Stephen Lovell's musings on Usability, technology and the world around him
Search for “What is UX” on Google and you get over 40 million results.
On Linked in there are over 270 UX groups
Search for “UX recruitment” on Google and you get over a quarter of a million results.
UX is hot right now, its the niche area to be in, the silver bullet that gets you a great product; but you know what, I think UX is already dying.
I did a talk on Friday to the 4th Racing and Business Betting Forum in Paris. The forum, organised by the EPMA, is a gathering of the Worlds Pari Mutual Betting Operators and for the first time included the Horse Racing authorities. It boasted 140 delegates from over 27 countries. I was hosting a section on How to address a new generation of customers to explore the influence and advance of Social and technical Changes.
It was a lively and varied session featuring 4 guest speakers covering social, social gaming mobile technology and racing technology. I introduced the session with the Talk below, enjoy (note the slides only really work to illustrate the words so a full text is included)
After the break…
I am sitting, for the second year running, at the The Connected TV Summit at the RIBA in London. Something has just occurred to me, everyone is saying pretty much what they did last year (apart from very little mention of 3DTV, what does that tell you?).
What does this mean.
Probably that it didn’t really happen last year and so we have just moved forward in time and not really in progress. The common theme to why this might be seems to be that the fragmentation that exists in terms of Content provision, Technical offerings, supply chain and infrastructure is it’s biggest barrier, again this was the same as last year.
So what is the solution to this?
Maybe we need a Tim Berners Lee type televisionary (apologies to Ross for stealing his word) who can create a ubiquitous platform that will level the playing field enabling Smart TV pioneers to work their magic by creating numerous killer apps that make the platform viable. (EDIT: Phillips might just prove me wrong here)
More likely we will have an iPhone scenario where one CE manufacturer will create a killer device that whilst might not corner the market in sales, will corner the market in impression, imagination and invention. This will lead to lots of me too type products and a sort of standard will happen. (Apple are strongly rumoured to be working on their TV so watch this space)
The final scenario is one where a service is developed that so captures the imagination of consumers that demand for that kind of thing will force the platforms and manufacturers into action .
Whilst unlikely I would love for this to be the case, if we can get under the skin of what people actually want from SmartTV (and remember that asking them isn’t going to get you the answer) we could do this. Something smart, something game changing, something disruptive, something no one has though of yet(certainly not here) this could become the Google of the smart TV world. I for one am trying to think of this idea!
It’s a shame that conversation here is dominated by talk of business models, ad revenue platforms and payment systems. Yes, all this stuff is vital for it to work but where is the inspiration, where is the passion, where is the genius?
Let’s hope that next year we see some of that.
OK so in an update to my previous post, I found this site by Paul Jefferson which gives a pretty good stab at doing a prediction albeit with some pretty big assumptions
but the results for the last election would be
Across the UK a switch to AV is estimated to:
And its based on Data from here
So for my constituency, there is a change of MP, Brentford and Isleworth – AV Election Results.
So there is some data if you do some digging (and yes maybe I should of first!) Why not check it for yourself for before you make your mind up.
I don’t, I think I know what I am going to vote for but I don’t profess to fully understand it. I certainly don’t know what the outcome of any future election using the Alternative vote (AV) is going to be and I don’t believe that any so called experts on either the Yes or No side do either.
While I am at it, I personally struggle with a system which could get the next best alternative elected, I vote for the person or party that is most closely in line with my views and values as I feel they will represent me the best, how then can I nominate someone who I don’t feel strongly enough about in the first place as my runners up prize?
My problem is that I still don’t know if our current system is fair.
So putting aside the fundamental arguments about fairness of either system, I want to propose something different in the process for the referendum.
We live in an age where data is readily available, and when it isn’t we run tests, so online it’s all about the metrics; Multi Variate Testing, Web Analytic’s, Transactional Data, Segmentation, Split tests, Sample groups and control groups, with new products and marketing concepts we can test them until we understand them taking a lot of the risk out of things.
But in something really big, like this referendum, where the outcome can have a massive influence over our lives we have to work with opinion and expert comments but the risk is still there.
So what I propose is this, for the next General Election, and it needs to be something big like that where the turnout is the highest and people take a real interest, we should run an AV experiment.
It works like this, people go to the Polling station as usual, and fill in an AV polling card in the correct way. votes are counted but the actual election votes are done on a first past the post system (no changes to the expected result there).
The results are announced as usual but then we have the data. With this data we can accurately model how the AV result would change things, Nationally and locally, when these are published the voting public will be able to understand not just the concept of AV but also what it will mean in real terms to the result, then and only then will we be really informed enough to make a decision in the referendum.
Data can take the risks out of making decisions, and if they are big decisions then that’s got to be a good thing, so if you have the data, look at it, if you don’t set up an experiment to get it.
Drund, and others like it like Apps for chrome, are an interesting development in the mobile application development space. The give a third choice when considering platform roll out options enabling simpler and quicker optimisation for different handset devices.
They do present a barrier in terms of it sitting outside of a users normal eco-structure as its something else they have to learn and remember, links will need to drive people to there from email and social networks if that is their desired destination of choice or it simply won’t work.
I’ll be keeping an eye on it as it could be interesting if it does take off and could provide new marketing opportunities to boot.
Seriously the Youview platform really needs to get its skates on, they seem to be pretty complacent that because they have the cool content that it doesn’t seem to matter if they get their quickly or not but there has to be a tipping point right?
UK Freesat Connected TV Set Top Boxes to Run on HbbTV – Not Youview?.
Looks like Toshiba are trying to break out of the app store model and create a much more integrated experience.
I’ll be keeping tabs on this one…
Looks like it won’t be ready till 2012 isn’t that a whole year later than planned?
What impact will this have on the growth of smart TV or will we see more iPlayer options across platforms?
Whatever happens it offers opportunities for other platforms to do some landgrabbing before a major entrant joins the market.
Richard Halton, CEO, YouView said:
“Our focus has always been to deliver a product to consumers that is right, but not rushed. Creating a truly open TV platform that will bring consumers increased choice has required significant technological innovation. Our timings for the launch reflect the scale and complexity of this project.”
This is a great stat, which offers, if any were needed, some compelling evidence that TV content, both on demand and catch up is really driving the adoption of mobile and going to drive the adoption of new formats like SmartTV.
“Over Christmas, growth in mobile use of BBC iPlayer outpaced PC growth by more than 2-to-1, and BBC iPlayer growth on tablets outpaced PCs by more than 20-to-1.”
BBC – BBC Internet Blog: BBC iPlayer apps, coming soon to Android and iPad.