Investigating new user experience challenges in iTV: Sociability

1. Investigating new user experience challenges in iTV: Sociability David Geerts & Licia Calvi

2. Sociability and iTV

3. Sociability • Core parameter when evaluating impact on users' communication and collaboration • Needs to be operationalized • Like usability • To help developers design social applications • No guidelines yet • Relevant for • Online games, internet (social software), interactive television, mobile applications, …

4. Sociability and iTV • Television is inherently social • Watching television is still family activity • Co-viewing is still dominant practice • Consequences • Social context • Opportunity to let people communicate, form communities, collaborate • E.g. Social software for television

5. BusinessWeekOnline

6. AmigoTV: a social TV experience through triple-play convergence

7. Sociability and communities • Community creation and development • Social interaction • Cooperation • Collaboration • Different commmunities / different purposes • People with the same interest • Exchange information • People who share phatic relationship • Social mood/bond more important • People who work together • Work-related interaction and collaboration

8. Basic sociability questions • How can technology support and encourage communication and interaction among different users? • Which kind of experience do users expect? • Which kind of information are people willing to disclose? • Which kind of activities should the technology support? • Which sort of interaction should the system make possible?

9. Designing for sociability • Not self-evident • Designers of social user interfaces need • Guidance from design guidelines • Evaluation methods • Heuristics • Create social software that truly supports • Social interaction • Community building • Collaboration

10. Common themes in papers

11. New social situations with mobile itv • Primary and secondary context • Awareness of video camera • People behave differently when they know that what they do (primary context) can be recorded on mobile video and distributed on the internet (secondary context) • Sociability issues for designing usable mobile iTV applications • Positive versus negative sociability issues • Tool for enhancing communication vs. isolating individuals or disturbing others • Privacy – collaboration – scalablity – personalization – behavior • Which characteristics and interaction schemes are socially acceptable? • When will people give up their privacy? What are the mobile applications that will win public acceptance?

12. Cross-media / new genres • Avatopia • Exchange between internet (3D web forum) and broadcast tv • Positive spiral that works well • TV: low effort, high reach / Web: high effort, low reach • Interactive movie elements in pervasive game • Live action role playing: interact with the gameplay via iTV application • “Trans reality gaming” • Accidental lovers • Participatory fiction: audience interacts with mobile phone to generate stories with random elements and cyclic structure • Do cross-media applications work best for social itv applications? • Which new genres can we expect to work well?

13. Collaboration • Avatopia • Collaborative creation of animations: capture realtime action in avatar world (cf. machinima’s) • Collaboration tools with strong audiovisual impact for television • InstantShareCam • Collaborative video making / co-directed events • Instant: responsiveness and smoothness of system has to reflect the social co-creativity • Interactive movie elements in a pervasive game • Support collaboration and social interaction among players with different roles • Sociability issues for designing usable mobile iTV applications • Need of defining social-oriented collaborative features • Turn-taking, visual feedback from other users’ input, … • How to support collaboration in (mobile)iTV applications?

14. Diverse user roles and behaviors • Sociability issues for designing usable mobile iTV applications • Passive vs. active viewers • Need for personalization • Interactive movie elements in a pervasive game • Spectators vs. players • InstantShareCam • Amateurs vs. semi-professionals vs. producers • TV-LIBRAS • Deaf people vs. hearing people • How to support these different (social) roles / behaviors in one user interface?

15. Tools for sociability • Avatopia • Communicative tools: arranging hearings, initiating text conversations, creating propaganda bots, placing posters and flyers, posting protest lists, collaborative creation of animations • InstantShareCam • Amateur snapshooters: instant sharing, connectivity, multiple streams • Semi-professionals: remote directing, extensibility of social network, collaborative editing capability • Interactive movie elements in a pervasive game • Web-based application: interactive surveillance application and communication tool with players at location • Mobile application: broadcast on portable console and download feature for players at location and selected external users • Broadcast: on television channels across Europe • TV-LIBRAS • Chat between deaf and hearing people • E-learning possibilities • Which tools can be used to enhance sociability? • Are there generic tools or is every social interface unique?

16. Social action / social inclusion • TV-LIBRAS • Sign language important for deaf people • Social inclusion of deaf people • Avatopia • Open democracy: no technological enforcement of community rules • Collaboration a promising direction for facilitating commitment and societal action • Sociability issues for designing usable mobile iTV applications • Scenario: after terrorist attack identification of victims • Mobility in itv may bring benefit to a community • Validity of information crucial factor • Which tools draw people closer, bring them into action, support inclusion? • How to prevent intentional or unintentional misuse?

17. Designing and evaluating sociability • Avatopia • Participatory design process and cultural probes • Cyberethnographical methods • InstantShareCam • Experience prototyping • Not only product but also marketing website • Service infrastructure – software and hardware interface – business setting • Accidental lovers • Iterative testing • Paper prototyping / storyboarding, simulating user input, using chat software • Sociability issues for designing usable mobile iTV applications • Investigating relationships between tasks, devices, interfaces and the environment with scenarios • Which methods are appropriate for designing andevaluating sociability in (mobile) iTV?