Konstantinos Chorianopoulos

User interface evaluation of interactive TV: a media studies perspective

A diverse user population employs interactive TV (ITV) applications in a leisure context for entertainment purposes. The traditional user interface (UI) evaluation paradigm involving efficiency and task completion may not be adequate for the assessment of such applications. In this paper, we argue that unless ITV applications are evaluated with consideration for the ordinary TV viewer, they are going to be appropriate only for the computer literate user, thus excluding the TV audience from easy access to information society services. The field of media studies has accumulated an extensive theory of TV and associated methods. We applied the corresponding findings in the domain of ITV to examine how universal access to ITV applications can be obtained. By combining these results with emerging affective quality theories for interactive products, we propose a UI evaluation framework for ITV applications.

Affective usability evaluation for an interactive music television channel

Computer-mediated television brings new requirements for user interface design and evaluation, since interactive television applications are deployed in a relaxed domestic setting and aim to gratify the need for entertainment. Digital video recorders, the generation of custom computer graphics on each digital set-top box, and the introduction of new advertising formats are important issues for research and practice. We explore the employment of an animated character and the dynamic insertion of advertising in the design of an intuitive user interface for interactive music-video television. We found that the animated character and the skippable videoclip feature seamlessly enhanced consumer satisfaction, as shown by affective usability questionnaires.

Intelligent user interfaces in the living room: usability design for personalized television applications

The purpose of this paper is to present our experience from the design of a personalized television application, and the implications for the design of interactive television applications in general. Personalized advertising is a gentle introduction to interactive television applications through a push paradigm that is closer to the established patterns of television use. While personalization is a practice widely used on the Internet, applying personalization techniques over digital television infrastructures presents significant obstacles, which we address with explicit design moves

User interface development for interactive television: extending a commercial DTV platform to the virtual channel API

Abstract We explore the generation of interactive computer graphics at digital set-top boxes in place of the fixed graphics that were embedded to the television video before the broadcast. This direction raises new requirements for user interface development, since the graphics are merged with video at each set-top box dynamically, without the traditional quality control from the television producers. Besides the technical issues, interactive computer graphics for television should be evaluated by television viewers. We employ an animated character in an interactive music television application that was evaluated by consumers, and was developed using the Virtual Channel Control Library, a custom high-level API, that was built using Microsoft Windows and TV technologies.

Interactive Digital Television: Technologies and Applications

The developments in digital television technology provide the unprecedented opportunity to drastically extend the role of television as a content delivery channel. E-health, e-commerce, e-government, and e-learning are only a few examples of value-added services provided over digital televisions infrastructures. These changes in the television industry challenge companies to adjust their strategies in order to meet the opportunities and threats in this new environment. Interactive Digital Television: Techniques and Applications presents the developments in the domain of interactive digital television covering both technical and business aspects. This book focuses on analyzing concepts, research issues, and methodological approaches, presenting existing solutions such as systems and prototypes for researchers, academicians, scholars, professionals and practitioners.

The digital set-top box as a virtual channel provider

This research is based on the realization that the desktop computing paradigm is not appropriate for television, because it is adapted to fundamentally different user aspirations and activities. Instead, the virtual channel is a model that aids the organization and dynamic presentation of digital television programming from a combination of live broadcasts, prerecorded content and Internet resources at each set-top box. The goal is to design the respective framework of user interface patterns that consider the affective nature of television usability and facilitate the diversity of viewing situations.

Coping with TiVo: opportunities of the networked digital video recorder

Despite the progressive switch to digital TV, there has not been any significant change to the value chain of the TV industry. At the same time, the introduction of novel information and communication technologies, such as the digital video recorder (DVR) and efficient Peer-to-Peer (P2P) content distribution, have been regarded as a threat to the established broadcast business players. Previous research has described these threats and has suggested competitive strategies, but it has not investigated the opportunities. This work aims to identify a framework of new business models that take advantage of the networked DVR. For this purpose, we examined the TV literature from diverse academic disciplines, such as mass communication, computer engineering and advertising research. We have also collaborated with network and multimedia engineers, with broadcasters, and we examined novel interactive television (ITV) prototypes. The findings suggest that the networked DVR could be exploited to provide personalized channels and that the dynamic advertising insertion could be introduced as an effective advertising format. In the light of these findings, the TV industry should consider the pro-active adoption and facilitation of the networked DVR infrastructure.

A metaphor for personalized television programming

Traditional human-computer interaction settings involve a task-oriented approach where the human interacts with an application to accomplish a particular goal. The emergence of media-rich computer-mediated leisure applications requires a fresh view of the current paradigms and a careful examination of how this change of perspective affects their relevance. This paper proposes a metaphor for accessing personalized television programming and suggests an approach for integrating the metaphor into the design of a television user interface. The proposed metaphor is tested in the design of a personalized advertising service. The results of the empirical research are discussed and the suitability of the metaphor for other television programs is examined.

Cross media digital rights management for online stores

Digital music consumers have to choose between illegal file swapping services and online music stores. The latter impose various restrictions to the established music consumption behaviour, such as limitations on the number of devices and proprietary music formats. We describe a business model that is based on a liberal management of music rights, instead of the dominant restrictions of access. The proposed business model facilitates the free flow of music content between different client devices (PC, mobile phone, portable player) and between heterogeneous networks (Web, P2P, wireless, broadcast), but it controls the flow of rights for added value music bundles. The business model is presented over two stages of the customer activity cycle and along the revenue, process and technology elements.

Needs and gratifications for interactive TV implications for designers

This paper uses the well-established uses and gratifications theory in order to understand and categorize viewers needs in the context of digital TV applications. The results of this analysis unveil that such needs can either be ritualized or instrumental. Furthermore, the uses and gratifications theory was applied in order to formulate a questionnaire to which 68 current users of digital TV responded. The results of this empirical study reveal that applications most suitable for the interactive television environment should aim at the gratification of ritualized needs, such as entertainment and communication. Therefore, applications that appeal to instrumental needs, such as information and transactions should be included as add-ons to entertainment and communication services. Finally, the implications of this analysis for the design of interactive television applications are exploited.