As the nature and capability of our devices change, how do we ensure we deliver a seamless experience?
The unrelenting rise in usage of mobile web has succeeded in raising awareness of the importance of designing with multiple platforms in mind, with many products and services now offering near-seamless user experiences between desktop and mobile platforms, but now it seems there is yet another platform to take into account.
Recently Google and Apple have launched their initial forays into making our largely dumb TVs ’smart’. The processing capabilities of these systems as well as their deeply embedded ties to their respective content delivery systems (Youtube and iTunes) highlight the ambitions that Google and Apple have for tapping into the very large TV audience.
Google has gone a step further, and announced an imminent release of an SDK (software development kit for the non-geeks) which will allow developers to create TV-specific apps which will be distributed via the Android Marketplace. This announcement is indeed very interesting, as it has the potential to create the next App ‘goldrush’ as developers seek to create the next wave of social applications.
This new direction will pose a unique challenge to user experience designers attempting to design systems which provide excellent experience across mobile, desktop as well as TV, as the context in which users engage with all three platforms will vary greatly, as well as overlap in certain areas.
Another challenge in designing effective interfaces for TV in the coming years will come from attempting to overcome the limitations of current methods of input such as remote controls, to newer forms of input, such as gestures found on newer gaming consoles as the complexity of the systems increase.
While improving the experience of TV technology seems particularly relevant to businesses who provide content which is suitable to big screens, the real question is, who and what else could also benefit?
Ideas on a postcard please, or use the comments section below.
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