Interactive TV Award - Blog zum Interactive TV Award der Deutschen Telekom

Interview / What marks out an application as being convenient and enjoyable to use? Product Manager and usability specialist Artur Witt gives a few insights in this interview about how Entertain is being adapted to meet the audience´s requirements and tells us about his most easy-to-use experience.

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“Television in tune with our lives” - What does that mean to someone who makes television easy to use?

Artur Witt: To me, it means designing the graphical interface used to control the television in a way that everyone finds easy to use. Children of six must be able to understand what they need to do just like their grandparents of over fifty - controlling it needs to be intuitive and quick to learn. It´s also important to understand the needs of the user group. If we´re able to offer useful functions which cover these needs, we´ve achieved “usability” with genuine added value.

Using television should be intuitive and easy to learn. (Photo: iStockphoto/Thinkstock)

What practical functions do you mean, for instance?

Artur Witt: Imagine a typical scenario when you get together with friends - they´re going on about a new series that you haven´t got the faintest idea about yet. You often discover that the most interesting programs are on when the video recorder isn´t available. With the Program Manager app for smartphones, you can take immediate action: find out about the program and schedule a recording. You get to plan your evening´s entertainment even when you´re on the move.

What else is involved?

Artur Witt: I´m mainly involved in developing the core product Entertain. As a member of the product management team at Deutsche Telekom, my role is that of an information architect where I look at the overall user friendliness of Entertain on the one hand, and the user friendliness of new TV applications within our IPTV offering - like the interactive LIGA total! service - on the other.

If you press the menu button on the remote, the Entertain menu appears - the graphical user interface which I look after and enhance with new functions. Put simply, I am the one who thinks up the names of the buttons and what it says in the instructions.

On top of that, I develop smaller-scale prototypes of TV applications such as the LIGA total! service. We always work according to the principle that two heads are better than one when developing TV applications, and therefore we get applications checked by an external usability institute.

What needs to be met so the viewer ultimately says: Great application - I love using it!

Artur Witt: Most people only say something when the application doesn´t work as they expect. Users simply assume that Entertain is easy to use - which is why everything revolves around the package as a whole.

It starts with the hardware such as the remote and media receiver; it then goes on to cover the TV application itself, right through to the instruction guide. We need to work with the right on-screen fonts, contrasts and colors. Control elements may only appear in areas where text doesn´t appear - the catchwords are title-safe zones or action-safe zones.

Naturally, we also need to know something about the people who ultimately buy and use the product. Such as, what are their needs? For instance, it would be a bad move to ignore the fact that watching television is essentially a passive activity; as ever, it´s a lean-back situation in contrast to a lean-forward situation like using the Internet.

“Leanback” - we like to relax in front of our TV sets. (Foto: Hemera/Thinkstock)

How do you know that something is user friendly?

Artur Witt: The EN ISO 9241 standard covers suitability for use and user friendliness. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_9241] This standard underpins my work, and all the usability institutes I work with are guided by it. All of Entertain´s TV applications are tested and correspondingly adapted based on these criteria, before we launch them for customers.

What trends are currently having a strong influence on your work?

Artur Witt: 3D TV is a hot topic. But so too are Google TV as well as new remotes and input devices for the television. My colleagues and I research and carry out investigations to ensure our work keeps pace with the latest developments. One thing I found particularly exciting was my involvement in a research project for multimodal remote control concepts of the future. Just imagine being able to control your television using gestures and your own voice! We´re continually working on new and exciting concepts which make controlling the television easier - and on revolutionizing it behind the scenes without requiring the audience to change their basic viewing behavior.

Personally speaking, what´s your no. 1 application which TV viewers should be able to use in two years´ time.

Artur Witt: Ich könnte mir vorstellen, dass wir mit IPTV zum Beispiel den Stromverbrauch im Haus überwachen, die Heizung regeln oder generell elektrische Geräte im Haushalt steuern.

What´s the most easy-to-use thing you´ve ever come across?

Artur Witt: Exchanging my laptop. A quick call and it was collected from my home, then returned two weeks later all repaired. It was quick and easy.

Thank you!

Artur Witt …

… is 32 and has been working in the Product Management IPTV department at Deutsche Telekom since 2008. After successfully completing his degree as a Media System Designer at Hochschule Darmstadt, University of Applied Sciences, he joined the User Experience (UX) team.