User Experience
UXing The TV Experience
The Problem
Starting with the problem first, well, four problems. It was up to my research to determine where to go from there. Which of these issues was also being experienced by fellow TV watchers. And were those pain points significant enough to impact their daily lives. Here are three:
Problem: The problem I suspect is that information for different TV shows is so disparate that many people must search different locations for different networks/subscriptions.
Problem: The problem I suspect is that TV viewers must search multiple locations for details such as air date/time, renewals, premieres, networks, subscription services, etc.
Problem: The problem I suspect is that people have to search multiple locations for details on their favorite shows.
The Research
I interviewed six people to determine their TV watching habits, including how often they watched, through which devices, specific networks, whether they used cable, individual subscriptions, or a combination, among other things. I came away with individual pain points - and more importantly - some common themes.
Here are a few:
Themes:
- Watches shows across multiple services (Netflix, Hulu, HBO Go)
- Accesses through multiple devices (Roku, Apple TV, mobile devices)
- Searches online to find information about TV shows they like or want more information about
- When missing shows on purpose or by accident, quick and easy access to shows is highly desired
- Creatures of habit, preferring to focus on a few favorite shows at a time.
The Personas
TV viewers need a way to find and track TV shows because people more and more use multiple services to watch TV. Finding their favorites shows and details about them can be difficult and time consuming.
I developed two personas based on the research and focused on the one that most closely matched the themes and problem statement.
The Feature Prioritization
Employing the MoSCoW method of prioritization, I established a level of urgency with the features. Each feature was ranked under the headers of Must, Should, Could, and Won't, with those under Won't not disappearing from the process, but being moved to the back burner for the features to be explored at a later date.
The Card Sorting and Sketches
To validate the organization and structure of my content I used the online tool OptimalSort. Because this is a new application and not one that currently has a functional organization to test against, I selected an open card sort. This was done so as not to lead participants to one conclusion or another and then compare their selections to my assumptions.
With this card sort, coupled with my personas and preliminary features, I began to sketch out low fidelity app screens.
High Fidelity Sketches
Using my low fidelity sketches for some preliminary usability testing, I moved forward with developing high fidelity mockups in Sketch.
Prototype on Invision App:
https://invis.io/9H9B6XJFS
Prototype
The final prototype can be viewed on Invisionapp.com: