#15 lessons learned with second screen TV apps

Presented at Barcamp VRT on 21/1/2012. Now with post-it-wolfr additional notes when needed

hi i am hendrik

@studiomusclehttp://www.smalltownheroes.behendrik@smalltownheroes.be

with hair

without hair

vrt-medialab

I used to work at the research center for Mediain Flanders:VRT-medialab

me now

villa vanthilt

We made a second screenplatform for a primetimeTV show Villa Vanthilt

#ookgetest

And interactive secondscreen apps for Ook Getest Op Mensen (also tested on humans)

small town heroes

And together with some ex-colleagues we’re starting a spin-off: Small Town Heroes

#15 lessons learned with second screens

But back to the topic! 8 intro slides filled withself-promoting clutter. Damn Belgians!

PART 1: Letting go

#1 bye bye remote control

I have a hate relationship(all hate, no love) with the bad usability of remote controls

#2 bye bye set-top-box

Set-top-boxes are energy absorbing devices, sluggish like Windows 95 on a 386. Their software frameworks are closed and there is no ecosystem of developers making beautiful rich application.

#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.

PART 2: more than...

#4 more than twitter

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

#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

#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 with second screens. Because it is more than polls.

part 3: what works

#7 ultimate simplicity

I really like this app. Yes. it is a poll,but with a creative twist. It is super simple: Two buttons and a geiger teller. It’s also extremelypopular.

#7 ultimate simplicity

A simple form is sometimes all you need

#8 add value for all viewers

With the Villa Vanthilt app, people could chat and ask questions to the guests of the show. But the chatter and most questions weren’t very valuable to the other viewers, who were just watching TV.

#8 add value for all viewers

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.

#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.

#10 no fail whales

And on the first screen, black-outs and fail whales are not an option. It needs to be extremely redundant.

#11 twin peaks

Traffic on second screen apps is different than traffic on websites. Extreme highs and extreme lows. Cloud services to the rescue!

trailer 1

call to action

call to action

#12 multiplatform is the default

You are making stuff for all viewers. This means grannies with the latest Chromium Beta and geeks with Internet Explorer 7.

#13 open standards ftw!

#14 beautiful data visualisations

Stuff of dreams. I believe in great visualizations of big second screen data on the first screen.

#15 be creative

Second screen apps are still a niche. Dream and make great things that don’t exist yet.

thanks

hendrik@smalltownheroes.be

www.smalltownheroes.be