Iterative User Experience Evaluation of a User Interface for the Unification of TV Contents

One of the key components of the design and development process of a User Interface (UI) is the User Experience (UX) assessment. It guarantees that the product meets the users’ needs and provides the best interaction, while achieving usability goals and emotional reactions of motivation, arousal and dominance. In this scope, this paper describes the results driven from a User-Centered Design (UCD) methodology adopted in the development and evaluation of consecutive versions of semi-functional prototypes (of the UltraTV concept), with iterations that comprised an expert review and subsequent testing with users in a laboratory environment. This evaluation approach aims to achieve a proof of concept for the profile-based unification of traditional TV and Over-the-top contents offered in the same user interface. As an R&D project based on a partnership between the research field and the industry that aims to bring innovation to the interactive TV (iTV) domain, the UltraTV concept targets for the synergy between users and market interests. Despite the challenges of introducing an interface that unifies linear and nonlinear content in the same UI assuring the continuity of the UX contrary to the current app-based trend, the combined results from the experts’ review and the inLab tests demonstrate the relevance and desirability of the concept as a potential solution for the future of iTV. The presented results provide valuable insights for further stages of field trials with end users, as well as to prove the feasibility and user demand for the profile-based unification for the next TV generation.