Our experience and insights define our perspectives
on the evolving digital world.

In the pursuit of the clearest, highest definition content, companies cannot forget that user interfaces and experiences define what television ultimately looks like in the future. How might it better integrate with other devices? How can interfaces create motion, transitions and controls that establish deeper connections with users and their various bits of content?

Over the course of our work, companies have looked to us to develop innovative experiences that round out the picture of the changing TV landscape. From our work, we’ve distilled the following insights for creating interfaces that re-envision the television and elevate people’s expectations of what it can be.

1. Respond to changing human “channels”

People are becoming their own programmers. They are pulling content from their DVRs, personal home videos, YouTube and Hulu. Unlike the black-box providers, they don’t care where it comes from. And they are watching it across various screens. Our research shows that when consuming media, viewers’ time, attention and location are increasingly variable. The possibility of their shifting — from one task, one device, one place to another — at any given moment is very real. TV experiences must be able to respond accordingly. A person’s favorite channels, watching behaviors and subscriptions all need to be portable, and content needs to be accessible regardless of where the person is or where their content lives.

2. Respect the content

Nothing comes before content. While UIs must do more to manage the increasing complexity of today’s media and devices, they must do so with minimal impact on the viewing experience. Nobody wants to see a homescreen when they turn on the television. People expect what they are watching to be front and center, and the UI should never disengage it. That might mean adding transparencies and picture-in-picture during navigation, or, with the advent of new technologies, offloading UI elements onto companion devices like tablets and phones. What is of utmost importance is that the UI keeps the user present.

TV is a shared experience.
(Photo: Marsdd)

3. Design for shared experiences

Most often, televisions belong to a home. Yet, to date, they’ve been designed as linear, single-user devices. That thinking overlooks the fact that televisions, unlike phones and laptops, are used both individually and collectively. Interfaces of the new television must enhance the group dynamic, while balancing those enhancements with the awareness that groups are still made up of individuals. For example, a television might enable viewers to share videos from their personal devices. But what happens when that viewer leaves? What plays, and who’s in control? The design of next-generation TV interfaces needs to handle multiple users and the switching between those users in a way that preserves the viewing experience.

Interfaces also need to facilitate sharing with people who aren’t present. In today’s landscape, social exchanges are key to discovery. Community-aware interfaces are better attuned to the role televisions play in people’s lives and can support family and friends discovering, synchronizing and personalizing their media experiences in the context of others.

4. Build a hub for digital life

Plugged into the individuals and groups of individuals around them, televisions start to take advantage of their unique position at the center of people's lives. Gradually, they are becoming a convergence point, unifying and simplifying various channels of entertainment. Plugged into the web after years of disconnect, televisions can bring back the eyeballs that shifted to other devices. Its large display and shared nature make it ideal for managing a multi-dimensional, multi-person experience. As it becomes the hub of digital life, it must do more. Even when it’s off. Ambient displays hold the potential for making the biggest screen in the house more useful — surfacing notifications, photo reels, timers and dozens of dormant activities onto the home’s centerpiece. With a little innovative thinking, the big screen is starting to once again do big things.

5. Think beyond the box

Television is not a device — it’s an experience. It’s the tablet as a remote. It’s a movie library browsed on a companion device. It’s what happens when multiple devices get added to the experience. And, most importantly, it is the content people want with them wherever they go. Far from the days of leaning back and taking it all in, people are taking an active role in their viewing interactions. It’s all about access. People want to manage and interact with the content that matters to them, uninterrupted by device or context. The UIs of next-generation television must challenge the constraints of the living room and meet users where they are.

Traditional TV UI models are basic, disconnected, one-dimensional and linear. The new mobile, social and interactive contexts of use demand new UI solutions. Punchcut works to understand behaviors in these new contexts and capture them in engaging, intuitive UIs. We specialize in bringing strategic interaction, motion and visual design together to create high-definition interfaces that are tailored to a new way of watching television.

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Responses / Topics: Convergence, Digital Home, Multi-screen, Television