiding behaviour
behaviour.
Finally, cultural constraints are conventions shared by a
cultural group e.g. Q
g p g QWERTY keyboard. y

In the context of convergent media design we introduce
another category that is a slight variation of a physical
constraint.
t i t
“Device constraints” we describe as the
technological limitations of a particular device in being
able to accommodate another medium not conventionally
associated with that device.
A device may be designed to challenge the technological
limitations of an intended medium but unable to adapt to
accommodate another medium so easily

Meta-Communication
M t C i ti
user
designer user

As services attempt to traverse platforms seamlessly, implications and
design considerations will begin to surface. These implications will in
someway be associated to poor communication somewhere in the design
communication process and will be manifested i th system d ig
i ti d ill b if t d in the t design.
It is important that the convergent media designer narrows the gap
between the conceptual model of the system and the mental model of
p y
the user; while trading-off against constraints - functionality and usability.

The main aim of this research was to gain an understanding of people’s
perceptions, attitudes and behaviour towards
convergent media.

Data Collection Strategy
-Structured interview: (quantitative)
General Questions
Questions were focused to mobile phone,
internet and digital television technologies.
Specific questions
Demographics
15-20 min
-Field notes (qualitative)
-Incentives:
Incentives:
T-shirts
Sky Navigators for Sky users
(remote control)
-Pilot Test: 19 people

Demographics
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Population size: 89
(randomly selected from members of the general
public)
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43% Female
57% Male
Population age range: 16-65 years old.

In order to determine the questions that needed to be asked,
the research aims were further broken down into three categories from
which question were constructed around.
1. Competitive/complementary category
2. Behaviour category
3.
3 Perception category

1
Competitive/complementary category: This category surveyed
participants’ exposure to various media technologies and their
preference in using a convergent service.

-Many participants received digital TV as part of a Triple service
f
(telephone, internet and digital TV)
-Some participants prefer t perform i t
S ti i t f to f internet related activities on th
t l t d ti iti the
internet (where they have broadband/wireless access) and not through
their televisions.
-Some participants are reluctant to and just prefer to watch television,
ignoring these services.

“it`s a bit of a FAF !
isn`t it” … “No,
would be a pain in the
arse th
those little
littl
buttons”
QUESTION: Do you use the interactive features on your TV?” This slide is
based on actual
ANSWER: NO field notes

“ I would … but my
TV is too slow for
that “
QUESTION: Do you use the interactive features on your TV?” This slide is
based on actual
ANSWER: NO field notes

“Darling, I’m too old to
Darling, I m
use the internet!”
(however she was
very engage in using
the interactive
service on her digital
television and in fact
could be consisted a
“heavy user”)
QUESTION: Do you use the interactive features on your TV?” This slide is
based on actual
ANSWER: NO field notes

“No no no… I don t
No don’t
know if I would be
able to come back
to my programme
programme”
QUESTION: Do you use the interactive features on your TV?” This slide is
based on actual
ANSWER: NO field notes

2
Behaviour category:
This category surveyed the behaviour of participants.
It considered frequency of usage and the context of that usage.

Hours watching TV per day and interactive TV usage
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Less than 3 hours About 3 hours More than 3 hours
Interactive Features NO Interactive features YES
Only 26,6% of infrequent TV users (spend less than 3 hr per day) use
interactive features on their TV.
There is a correlation between heavy TV users and interactive features as
45,5% of the heavy TV users use the interactive features of their TV.

Scenarios of usage of interactive TV services
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Between commercials While waiting for show Telly for myself Play games with family
to start
Interactive services were always considered secondary to the primary
activity of watching TV
TV.

Interactive TV services usage
100,00%
90,00%
80,00%
70,00%
60,00%
50,00%
40,00%
40 00%
30,00%
20,00%
10,00%
0,00%
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Users go interactive when it was associated with enhancing the TV show
they were viewing.
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3
Perception category: This category surveyed attitudes towards
usage and the potential context of usage. It surveyed potential and
asked if people “would?”

Users perception about ease-of-use of the interactive features
difficult; 6
take some getting
use to; 31 relativ easy; 48
ely

“Well is should be
easy if its on your
TV isn t it?
isn’t it?”
QUESTION: Do you think finding information on TV would be… This slide is
based on actual
ANSWER: Easy field notes

En
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
te
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Information that users WOULD search on TV
er
ce
O
th
er

Would users give credit card details on TV?
Yes
36%
No
64%

“Yeah… it is like
the internet,
right?
right?”
QUESTION: Would you give your credit card details on TV? This slide is
based on actual
ANSWER: Yes field notes

“No.. I think I’ll
wait till it’s more
secure”
QUESTION: Would you give your credit card details on TV? This slide is
based on actual
ANSWER: No! field notes

E-commerce usage and T
E d T-commerce perception
ti
30
26
25
20 17
15
10 7 6
5 2 1
0
Daily Weekly Monthly
No Yes
64% of participants wouldn’t give credit card details on TV.
However, 71,4% of them do buy goods via the Internet.

0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
Bo
ok
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30
En
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45
Va
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26
Pi
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a
22
G
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s
What would they buy?
?
13
Pa
yin
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Bi
lls
14
O
th
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8

Behaviour vs Perception in Interactive TV activities
100,00%
90,00%
80,00%
70,00%
60,00%
50,00%
40,00%
30,00%
20,00%
10,00%
,
0,00%
V oted Tailor Press red
T- Catch up Pause
reality viewing Gambling Gaming commercia VoD Web on TV Email, chat
commerce latest news TV...
show sport l
Serie1 40,00% 43,30% 6,70% 16,70% 20,00% 86,70% 43,30% 33,30% 40,00% 10,00% 6,70%
Serie2 33,90% 58,90% 1,80% 21,40% 33,90% 73,20% 42,90% 58,90% 62,50% 39,30% 44,60%
While 10% of participants who have interactive services declared that they use web on TV (behaviour)
(behaviour),
39% of participants who don’t have interactive features said that they would like to use this service
(perception).

ONLY 1 potential participant we couldn`t interview
Because: NO TV, NO Internet, NO Mobile Phone This slide is
based on actual
field notes

“Convergence is remediation under another
C
name, and the remediation is mutual: the
Internet refashions television even as television
refashions the I t
f hi th Internet”
t”
Bolter, J. & Grusin, R. 1999
This process of remediation described by Bolter and
p y
Grusin exposes the need for new design consider-ations
- convergent design considerations.

Convergent design should consider the medium
the service is converging towards. A service that
towards
has been designed for one medium then
transferred directly to another, particularly
between two platforms that offer different device
constraints and affordances, is likely to fail in the
design communication.

Convergent service must be designed to be intuitive to
understand, easy to use and valuable to the user.
User centred design is another important consideration for
good convergent design.
It becomes essential in this competitive environment to
match the potential users’ expectation with t e
atc t e pote t a use s e pectat o t the
functionality of the convergent system.

Understanding the mental models of the user specific to a particular
device and identifying transferable effective aspects of that mental
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model in another device can help users to understand and potentially
accept the convergent services.
Promoting convergent features is also a part of convergent design
considerations.
Promotion can also be approached through the design process.

Branding is also very important to
consider as brand strategy and
communication are essential parts of
creating user experience.
“Physical branding then becomes a part of the drive for usability, as we try
to help the user answer questions about what the service offers, who is
offers
providing it, what its relationship is to a broadcast programme, who, if
anyone, is asking for payment andso on. In other words, clear branding may
help the user develop a clear mental model of the service, which will
enhance usability.”.
Pemberton & Fallahkhair

Do you have
any questions,
ti
mate!?
Acknowledgements:
Richard Griffiths (UoB)
Ian Valentine (Mi i b)
I V l i (Miniweb)
CONTACT:
Begoña B
B ñ Bagur
bbagur@di8it.com
www.di8it.com