Presented at Barcamp VRT on 21/1/2012 it highlights the 15 things I learned from creating second screen TV apps.

1. Presented at
Barcamp VRT on
21/1/2012.
Now with post-it-wolfr
additional notes when
needed
#15 lessons learned with second screen TV apps

2. @studiomuscle
http://www.smalltownheroes.b
e
hendrik@smalltownheroes.be
hi i am hendrik

3. with hair

4. without hair

5. me now
I used to work at the
research center for Media
in Flanders:
VRT-medialab
vrt-medialab

6. We made a second screen
platform for a primetime
villa vanthilt
TV show Villa Vanthilt

7. And interactive second
screen apps for Ook
Getest Op Mensen
(also tested on humans)
#ookgetest

8. And together with some
ex-colleagues we’re
starting a spin-off:
Small Town Heroes
small town heroes

9. But back to the topic!
8 intro slides filled with
self-promoting clutter.
Damn Belgians!
#15 lessons learned with second screens

10. PART 1: Letting go

11. #1 bye bye remote control
I have a hate relationship
(all hate, no love) with
the bad usability of
remote controls

12. #2 bye bye set-top-box
Set-top-boxes are energy
absorbing devices, sluggish
like
Windows 95 on a 386.
Their software frameworks ar
e
closed and there is no ecosys
tem of
developers making beautiful
rich
application.

13. #3 bye bye smarttv (for now)
I am not so fond of the
current suite of Smart
TV’s either. I wrote a
hate letter about it.

14. PART 2: more than...

15. #4 more than twitter
A lot of TV programs show
#hashtags in overlay.
But tweets are seldom
shown on the first screen
and when they are, they are not
always relevant. Interactive TV is
more than showing tweets on TV
.

16. #5 more than check-ins
Check-in services (like
Miso or Getglue) are cool but don’
t
really resonate with the content on
the first screen. Interactive TV is
more than check-ins

17. #6 more than polls
Polls are a very simple interactive
format for TV and thus very
suitable. But we need to be more
imaginative of what we can do wi
th
second screens. Because it is
more than polls.

18. part 3: what works

19. I really like this app. Yes. it is a po
ll,
but with a creative twist. It is
super simple: Two buttons and a
geiger teller. It’s also extremely
popular.
#7 ultimate simplicity

20. A simple form is sometimes all yo
u
need
#7 ultimate simplicity

21. With the Villa Vanthilt app, peop
le
could chat and ask questions to th
e
guests of the show. But the chatte
r
and most questions weren’t very
valuable to the other viewers, wh
o
were just watching TV.
#8 add value for all viewers

22. With Ook getest op mensen the
data and gestures on the second
screen app are analyzed and
visualized on the first screen, thus
becoming valuable to all the
viewers of the show.
#8 add value for all viewers

23. #9 close the feedback loop
I think second screen applications
become valuable for all viewers
when the second screen data is
inserted into the television show
.
This means you need to connect
to
the television studio’s.

24. And on the first screen, black-ou
ts
and fail whales are not an option.
It
needs to be extremely redundant.
#10 no fail whales

25. Traffic on second screen apps is
different than traffic on websites.
#11 twin peaks Extreme highs and extreme lows
Cloud services to the rescue!
.
call to action
call to action
trailer 1

26. #12 multiplatform is the default
You are making stuff for all viewe
rs.
This means grannies with the lat
est
Chromium Beta and geeks with
Internet Explorer 7.

27. #13 open standards ftw!

28. Stuff of dreams. I believe in great
visualizations of big second scre
en
data on the first screen.
#14 beautiful data visualisations

29. #15 be creative
Second screen apps are still a
niche. Dream and make great
things that don’t exist yet.

30. thanks
hendrik@smalltownheroes.be
www.smalltownheroes.be