User Experience in Action

User experience in action Jonathan Hassell Chris Rourke Head of Audience Experience & Usability Managing Director BBC Future Media & Technology User Vision Internet World 29th April 2009 © BBC MMIX

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 © BBC MMIX

Why UX is essential for broadcasters… © BBC MMIX

TV is simple… © BBC MMIX

The web often isn’t… © BBC MMIX

Which wouldn’t be a problem, except… © BBC MMIX

Web as TV extension – how to be a fan © BBC MMIX

Web as part of TV – how to participate © BBC MMIX

And even more so… © BBC MMIX

Web as TV © BBC MMIX

Wherever & however you want to get it… © BBC MMIX

With whoever you want to watch it with… © BBC MMIX

And whoever you want to share it with… © BBC MMIX

Platform challenges… © BBC MMIX

Screen-size and your closeness to it… © BBC MMIX

How you interact with it… © BBC MMIX

What it can do… CSS XHTML WAP CSS Browser options ATs MHEG © BBC MMIX

User challenges… © BBC MMIX

Not just for your obvious audience… © BBC MMIX

But for these people too… © BBC MMIX

How can we to understand and improve the user experience through research? © BBC MMIX

Researching New Media Experiences  Deep understanding of users  Applying proven and innovative UCD methods  Learning and applying the results  Confidence & control  Challenges  Audience recruitment  Formative tests TM

Persona Development TM

Traditional User Research TM

More advanced Usability Testing TM

Researching the experience in context http://tinyurl.com/6cukzt TM

Researching the experience in context  Diary Studies let users record their experience  Can enhance other findings TM

Researching how things are organised +++ My Programmes +++ My Channels +++ My Messages +++ My Stuff +++ Manage My Programmes +++ Manage My Channels +++ +++ TV Radio My Stuff/Profile +++ Films +++ [catch up TV categories ] +++ Viewed +++ Favourite Channels +++ Available +++ Categories +++ Brand New +++ Days +++ Channels +++ All +++ +++ Guide Scheduled Guide +++ [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 TM

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?” (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. TM

EMP - Overview  BBC 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. TM

EMP - Positive feedback Being blind, I can’t read newspapers or TV Finding programmes using the guides in the traditional sense, I often only category system is very easy. I realise programmes have been on a few chose FACTUAL then HISTORY. Easy. days after they have been broadcast, Being able to go back and watch again is of tremendous benefit to me. iPlayer has the opportunity to become the main way blind people can easily access TV content. iPlayer I discovered that if switch users want to allows you to navigate television pause the clip, all they have to do is scan programmes using a screen reader. once which gets them on to the Play/Pause That’s a big benefit. 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. TM

EMP – Negative Feedback Can we have some consistency please? Lacks sufficient tab focus highlighting for For most programmes you use a Flash Switch Users. It is unclear. 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. I found the IPlayer Flash controls to be quite inaccessible. I was never able to access controls during playback. 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. TM

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…? © BBC MMIX

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…? © BBC MMIX

Thank you Further questions? – chris@uservision.co.uk – jonathan.hassell@bbc.co.uk • Come see User Vision at Stand E7075 – Try out eye tracking – Recession proof usability guide © BBC MMIX

User Experience in Action

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