What App meets TV looks like. And why you should care

1. Effortless Interfaces for Appified TV
Venu Vasudevan | Betaworks | Motorola Mobility
Co-authors. Silviu Chiricescu. Jehan Wickramasuriya. Gilles Drieu. Sriram Yadavalli.
Paper @https://sites.google.com/site/appweb2012/home/workshop-program
MOTOROLA and the Stylized M Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Motorola Trademark Holdings, LLC.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. © 2011 Motorola Mobility, Inc. All rights reserved.

2. Betaworks WWW 2012 : Workshop on Appification of the Web Page 2
TV is ..
Just works
Turns on in an instant
Others will have watched what I watch
Episodic ; Structured
Not demanding
Future of Television Workshop, MIT Media Lab 2011
4/23/12

3. Betaworks WWW 2012 : Workshop on Appification of the Web Page 3
TV is ..
4B users
Just works
Turns on in an instant
Others will have watched what I
$70B ad rev
watch
Episodic ; Structured
Not demanding
needs interactivity
to grow
4/23/12

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Users want interactive TV ..
THR Study 2012
4/23/12

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Interactivity on TV = Limiting
content
Developer View
quirky s/w platforms
!open ecosystem
low middleware headroom
slow iteration
device
4/23/12

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Interactive TV. Dispersion across screens
behind Moore’s
rendering
separate &
Automated
synchronize
Content
Reco. (ACR)
Other.
beyond
Moore’s
interactivity
4/23/12

7. Betaworks WWW 2012 : Workshop on Appification of the Web Page 7
Interactive TV. Atomization into Apps
studio
mso
No new learning curve
studio host
cast
Familiar & fast ways to
create | publish | iterate capability
player
fans
Own analytics & customer
3rd pty

8. Betaworks WWW 2012 : Workshop on Appification of the Web Page 8
Dual Screen adoption?
2011. 200-250 apps (Android+iOS)
2012. ~1500, 2/3rd social
2.2 M viewers
Nielsen
100 K dual screen users (week 1)
500 K plays
GigaOm. TV Apps: Evolution
from Novelty to Mainstream
with promising content
proof pts ..
Pervasive Multitasking  growing TV app population
4/23/12

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this paper ..
Growing app population
Limited user attention
studio
mso
studio host
Just works
Retaining the
Turns on in an instant
cast
lightweightness of TV
Others will have watched what I
watch
player
in an appified world.
Episodic ; Structured
fans
Not demanding
3rd pty

10. Betaworks WWW 2012 : Workshop on Appification of the Web Page 10
Characterizing TV Apps.
(1st screen) content = user ‘app intent’
app exposure | invocation triggered by content specifics
channel (ESPN2) | pgm (SportsCenter)
| league (NFL) | episode
app invocation triggered by content sync point
specialized detectors (e.g. ConnecTv TV timeout)
app data
parameterized by program metadata (e.g. Twitter hashtag)
parameterized by program data
visual conversations (visual q&a, telestrator),
image scramblers
© 2011 Motorola Mobility, Inc. 4/23/12

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Characterizing TV Apps
Possibly ephemeral (e.g. Oscars App)
affects temporality|priority of recommendations
Interstitial & Re-entrant (vs session-to-completion)
suspend-resume support in app platform
Designing for Partial | Divided Attention
auto-configure UI to device modality, environment
Concurrent
not common in Tablet UI’s : recent increase in focus
© 2011 Motorola Mobility, Inc. 4/23/12

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TV App Framework
Few TV containers |
Numerous Apps
Container Services
scoped recommendation
1st screen sync & share
(metadata + data)
suspend-resume
auto-configuring UI
(context with a twist)
..
© 2011 Motorola Mobility, Inc. 4/23/12

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Auto-configuring UI Support : Design Focus
Adaptation= power tool for app developer
not user knob
Sufficient expressive power with minimal learning curve
not maximally expressive (constraint language), high learning curve, high non-
determinism in result
Converging to ‘good’ adaptation rules thru faster trial & error
not necessarily provably good
© 2011 Motorola Mobility, Inc. 4/23/12

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Auto-configuring UI Support : Design Focus
Sufficient expressive power with minimal learning curve
Simplify information model : quantize context parameters
Adaptation rules (ultimately) CSS3 Media Queries like with context pred
App context wrapper determines (dis)allowable reconfigurations
Container chooses within the permissible set
Converging to ‘good’ adaptation rules thru faster trial & error
Record & replay synthetic or real context streams against app collectives
Capture and annotate app behavior for design storytelling
© 2011 Motorola Mobility, Inc. 4/23/12

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Ongoing ..
• User study : beyond the closed world of TV apps (mixed interface –
sports TV + core tablet apps e.g. email)
• Understanding synchrony vs designed dissonance
– Use second screen to be in touch with what you’re *not* watching
– Hybrid-app model (Orchestrating mix of Android + Web Apps)
© 2011 Motorola Mobility, Inc. 4/23/12

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QUESTIONS?
venu.vasudevan@motorola.com
© 2011 Motorola Mobility, Inc. 4/23/12