NoTube WP7c Final Review, March 2012

Libby Miller, Vicky Buser, BBC R&D; Dan Brickley, VU Libby Miller, Vicky Buser, BBC R&D; Dan Brickley, VU

NoTube is a project about the Web and TV. WP7c focusedon social media and TV, a topic that has become morepopular in the lifetime of the project.

Early on we identified some key user questions and someassociated technological questions. We chose a strategy, sometechniques, and specific applications to explore thesequestions. Here we present a summary, including the resultsof user testing the N-Screen application and some notes oncontinuity and longevity.

TV, the Web, and Attention

There is increasing competition for attentionfrom the Web, and TV is losing out. But access to activity data, personal data andsocial network data potentially mean theviewers TV does get are more valuable We took a user perspective on these changes,rather than an industry one.

Key User Questions

General questions such as: how do people watch TVtogether, and why? How is this changing as the devices andavailability of programmes change and with the rise of socialnetworks? What are the technologies that might help themwatch together in the way they want to, in the future?

Key User Questions

How people can find something to watch when faced withan overwhelming choice? What is the role of socialrecommendations to end users? What are the perceivedtrade-offs between personalisation in exchange for loss ofprivacy? How is it best to interact with the Web and TVsimultaneously?

Specific Applications

N-Screen: drag and dropsharing and TV control

Specific Applications

Shaker: Randomising programme chooser.

Specific Applications

TEA and TEAPlayer: videoannotation and second screenannotation playback.

User Scenario

A small group of peopletogether in the same room,each with their own personaldevice, deciding what to watchtogether on one shared TV.Alternatively the people in thegroup could be physicallyremote. In either case, the specific

scenario is about choosing and watching in real-time withothers.

Second Screen

N-Screen's 'Connected TV' is aweb page capable of playingstreaming and on-demandHTML and flash video. Youconnect to a specific TV via apin number. Multiple TVs canplay the same contentsimultaneously.

N-Screen User Testing

N-Screen started out as atechnology demonstrator – sothe UI developed organically –started out as a proof ofconcept. We created a morepolished, professional visualinterface in time for IBC.

Finding Something To watch

N-Screen supports differentrecommendation and browsingstrategies, including those basedon Beancounter profiles, withinone unified end-user interface.

Suggestions for you

Each participant starts with adifferent set of personalisedrecommendations from one ormore video collections (basedon Beancounter). Our usertesting participants all liked theconcept of seeing programmesuggestions based on thingsthey’d done in the past.

'Random Selection' (Shuffle)

An alternative means ofsurfacing content buried in thevideo collection, or for timeswhen the user might reach adead-end with therecommendations approach. Italso adds an extra element ofserendipity to the experience. Itwas liked by testers.

Drag and drop real-time sharing

Finding interesting niche videocontent and sharing these‘hidden gems’ with friends areboth central components of N-Screen. This aspect of the UXreally appealed to peoplebecause it’s simple and fun touse. But they were lessconvinced about real-time

sharing.

Getting recommendations from friends

Receiving suggestions fromfriends is another way of findingsomething interesting to watch.The idea of sharing andreceiving suggestions for thingsto watch with friends in thisway was a highlight of the appfor many.

More information about a programme

Tapping on a programmesuggestion in N-Screen displaysan overlay with a briefprogramme synopsis, and a'linked data' explanation as towhy it has been recommended.Contrary to our expectations,

people didn't care much about explanations.

Changing the TV using drag and drop

Once the group has decidedwhat to watch, one of theparticipants drags theprogramme to the TV icon.People really liked this feature,but thought being able tochange others' TVs remotelywas a terrible idea.

Conclusions from User Testing

Social TV

People want to watch TVtogether. They like talking aboutTV - they like people havingwatched the same thing asthem, and older people missthe days when people weremuch more likely to havewatched something they had.To get the social benefit they

don't have to watch it at the same time as others butsometimes this is fun.

Recommendations

People like recommendationsfrom friends, either personallyor via social networks: socialnetworks here are an extensionof face to face interactions; butnot all recommendations fromfriends are equally good.

Privacy

People will trade-off privacy and personalisation, especially ifthey see the benefit. They're getting used to systems that dothis, like Amazon. 54% participants in our Social Web & TV survey eitherstrongly agreed or agreed with the statement: "I don't mind disclosing programs I've watched in return forpersonalised TV recommendations" 44.5% are concerned about the privacy implications of theTV programmes they watch being tracked automatically, 43%not very concerned, and 7% not concerned at all.

What to watch

People use various means tofind out what to watch,including social networks andword of mouth, newspapersand listings magazines, and TVadverts and TV show cross-promotion. They don't spendmuch time browsing contentsites to find programmes to

watch.

TV and Second Screen User Experience

As TVs become more complex, interacting with them viaremotes is becoming much harder, in particular, UX betweenapplications is inconsistent, text input is difficult, and readingtext is difficult. There are no conventions yet for tablets as first screencontrols, so their behaviour is not well understood in thiscontext, although in general people enjoy using tablets andfind them intuitive.

Predictions from a User Perspective

We see second screen devices(tablets and smartphone)continuing to play a major rolein complementing TV. We think TVs may get dumberrather than smarter. Interactions will be done onmobile devices/tablets whichhave better UX.

Key Technical Questions

What's the role of metadata in TV and in applications? Howdo devices find out about each other and communicate witheach other, and how can we make the process very simple?What are good technologies for syncing TV and othermetadata, and sharing information in real time?

Pairing

Probably the key issue is pairing of devices. We have triedvarious techniques: QR codes, numeric codes, autodiscovery,and numeric 'pin' encapsulating enough information toconnect. Pin seems to be most useful, simple and bestunderstood and least prone to technical problems.

Synchronisation

We initially used XMPP permissioning mechanisms to pairdevices with TVs (for example using audio signals, QR codes,or numeric pins displayed on screen). For N-Screen we usedthe anonymous group chat feature of XMPP, pushing someof the permissioning out into social mechanisms that peoplealready have.

Metadata

Being able to access basic metadata about programmes isvery important for Social TV use cases, because links are thebasic currency of social media When you share a link you want it both to uniquely identifythe thing you want to talk about (so other people can shareit), and provide more information about it (so people canfind out more about it). Making a small amount of metadata available enablesinteresting apps to be created and helps people share.

Projects Face Choices

...modest role in something huge - or a huge role insomething modest? NoTube's approach was to use our own modest work tostart conversations that allowed us to help shape some hugechanges We can't schedule these but we can make them more likely.

Strategy

Be visible, adaptable, demonstratable and open

Techniques

Use standards and open source software; reuse softwarewhere possibleUse web technologies for speed of prototypingUse mainstream commercial platforms for longevity ofartifacts and communications

Collaborations

Adverts (WP 4)

Watch 'n' buy integration (WP 5)

Recommendations (WP 3)

Conclusions: Continuity and longevity

Exploitation and dissemination within the BBC

Demonstrator longevity

Artifact longevity (blogposts, flickr, vimeo, github)

Open Source code

Thank You

Photo credits:

Maggie Osterberg

CarrieLu