The STV Player: Designing the service

of the future.

The STV Player: Designing the service

of the future.Prepared by Pam Turner, April 2014

INTRODUCTION

By Q1 2013 24% of all UK households owned a tablet device, an increase of 13% on the previous year. Consumer uptake of tablets outpaces all other devices.

According to YouGov research, Apple continues to dominate the tablet market despite increasing competition.

COMPETITORS

As part of my research, I road-tested iPad apps from the major players in catch-up TV and video-on-demand streaming.

Comparing features across the competition I found 3 areas in which the STV Player iPad app user experience could be improved.

Consistency of visual identityThe UI of the web-based STV player is dissimilar to the current app interface.

Solution:Redesign the app interface to align more closely with the web-based version. A common design system strengthens the STV brand.

Visual Identity

Interrupted playback doesn’t resumeIf users exit a video during playback then return to it later, they can’t continue watching from the point they exited.

“....if you cancel your view and restart you are

brought back to the very beginning for the

programme and if you wish to start off from were

you left you are forced to watch the very same

advertisements again.”

27 March 2014

“Once you start watching you cannot stop

and go back to it without starting at the

beginning again - and going through all

the adverts again.”

3 Jan 2014

iTunes App Store

Solution:Allow user to resume playback where they left off.

Resume Playback

No subtitles/closed captioningAccessibility concern for users who have hearing difficulties.

Solution:For a consistent user experience across devices, offer the option for users to enable closed captioning (where available) during playback.

Subtitles

FURTHER IDEAS

RecentIs limited to the 20 most recent programmes, which only goes back approx 4 days.

Solution:Improve findability of programmes by re-organising this section by day, with most recent day’s schedule at the top.

Recent

CategoriesDisplayed as a separate screen. Some of the categories have an associated image, others show the STV Player logo.

Solution:Remove redundancy by accessing categories via menu instead.

Categories

Days Left to WatchShow when the availability of a programme will expire.

Live StreamingAbility to watch live broadcast stream. Registered users can already watch live via the web-based STV Player.

Ad-Free Subscription ServiceUsers strongly dislike the number and duration of adverts. Offer a premium subscription service to enable users to enjoy an ad-free version.

“Your STV”Give users the ability to queue programmes within a playlist so that they can create their own custom schedule.

THE FUTURE(if time/money/resources were no object!)

Your STV

Your STV

Cross-platform synchronisation- Video playback - start viewing a programme on one device, resume watching it on another- Favourites visible across devices

“Each household in the UK has, on average, three different types of internet-enabled device.” Ofcom, 2013.

Gamification- Incentivise repeated app use by awarding badges or achievements- Increases user engagement and participation- No other catch-up TV service does this

CONCLUSION

- Tablet sales continue to grow at a rapid rate- Increasingly important touchpoint for user experience- Current STV Player ipad app isn’t as feature-rich as competitors- What it lacks in content it could make up for in pioneering new features