i-TV | Usability Evaluation

Introduction

Evaluating an interactive TV service for usability is critical to its' success. The end user population for interactive TV is very different to the PC user population: many interactive TV subscribers have never even used a PC, which is often the reason organisations choose the channel in the first place!

The interactive TV service needs to be designed to be as straightforward and intuitive as possible. For two important reasons, a Usability Evaluation is the only way to meet this challenge:

1. There are as yet no established conventions that designers can adhere to in order to design truly usable interactive TV services. Only by actually testing the service with representative users can the level of usability be determined and information derived to increase that level.
    
2. Focus groups and other market research techniques have limited value. It is a new technology so people find it very difficult to articulate how they could use it. Providing people with one-to-one practical experience yields far more informative findings.

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The Process

We recruit a representative sample of the interactive TV services' target audience and ask them to perform a series of tasks that are typical of those a user would attempt in the real world (for example On a travel service a task may be: 'Book the cheapest available flight to Tenerife for June 22 departing after 5pm'). While performing the tasks, at our state of the art usability facilities, the users are observed and recorded. Afterwards participants are interviewed to gather further information about their experience.

We use specialised software to both collect and interpret participant behaviours. In addition to identifying usability problems our approach enables us to make recommendations to rectify them. These recommendations allow action to be taken the very same day.

We provide three key deliverables:

1. Usability Report - detailed document outlining our methodology, results and their interpretation plus actionable recommendations.
    
2. Video highlights - edited video clips of the most informative parts of the tests.
    
3. Presentation - an oral presentation communicating the most important findings and recommendations.

If you would like to discuss how a programme of usability research can be used to improve the performance of your interactive TV service please call or email us and a consultant will be happy to talk with you.

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© The Usability Company 2007