Posts written by Abid Warsi

SeeSaw launches new online TV service

By Abid Warsi on 17 February 2010

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SeeSaw has just launched its TV service bringing together recent and archive TV programmes from the BBC, Channel 4 and Five. It bought its technology from Project Kangaroo, which was joint venture by the same broadcasters that the Competition Commission blocked. Now that this service has finally arrived will it succeed?

3 channels in 1 place

Bringing programmes from different broadcasters into a single place has been popular elsewhere. Hulu did this in the USA where it offers programmes from NBC, Fox and ABC, amongst others, and has been very successful. For users it’s convenient to have all the programmes they want to watch all in one place and it encourages them to browse around and find various programmes, just as they do on their living room TVs. However, UK broadcasters already have their own successful catch up servies so SeeSaw will need promote itself heavily and attract users to its website.

SeeSaw will contain thousands of hours of archive programmes and this may help it to attract users. However, it’s not clear from its homepage that it contains a large amount of archive footage. It should make its proposition clear in its marketing material and on its homepage.

Living room

Most users will still prefer to watch programmes on their living room TVs rather than on their PC monitors. Living rooms are used for socialising and large TVs work much better PCs in this environment. If SeeSaw found a way to integrate its service into TV sets, set-top boxes or gaming consoles then it could get head of the competition. Netflix has does this quite successfully with its own streaming service in the USA and SeeSaw could benefit from doing something similar.

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Designing effective map-based browsing

By Abid Warsi on 7 January 2010

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Many websites from varying sectors have some kind of geographical-based navigation, whether it’s a travel website, an estate agents’ site or even the store locator function on a retail website. The question is how to offer this functionality. Some sites offer map-based browsing, but often it’s not used heavily as it’s not easy-to-use. I’ve come across a few sites like this recently and it reminded of some previous tips I wrote for our newsletter on how to design effective map-based browsing.

Start from a high level and allow customers to drill-down

It’s important with map-based browsing to start from a high-level map view (e.g. the whole world or the whole of the UK). Users should then be given large, labelled areas to click on, such as countries, then regions, then cities, etc. During this process you must make each area a single hotspot with a mouse over effect to make it appear clickable.

Add further detail for customers who want specific places

It’s very common for travel customers to already know the specific city or region that they want to visit, or even the specific resort. To best cater for these customers you must provide an alternative way to find a destination, such as a dropdown list of the most popular destinations. In addition, you should consider adding landmarks at the most detailed map level e.g. town names or major roads to allow users to pinpoint their destination.

Remember to offer a way back

Chances are that customers will want to look at a number of destinations within a particular region. It’s no good making users start a new search every time they want to look at another destination. Instead you should give them a way to zoom out to the previous page.

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Mobile TV uptake

By Abid Warsi on 24 August 2009

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iPlayer on iPhoneA recent BBC News article discussed the slow uptake of mobile TV (Mobile TV ‘very slow’ to take off). We discussed mobile TV in our Screen Reality report where we discussed the convergence across the PC, TV and mobile phone.

As we predicted, live mobile TV has been slow to take off. Most people won’t plan their mobile TV watching according to broadcast TV schedules. The potential growth area we predicted for live TV seems to have been more successful. Watching live events such as sporting events or Michael Jackson’s memorial service is more common.

Mobile TV providers should consider the context in which consumers will use their services. With the exception of watching live events, consumers are more likely to watch content if they can start watching at a time that’s suitable to them, pause it and then pick up from where they left off at a later time.

If your interested in reading more about convergence have a read of our Screen Reality report.

Do you watch TV or video on your mobile phones? Tell us about your experiences.

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Google Chrome OS: Challenge to Microsoft Supremacy

By Abid Warsi on 9 July 2009

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google-chrome-logo1Google has announced that it’s making the bold move of creating a PC operating system, Chrome OS, that will be a rival to Microsoft’s Windows Operating System (OS). This is encouraging news for users. Google has a history of rethinking products and services and producing great user experiences.

For example, Google Maps made it easy to move a map by simply dragging it around the screen with a mouse and gave us the ability to see a street from human’s viewpoint with Street View. Their Google Chrome browser removed the clutter of menu options which most other browsers suffered from and added useful features such as showing thumbnails of frequently visited sites when the browser or new tab was opened.

[Users] don’t want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates. And any time our users have a better computing experience, Google benefits as well by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet.  (Google Blog)

Google plans to remove some of the problems that currently frustrate PC users, such as dealing with complicated configurations, endless software updates and viruses. It also claims that Chrome OS will be designed for today’s users who spend lots of time browsing the Internet and who are ready for cloud computing.

A newcomer can reinvigorate any industry, just as the iPhone and Google’s Android operating systems have done to the mobile phone industry. Hopefully, Google’s Chrome OS will have a similar effect on PCs and will improve the user experience of all the major PC operating systems. Groundbreaking products aren’t created overnight. Google follows a rigorous User-Centred Design process which is essential for creating products that meet users’ needs.

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