This digital platform is meant to be used as a “tool” to discover titles in the NRK television archives you didn’t knew you wanted to see – or at all existed. It aims to bring forward television material all the way back from 1960 until today. How do you browse through 55 years of material, which consists of about 20 000 titles, in an understandable and effective way? Also, it should be noted that there are certainly different ways of going about this – however, the way I’ve gone about it is based on me aiming on the user that’s interested in exploring the archive, and not necessarily is dead set on finding a specific title. Hence, the digital platform is a result of need focus.The overarching idea is that you browse through the content, year by year, and on the first level you’re presented to highlights of the each category in the year you’re situated in. Each category is represented by one “panel”. The size of the panel is based on the amount of content of that genre in that year. his makes it easy to scan and get a feeling of the different sizes. If you’re to move one level deeper, you can pick a category, i.e. humour, and is then presented with all humour titles that aired that year. By entering a specific title, you are then presented with an episode or clip of the title, and also related clips and titles. This makes it possible to discover new, interesting material.

1. if viewers can’t find it»
part three:
prototyping
«It’s no point having
fabulous content
Designing a digital platform for visualizing
half a century of archived NRK productions.
Eirik Haugen Murvold
The Oslo School of Architecture and Design
The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation

3. The first iteration of the prototype places the timeline
in the center of the concept. In order to handle the
productions with care and taking into consideration the
aspect of culural heritage, the productions should be
seen in the light of their broadcasting year.
This way, the user can journey from the start of
norwegian television history up until today, being
presented to history as he moves along the timeline.
First iteration

4. Prototyping with

5. This digital platform is meant to
be used as a “tool” to discover
titles in the NRK television
archives you didn’t knew you
wanted to see – or at all existed.
It aims to bring forward television
material all the way back from
1960 until today. How do you
browse through 55 years of
material, which consists of about
20 000 titles, in an
understandable and effective
way? Also, it should be noted
that there are certainly different
ways of going about this –
however, the way I’ve gone
about it is based on me aiming
on the user that’s interested in
exploring the archive, and not
necessarily is dead set on finding
a specific title. Hence, the digital
platform is a result of need focus.
The overarching idea is that you
browse through the content, year
by year, and on the first level
you’re presented to highlights of
the each category in the year
you’re situated in. Each category
is represented by one “panel”.
The size of the panel is based on
the amount of content of that
genre in that year. his makes it
easy to scan and get a feeling of
the different sizes. If you’re to
move one level deeper, you can
pick a category, i.e. humour, and
is then presented with all humour
titles that aired that year. By
entering a specific title, you are
then presented with an episode
or clip of the title, and also
related clips and titles. This
makes it possible to discover
new, interesting material.

6. Scroll between years to
see what material was
the most popular from
each category in that
specific year
All genres are represented with their own panel.
The different sizes represent the different
amount of favouring by the users. Each category
has a specific placing
For 1992, “Fredrikssons fabrikk” is
the most favorited, hence why it’s
featured as a representation of
humor in 1992
In 1993, “Fleksnes” is
the most popular
humor show
Dig deeper into the
archive by filtrating
by category. I.E. what
humor shows were
there in 1993?
Category panels
compressed and
diffused

7. All “active” humor shows in 1992
are shown, with panels ranging
in size dependant on their
amount of favoring.
By “entering” a panel, you’re
able to watch a clip or an
episode of the content
Content related to
the chosen title is
featured in the
margins, so you’re
easily allowed to
explore new content
Jump to a
specific decade
Again, scroll between
different years to see
what content was aired
In 1993, “Fleksnes” is the most popular
show, and is therefore featured on a
larger panel than “Fredrikssons fabrikk”

8. User testing through

9. User testing with
focus group
For the prototyping testing
phase, I used my available
resources within AHO and NRK.
I wrote and published an article
titled “Hvordan tilgjengeliggjøre
NRKs fjernsynsarkiv?” and
included the clickable prototype
within the article for the readers
to try out. This created a lot of
engagement, both relevant and
irrelevant, within the comments
section of the article at NRKbeta.
All in all 72 comments was
registered, all in different depth of
the prototype, but most were
helpful in one way or another.
This became an effective and
useful way of user testing.
Another resource I drew on was
the feedback group I’ve been
part of through this semester.
Together we clicked through the
prototype and noted down weak
and strong aspects of the
platform. By doing this kind of
user testing, I was in a bigger
capacity able to influence the
discussion in order to talk about
relevant aspects of the prototype.
Maybe applying a similar
approach to the written article on
NRKbeta would help keeping the
discussion on point.

10. All comments printed out on Relevant comments highlighted
Comments sorted by category
29 sheets á A4 by category
and clustered
All 72 comments were printed out
on A4 sheets. With a text size of
10 points, this resulted in 29
pages of text. In order to syntesize
the comments, I applied four
categories of comments.
Comments that said something
specificly about the prototype, i.e.
“This is confusing…”.
Comments that said something
about what relevant or related
feature they wanted, i.e. “Why
don’t you rather…”. Comments
that only talked about searching for
specific titles and the need for
adding correct metadata on the
titles, i.e. “I want to search for
specific titles…”. And lastly,
comments which said “I want
this unrelated feature…”. The
categories were then clustered
together to see the amount of
them compared. As one can see
to the right, a lot of people were
missing related features. The
yellow and pink categories are not
directly related to the direction the
platform is moving – hence, I’ve
chosen to leave them as they are
for now and not evaluate them for
the second iteration of the
prototype – the final prototype.

11. “This is confusing”
“Why don’t you rather…?”
“I want to search
for specific titles”
“I want to this
unrelated feature”

12. “It looks messy and reminds me of
word clouds that was “the shit” a
few years ago. These are not
practical in the translation to other
devices such as smart phones”
“Why are the tiles distributed
the way they are?”
“Cool project – I’m about half-
way through a lifetime, so now I
can relive half a life again”
“I don’t understand the order of the tiles –
why is “Helse” hidden away in the corner, while
“Humor” is in the middle of the screen?”
“I like the timeline, but not the fact that the
content is sorted by genre for every year”
“Maybe “Musikk” deserves a larger
tile than “Religion”, but isn’t that
just NRK pointing the user in a
direction?”
“I want everything presented as an online store; a list view where I
can keep scrolling and not press a “Next” button, which I may result
in doing a number of times”
“I’d prefer something like other streaming
services or library systmes look like”

13. “The prototype reminds me of Windows 10
– it looks fancy, but may not be all that
user friendly”
“All text is in capital letters, which
makes it harder for me to scan and
read the information”
“Using arbitrary
sizes and
placements of
elements,
margins and
good usage of
the surface
would be
better”
“I’d like to be able to see
everything that was
available from 1960 and
simply streame everything
chronologically as a queue”
“Does this content
change, or will I have to
see the same content
every time I browse
through the timeline?”
“Why are some tiles larger than others? Is it more
interesting, more content or something else?”
“I hope you don’t create a service that is hard to
browse through and maintain – a service needs to
work for all platforms”
“If I enter a specific year, I want to be presented with a
random selection of everything that aired that year, and
that the selection is diffeent for every time I enter it”

14. “Aestheticly this is good, but I believe that
effectiveness and usability is more important”
“I don’t understand why
some tiles are bigger than
others – are they “funnier”
than other tiles? Or is there
more content to browse
through in a bigger tile?”
“I’m unsure if air date is an important criteria for people
to find the titles they are looking for”
“People may go all like “I remember this show that used to
air on sundays…” – weekday can actually be an
importand criteria”
“I’m having hard to believe that a critically amount of
the users would be interested in what month something
aired”
“Why differ from other streaming services? For most
people, the “most used” and common is easiest to use”
“I want to be able to see what has been published
recently in the archive – this should be visible for a week
or something”

15. “Why do I have to choose decade on the
top line, and year on the bottom line?”
“Font size is too small
on the smallest text”
“What happens if the amount of titles surpasses the area
you have to work with? Do you scroll vertically down to
uncover more content?”
“If you’re going for a word cloud, go all in – if I pick “Drama”, then I
want to be presented with “Kjærlighet”, “Krig”, “Tenåring” on the
next level”
“I hope you’re offering a
platform that makes it
possible to find the
weirdest, quirkiest
content in the bottom of
the archive – without
searching for the
specific title”
“I want my search results presented to me as a list view,
maybe sorted by air date”
“For people to find the tile
with “Nyheter” would take
more time than if it was
sorted alphabetically or
some other logical order”
“If you hover over a
picture, could it show you
a GIF of the content?”
“Over 50% of the users are on mobile platforms, so the
service needs to work there”

16. “As an eager user you certainly will need
buttons for year and categories – good”
“For an archive, the end goal
should be that all content
has they same pobability of
being discovered”
“I want a way of narrowing down my
search – conscious exploring. I may not
always know what I’m looking for, but I
want to be presented to results and an
focused, easy and logical manner”
“Don’t be afraid to add, add and add categories, just
as long as they’re presented to the user in an orderly
fashion”

17. “For someone who’s interested in “Natur”, the air date
may not be important at all – just present him with
content about eagles, mountains and fishing or whatever”
“I want to be able to choose
several categories, and also
to leave some categories out
of the result”
“I want the possibility to not be presented to content for
kids. Shows for teenagers maybe, but not kids”
“What about categorizing
by actor like IMDB does it?”
“I want to be able to choose an interval, add search
words, choose category and so on…”
“I want to be shown where I was
before I went into humor – a way to
easy go back to “Alle programmer” and
so on”
“I want to be able to sort by
year, alphabetical order,
number of views or duration”

19. Based on the feedback from the users, the first iteration
of the prototype was not all too intuitive or user friendly.
In the second iteration I’ve used the synthesis of the
feedback trying to meet the needs of the users.
The aspect of the timeline is still a factor in the concept,
but now also reserving an area in the screen all the time
for unconscious discovery – meeting the needs of the
explorer.
Second iteration

20. TV Direkte-TV Kategorier TV-guide ArkivetMitt innhold Søk
200019701960 20101980 19901974
FRA DETTE ÅRET
Norsk finale med Jahn Teigen, Dizzie Tunes, Gr…Beskrivelse Beskrivelse Beskrivelse
Melodi Gand Prix 1974Tittel Tittel Tittel
The NRK television archive is an
important piece of norwegian
history. It’s a part of our cultural
heritage – our populærkulturarv.
This aspect should be respected
in a digital platform presenting
the television archive. Hence
distributing the online
productions along a timeline. As
you move from one end of the
timeline to the other, you also
move through history and are
presented with titles from the
specific eras.

21. TV Direkte-TV Kategorier TV-guide ArkivetMitt innhold Søk
200019701960 20101980 1990
FRA DETTE ÅRET
Norsk-svensk humorserieBeskrivelse Beskrivelse Beskrivelse
Fredrikssons fabrikkTittel Tittel Tittel
In order to design for the
explorer, which is our target user,
the lower half of the screen is
always reserved for unconscious
discovery. Where the upper half
is focused on conscious dicovery
where you have some saying in
what is happeining, on the lower
half you are basically presented
with random titles through
norwegian television history.

22. TV Direkte-TV Kategorier TV-guide ArkivetMitt innhold Søk
200019701960 20101980 1990
FRA DETTE ÅRET
Beskrivelse Beskrivelse Beskrivelse Beskrivelse
Tittel Tittel Tittel Tittel
Vitenskap
Musikk
Nyheter
Dokumentar
Film
Humor
Sport
Natur
Kultur
Barn
Livsstil
Drama
Alle programmer
Underholdning
However, random is not always
what you want, hence the
possibility to filtrate down your
selection. The NRK media player
already have a lot of categories,
but some of the archived content
is more challenging to place
within the existing categories.
Hence my design choice to add
more granulated categories – bot
main and sub categories.

23. TV Direkte-TV Kategorier TV-guide ArkivetMitt innhold Søk
200019701960 20101980 19901986
FRA DETTE ÅRET
Serie av og med Tramteatret. Her møter vi blant…Beskrivelse Beskrivelse Beskrivelse
Pelle Parafins BøljebandTittel Tittel Tittel
When choosing one or more
categories, you will be presented
to a more narrowed down
selection of archived content –
you will be able to focus your
search. In this instance, the user
has chosen to be presented to
productions in the category of
childrens shows.

24. TV Direkte-TV Kategorier TV-guide ArkivetMitt innhold Søk
200019701960 20101980 19901986
FRA DETTE ÅRET
Serie av og med Tramteatret. Her møter vi blant…Beskrivelse Beskrivelse Beskrivelse
Pelle Parafins BøljebandTittel Tittel Tittel
When choosing one or more
categories, you will be presented
to a more narrowed down
selection of archived content –
you will be able to focus your
search. In this instance, the user
has chosen to be presented to
productions in the category of
childrens shows.

28. TV Direkte-TV Kategorier TV-guide ArkivetMitt innhold Søk
15. sep. 1990 · Fredrikssons fabrikk: "Inspektøren" 1:7 Til seriens hjemmeside
FREDRIKSSONS FABRIKK
If the user wants to look more
into a production, he can do that.
You can browse throught the
material across broadcasting
years, streaming a whole series if
that’s what he wants. Also, if the
user is in need of more
information, he can visit the
productions main page of
tv.nrk.no, that already exists
within the NRK system.

29. TV Direkte-TV Kategorier TV-guide ArkivetMitt innhold Søk
15. sep. 1990 · Fredrikssons fabrikk: "Inspektøren" 1:7 Til seriens hjemmeside
FREDRIKSSONS FABRIKK
Sesong 1992
Sesong 1990
Sesong 1993
Fredrikssons fabrikk: “Inspektøren”
1:7 15.09.1990
Fredrikssons fabrikk: “Brudekjolen”
2:7 22.09.1990
Fredrikssons fabrikk: “Høyt blodtrykk”
3:7 29.09.1990
Fredrikssons fabrikk: “En vanskelig alder”
4:7 06.10.1990
Fredrikssons fabrikk: “Haute Couture”
5:7 13.10.1990
Fredrikssons fabrikk: “Nymalt”
6:7 20.10.1990
Fredrikssons fabrikk: “O jul med din glede”
7:7 29.12.1990
The user can browse through the
content that exists within the
production, possibly streaming
episode after episode –
continuing exploring the depths
of the archive production by
production.

30. The final interface design should be taken for what it
is – a proposal that is not pixel perfect. However, what
I hope to accomplish with the proposal is a source for
inspiration for further work with the archive and for NRK
and its employees to atart considering the archive in
their daily work life.
With the engagement level that showed itself in the
nRKbeta article, there is obviously an interest within the
norwegian population to get access to the television
archive through a digital interface. It’s a need pull
that needs to be answered with an offering. Also,
considering the quote to the right from the comments
section of the article, which adresses the concept
more than it adresses the prototype itself, shows that
people have a lot of feelings and memories towards
the archive – it’s a small piece of their life and their own
history. And this is also something that differs the NRK
television archive from for example Netflix – you’re
more emotionally invested in the archive.
There is still a lot of work left to be done with the
NRK archive, one of them being the awareness of the
archive. Even though it’s accessible, not many people
is aware of it actually being accessible. Hence, not
only does the digital platform be up and running, there
is also an awareness campaign on the orizon of the
archive, but that is for future work.
Reflections

31. my life, so now I can actually
relive half a lifetime”
“I’m about halfway through