Online Video Broadcast: Improving the Viewing Experience
The Situation
A client with a specialty in online broadcasting recognized that some of the features they’ve implemented to augment the users online experience may be disruptive to their broadcast viewing experience.
The Solution
To test this, we designed a study with a goal of understanding how to classify UI elements that distracted vs those that added value so that we could properly recommend changes to the interface that resulted in improvements. We used an eye tracker, combined with a Think Aloud protocol to probe into the viewing experience of 30 typical broadcast viewer. The study included both tasks and free viewing and we collected their gaze data, mouse clicks, keystrokes, observed their navigational patterns and their responses to questioning. The clients design team was situated in an adjacent room so that they could view the experience live and contribute to the recommended changes.
The Outcome
In the end we were able to easily identify which elements distracted from the viewing experience and made solid recommendations about how to reorganize the UI to include these elements but in a format that was more user friendly, all the while taking care to maintain the elements that users found to have positive impact on their overall experience.