1. NoTube WP7c
Final Review, March 2012
Libby Miller, Vicky Buser, BBC R&D; Dan Brickley, VU
2. NoTube is a project about the Web and TV. WP7c focused
on social media and TV, a topic that has become more
popular in the lifetime of the project.
Early on we identified some key user questions and some
associated technological questions. We chose a strategy, some
techniques, and specific applications to explore these
questions. Here we present a summary, including the results
of user testing the N-Screen application and some notes on
continuity and longevity.
3. TV, the Web, and Attention
There is increasing competition for attention
from the Web, and TV is losing out.
But access to activity data, personal data and
social network data potentially mean the
viewers TV does get are more valuable
We took a user perspective on these changes,
rather than an industry one.
4. Key User Questions
General questions such as: how do people watch TV
together, and why? How is this changing as the devices and
availability of programmes change and with the rise of social
networks? What are the technologies that might help them
watch together in the way they want to, in the future?
5. Key User Questions
How people can find something to watch when faced with
an overwhelming choice? What is the role of social
recommendations to end users? What are the perceived
trade-offs between personalisation in exchange for loss of
privacy? How is it best to interact with the Web and TV
simultaneously?
8. Specific Applications
TEA and TEAPlayer: video
annotation and second screen
annotation playback.
9. User Scenario
A small group of people
together in the same room,
each with their own personal
device, deciding what to watch
together on one shared TV.
Alternatively the people in the
group could be physically
remote.
In either case, the specific
scenario is about choosing and watching in real-time with
others.
10. Second Screen
N-Screen's 'Connected TV' is a
web page capable of playing
streaming and on-demand
HTML and flash video. You
connect to a specific TV via a
pin number. Multiple TVs can
play the same content
simultaneously.
11. N-Screen User Testing
N-Screen started out as a
technology demonstrator – so
the UI developed organically –
started out as a proof of
concept. We created a more
polished, professional visual
interface in time for IBC.
12. Finding Something To watch
N-Screen supports different
recommendation and browsing
strategies, including those based
on Beancounter profiles, within
one unified end-user interface.
13. Suggestions for you
Each participant starts with a
different set of personalised
recommendations from one or
more video collections (based
on Beancounter). Our user
testing participants all liked the
concept of seeing programme
suggestions based on things
they’d done in the past.
14. 'Random Selection' (Shuffle)
An alternative means of
surfacing content buried in the
video collection, or for times
when the user might reach a
dead-end with the
recommendations approach. It
also adds an extra element of
serendipity to the experience. It
was liked by testers.
15. Drag and drop real-time sharing
Finding interesting niche video
content and sharing these
‘hidden gems’ with friends are
both central components of N-
Screen. This aspect of the UX
really appealed to people
because it’s simple and fun to
use. But they were less
convinced about real-time
sharing.
16. Getting recommendations from friends
Receiving suggestions from
friends is another way of finding
something interesting to watch.
The idea of sharing and
receiving suggestions for things
to watch with friends in this
way was a highlight of the app
for many.
17. More information about a programme
Tapping on a programme
suggestion in N-Screen displays
an overlay with a brief
programme synopsis, and a
'linked data' explanation as to
why it has been recommended.
Contrary to our expectations,
people didn't care much about explanations.
18. Changing the TV using drag and drop
Once the group has decided
what to watch, one of the
participants drags the
programme to the TV icon.
People really liked this feature,
but thought being able to
change others' TVs remotely
was a terrible idea.
20. Social TV
People want to watch TV
together. They like talking about
TV - they like people having
watched the same thing as
them, and older people miss
the days when people were
much more likely to have
watched something they had.
To get the social benefit they
don't have to watch it at the same time as others but
sometimes this is fun.
21. Recommendations
People like recommendations
from friends, either personally
or via social networks: social
networks here are an extension
of face to face interactions; but
not all recommendations from
friends are equally good.
22. Privacy
People will trade-off privacy and personalisation, especially if
they see the benefit. They're getting used to systems that do
this, like Amazon.
54% participants in our Social Web & TV survey either
strongly agreed or agreed with the statement:
"I don't mind disclosing programs I've watched in return for
personalised TV recommendations"
44.5% are concerned about the privacy implications of the
TV programmes they watch being tracked automatically, 43%
not very concerned, and 7% not concerned at all.
23. What to watch
People use various means to
find out what to watch,
including social networks and
word of mouth, newspapers
and listings magazines, and TV
adverts and TV show cross-
promotion. They don't spend
much time browsing content
sites to find programmes to
watch.
24. TV and Second Screen User Experience
As TVs become more complex, interacting with them via
remotes is becoming much harder, in particular, UX between
applications is inconsistent, text input is difficult, and reading
text is difficult.
There are no conventions yet for tablets as first screen
controls, so their behaviour is not well understood in this
context, although in general people enjoy using tablets and
find them intuitive.
25. Predictions from a User Perspective
We see second screen devices
(tablets and smartphone)
continuing to play a major role
in complementing TV.
We think TVs may get dumber
rather than smarter.
Interactions will be done on
mobile devices/tablets which
have better UX.
26. Key Technical Questions
What's the role of metadata in TV and in applications? How
do devices find out about each other and communicate with
each other, and how can we make the process very simple?
What are good technologies for syncing TV and other
metadata, and sharing information in real time?
27. Pairing
Probably the key issue is pairing of devices. We have tried
various techniques: QR codes, numeric codes, autodiscovery,
and numeric 'pin' encapsulating enough information to
connect. Pin seems to be most useful, simple and best
understood and least prone to technical problems.
28. Synchronisation
We initially used XMPP permissioning mechanisms to pair
devices with TVs (for example using audio signals, QR codes,
or numeric pins displayed on screen). For N-Screen we used
the anonymous group chat feature of XMPP, pushing some
of the permissioning out into social mechanisms that people
already have.
29. Metadata
Being able to access basic metadata about programmes is
very important for Social TV use cases, because links are the
basic currency of social media
When you share a link you want it both to uniquely identify
the thing you want to talk about (so other people can share
it), and provide more information about it (so people can
find out more about it).
Making a small amount of metadata available enables
interesting apps to be created and helps people share.
30. Projects Face Choices
...modest role in something huge - or a huge role in
something modest?
NoTube's approach was to use our own modest work to
start conversations that allowed us to help shape some huge
changes
We can't schedule these but we can make them more likely.
32. Techniques
Use standards and open source software; reuse software
where possible
Use web technologies for speed of prototyping
Use mainstream commercial platforms for longevity of
artifacts and communications
34. Conclusions: Continuity and longevity
Exploitation and dissemination within the BBC
Demonstrator longevity
Artifact longevity (blogposts, flickr, vimeo, github)
Open Source code
