Use8 - News

TV viewing movers online

no@spam.com (Super Admin) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Nearly one out of four U.S. households
watches TV online, up from 20 percent last year, reports The Conference Board
and TNS. And Hulu.com is fast becoming the hot site - just behind YouTube.com
- for watching TV programs. In fact, the number of households visiting
Hulu.com has increased almost fourfold in the last year. 

The Consumer Internet Barometer, a quarterly report produced by The Conference
Board, the global business membership and research association, and TNS, a
global market insight and information group, surveys 10,000 households across
the country and tracks who's doing what on the Internet. 

Nearly 80 percent of consumers log on daily for entertainment. In fact,
entertainment is cited as one of the most important Internet activities,
behind only personal communication and work-related activities. 

The End of 'Appointment TV'? 

Consumers are moving away from "appointment" TV, preferring to watch programs
whenever they choose. Being able to view favorite shows at any time, along
with personal convenience, are the two major reasons cited by more than half
of consumers for turning to online TV. Consumers also cite portability as
another benefit. 

"Online viewing allows users to watch TV on their own schedule, catch up on
missed content and focus on their favorite programs," says Lynn Franco,
Director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center. "As a result, about
20 percent of consumers say their traditional TV viewing has declined." 

News shows are the most popular online programs - watched by about 43 percent
of online TV viewers. About 35 percent enjoy sitcoms, comedies and dramas,
while 19 percent of online TV viewers indulge in reality shows and 18 percent
follow sports. Other forms of online content include previews, user-generated
content, additional content from favorite shows, soap operas and
advertisements. 

Hulu.com Users Nearly Quadruple 

Two-thirds of all online TV viewers access their favorite programs through
streaming video, while 41 percent utilize free download. Nine out of ten
online viewers enjoy online TV from their own home. One out of ten logs on at
the office. 

More than two-thirds of online TV viewers access television content through
the official TV channel's homepage. YouTube.com still retains second place,
accessed by 42 percent of online TV viewers. There has been a great explosion
in the popularity of Hulu.com, a website that features streaming video from
many major television networks. Usage has grown from 8 percent of households
in 2008 to 32 percent today. 

"The rise of Hulu is not just a coincidence," says Bernard Brenner, Senior
Vice President, Innovation & Product Development at TNS. "Hulu and other
online TV viewing options have created a user experience equivalent to how
people self categorize content - sorting by brand, genre and popularity. This
user experience, along with a deep library of branded content, has created a
service that continues to resonate with users." 

About This Survey: 
The Consumer Internet Barometer is based on a quarterly survey of 10,000
households. A unique sample is surveyed each quarter. Return rates average 70
percent, which ensures highly representative data. Data is weighted as well to
reflect the latest U.S. household demographic information. The latest survey
was conducted during the third quarter of 2009.

Locate TV`s new site revolutionises how user connect to TV

no@spam.com (Super Admin) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 00:00:00 PDT

The redesign is focused on improving usability and making the key features of the service more prominent, as well as introducing innovative new attributes. The main feature allows visitors to easily search for and find information that is locally relevant to them about any TV show, movie or actor. Some of the most well-received features include:

My Picks - allows visitors to save their favorite actors, must-see new TV shows or movies they missed first time around, then receive e-mails personalised for their TV provider reminding them when their Picks are next showing;

TV guides for specific genres. For example, it is possible to see a schedule of comedy movies or sci-fi TV shows that will be showing in the next two weeks;

a personalised TV calendar that lists all user selected TV shows in a day-by-day schedule for the next two weeks;

a price comparison on TV and movie DVDs as well as a simple way to buy TV celebrity posters;

dynamically updating widgets that allow a user to place on their website up to date geo-targeted information about their chosen show, movie or celebrity's next TV appearance.

Stephen Tallamy of LocateTV says "we've improved the look'n'feel of the site to make much better use of the real estate available, which in turn gives users more options to navigate deeper into the site and find exactly what they're after."

The LocateTV team actively engages with their users and have set up TV Twitter accounts for shows and celebrities that keep followers updated of imminent TV appearances. For example, @apluskTV (Ashton Kutcher on TV) has just under 10,000 followers- http://twitter.com/apluskTV. Further, the LocateTV widget can be found on countless personal blogs and social network home pages giving widget viewers instant 'next on' information for their favorite TV shows and celebrities.

Earlier this year, LocateTV launched a user registration function that allows visitors to save and share favorite shows. This complements many of the new features of the redesign and paves the way for exciting new developments in the area of social networking and recommendations.

The design and build of the new site took about 6 months and included several large rethinks along the way. Usability and accessibility were always placed at the forefront of this project.

Artefact Wins Two Prestigious Design Industry Awards

no@spam.com (Super Admin) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Artefact Group, a Seattle-based design consultancy, today announced that it was recognized by AIGA and I.D. Magazine in their annual award competitions.

Out of a pool of more than 3,800 entries, Artefact was selected by AIGA, the professional association for design, in its "365: AIGA Annual Design Competition 30." Artefact was recognized in the "Experimenting" category for its future-looking e-commerce Web site concept for the Nau clothing brand. The new user interface concept, which utilized the latest technologies, such as Silverlight, Flex, Deepzoom and Photosynth, offers a view into the future of what online shopping focused on a user's experience could look like.

"The Nau Web site concept enabled our team of designers to consider what information online shoppers are looking for and how we can connect a retailer's Web site with its brand personality," said Rob Girling, Principal at Artefact. "The Nau project offers one of the first looks into how retailers will begin creating a richer kind of web experience working from a real database backend rather than a static, custom-built experience such as in Flash."

Additionally, Artefact was selected by I.D. Magazine in its 2009 Annual Design Review competition. Its work with Microsoft on the WorldWide Telescope project was honored with the "Best of" designation in the "Interactive" category. The WorldWide Telescope, which was a joint effort between Artefact and Microsoft, is a virtual telescope software. The software offers an interactive experience that allows users to explore the sky and the universe from a variety of image sources such as the Hubble Telescope.

"It's very exciting to see Artefact's work being recognized by the design industry," said Martijn Van Tilburg, Senior Design Director at Artefact. "As a design firm that works with companies to develop next generation user experiences, we aim to create new and innovative ways to utilize technology and provide an interesting way to enhance products. Our work on the WorldWide Telescope illustrates how we work with our clients."

Artefact has also been named a finalist in the International Design Excellence Awards (IDEAs), presented by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) and sponsored by BusinessWeek, Target and Autodesk.

The winners of the IDEAs will be announced in July 2009. Artefact has been recognized for its travel application concept which illustrates how the emerging Live Mesh platform can enhance a traveler's experience. As the popularity for Mesh technology grows in the technology sector, Artefact developed a concept targeted at consumers that enabled travelers to communicate with fellow travelers and manage separate channels such as their airlines, hotels and travel activities

New User Experience Certification Designations

no@spam.com (Super Admin) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:00:00 PDT

The Board of Certification in Professional Ergonomics (BCPE) is pleased to announce the recent addition of the Certified User Experience (CUXP) and Associate User Experience (AUXP) certification designations.

The CUXP is equivalent to the CPE and CHFP designations, and the AUXP is equivalent to the AEP (Associate Ergonomics Professional) and AHFP (Associate Human Factors Professional) designations. The same certification requirements, application procedures, and examination are required for CPE/CHFP/CUXP and AEP/AHFP/AUXP certification.

The BCPE established the CUXP and AUXP designations in response to growing market acceptance of User Experience as an additional and equivalent title to Ergonomics and Human Factors and to provide BCPE certificate holders with greater flexibility by offering this additional designation option over the course of their professional career.

BCPE Past President, Dr. Arnie Lund, and current Directors, Drs. Jim Kondziela and Jim Rudd, as well as several BCPE certificate holders have enthusiastically adopted the new CUXP designation and begun using it in place of their former CPE or CHFP titles. “BCPE built its certification model originally in part on the experiences of pioneers in the field of User Experience; and as human-computer interaction, design, and usability have continued to evolve BCPE has refreshed the model of the entire field to reflect the changes. This is an exciting milestone recognizing that the best user-centered design builds on a deep knowledge of people, systems, the context of use and how they interact; and it is an honor to be part it,” said Arnie Lund, CUXP.

TechSmith launches Morae 3.1

no@spam.com (Super Admin) — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 00:00:00 PDT

TechSmith Corp., the world's leading provider of screen capture and recording solutions, announced the immediate availability of Morae 3.1, allowing customers to work faster and with greater flexibility to deliver understandable, quantifiable and actionable results when conducting user experience and qualitative market research campaigns, in the lab or in the field.

"Efficiency and affordability are crucial in the current economic climate when organizations are looking to improve client or customer-facing applications, or are bringing new products online," said Shane Lovellette, User Experience Products Manager at TechSmith. "With our latest release of Morae, we've made it easier for customers to conduct in-depth interviews, focus groups and ethnographic studies by automating more of the highly technical aspects. Additionally, we've made it easier to produce and share the rich multimedia presentations of their findings so they get noticed by stakeholders."

With Morae, businesses, market research firms and academia can affordably conduct detailed usability, product design, prototype, hand-held, hardware and focus group testing, along with qualitative market and educational research.

New features in Morae 3.1 include:

    * The ability to produce highlight reels in high-quality Flash video (MPEG-4) with file sizes that are smaller and more manageable, allowing for sharing and viewing across platforms, operating systems and browsers.
    * The ability to easily and securely share research findings on TechSmith's integrated Screencast.com hosting service so individual stakeholders in multiple locations have access to final presentations as well as any supporting documentation.
    * The ability for a stakeholder or facilitator to mark points of interest by using a wireless Nintendo® Wii™ remote, so a single laptop can be used to conduct sessions to free-up staff time, allow for faster analysis, and eliminate the need to acquire network privileges at the client's site.
    * A new and more intuitive Observer interface so users have the flexibility to adjust predefined session tasks, and add new session tasks in real-time so they can expand and collect more accurate data on the fly.
    * Support for rich text formatting, allowing facilitators to adjust and reformat text to better meet individual viewing needs when using Morae's AutoPilot automated task survey delivery features.
    * Built-in audio normalization and waveform display for clear and consistent audio every time, whether a participant speaks loudly or softly.
    * Automated Task Success Rate graphs so research teams can instantly see success rates by percentage and share them with stakeholders in written reports, PowerPoint presentations and highlight videos.

Mobile App Launched for Cat Laughs

no@spam.com (Super Admin) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Mobile advertising agency, Return2Sender, has launched the Carlsberg ‘CatNAV' mobile application (‘app') which it has developed to support Carlsberg's sponsorship of the Carlsberg Cat Laughs Comedy Festival.

‘CatNAV' allows users to download a mini guide to the festival including maps and line ups. Carlsberg Cat Laughs festival goers can personalise their experience by selecting events that they want to receive alerts for. And, in another ‘first for mobile' in Ireland users can also access live mobile Twitter feeds.

To tie in with the above the line advertising campaign, a mini sound board has been developed by Return2Sender where users can select various types of laughter and sound effects to create their own comedy.

Commenting on the launch of the mobile application, Return2Sender Managing Director Donald Douglas (pictured) said, "The Carlsberg CatNAV mobile app is an excellent example of a truly integrated mobile experience and raises the bar for mobile both in Ireland and also internationally."

"It is a great fit with the Carlsberg brand personality and syncs with all the different elements of the campaign. This also really works for me personally because even if you're not going to Kilkenny, you can still get a mobile Carlsberg comedy experience in the palm of your hand via mobile Twitter and the chance to make your own comedy."

Douglas continued, Mobile and mobile web present a massive marketing opportunity for brands and as Ireland's leading mobile marketing agency we continue to innovate with applications and services that engage and excite consumers."

Microsoft BING to redefine search experience

no@spam.com (Super Admin) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Microsoft Corp. unveiled Bing, a new Decision Engine and consumer brand, providing customers with a first step in moving beyond search to help make faster, more informed decisions. Bing is specifically designed to build on the benefits of today’s search engines but begins to move beyond this experience with a new approach to user experience and intuitive tools to help customers make better decisions, focusing initially on four key vertical areas: making a purchase decision, planning a trip, researching a health condition or finding a local business.

The result of this new approach is an important beginning for a new and more powerful kind of search service, which Microsoft is calling a Decision Engine, designed to empower people to gain insight and knowledge from the Web, moving more quickly to important decisions. The new service, located at http://www.Bing.com, will begin to roll out over the coming days and will be fully deployed worldwide on Wednesday, June 3.

The explosive growth of online content has continued unabated, and Bing was developed as a tool to help people more easily navigate through the information overload that has come to characterize many of today’s search experiences. Results from a custom comScore Inc. study across core search engines show that as many as 30 percent of searches are abandoned without a satisfactory result. The data also showed that approximately two-thirds of the remaining searches required a refinement or requery on the search results page.

“Today, search engines do a decent job of helping people navigate the Web and find information, but they don’t do a very good job of enabling people to use the information they find,” said Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO. “When we set out to build Bing, we grounded ourselves in a deep understanding of how people really want to use the Web. Bing is an important first step forward in our long-term effort to deliver innovations in search that enable people to find information quickly and use the information they’ve found to accomplish tasks and make smart decisions.”

Based on the customer insight that 66 percent of people are using Internet search more frequently to make complex decisions,* Microsoft identified three design goals to guide the development of Bing: deliver great results; deliver a more organized experience; and simplify tasks and provide insight, leading to faster, more confident decisions. The new service, built to go beyond today’s search experience, includes deep innovation on core search areas including entity extraction and expansion, query intent recognition and document summarization technology as well as a new user experience model that dynamically adapts to the type of query to provide relevant and intuitive decision-making tools.

Google Wave - Live Collaborative editing

no@spam.com (Super Admin) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Adaptive Path Launches Mobile Literacy Research & Design Concepts for Emerging Markets

no@spam.com (Super Admin) — Wed, 27 May 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Adaptive Path, a leading experience strategy, user research and design firm today announces the completion of a research and design project on Mobile Literacy in rural areas of India. The company started the project last August, to build upon the companies existing knowledge of Mobile device usage in emerging markets, and to develop product and interface concepts suited for the needs of the people in these areas.

Adaptive Path conducted the research in Gujarat, India over a two month time period. They explored how people within the rural community of Gujarat use mobile devices in their daily life. Many people in India regularly use mobile devices, however the handsets available there are almost exclusively low-priced versions of products developed for the very different Western countries of Europe and the United States. Adaptive Path’s research findings denote a tremendous need for specialized mobile devices appropriate to the rural environment, and to support the very different family-based commerce and community-based infrastructure of rural India and other emerging markets. Adaptive Path’s research also identifies compelling opportunity for product differentiation through simple functionality, clear navigation, design elements which provide associations to local culture, and many features counter-intuitive to the Western user, designer and manufacturer.

Adaptive Path takes the research knowledge a step further by providing tangible visions of design opportunities for product development of mobile devices within emerging markets. “This sensitive approach to research and design demonstrates Adaptive Path’s dedication to our core mission of delivering great experiences that improve people’s lives,” says Michael Meyer, CEO at Adaptive Path.

At the forefront of strategy, design and research, this project adds to Adaptive Path’s depth and breadth of knowledge in the mobile market. “We are extremely pleased with the Mobile Literacy work. It demonstrates our ability to conduct and synthesize field work into clear, actionable project concepts that tangibly communicate product needs based on research findings,” says Meyer.

Adaptive Path recently executed similar research, strategy and design work for other leading mobile companies including Palm and worked in conjunction with a major Mobile device manufacturer on design insights, implications, and future concepts for mobile applications and services.

Netvibes lauches Netvibes Labs

no@spam.com (Super Admin) — Wed, 27 May 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Netvibes launched Netvibes Labs (http://labs.netvibes.com), "The home for experimental projects", a place where it`s users can try out new projects before they are released, make suggestions for new features, and vote for their favorite new ideas.

According to CEO Freddy Mini "Netvibes is a company that's all about giving choice back to users about how they experience the Web. But without the help of dedicated users around the world who have translated and localized Netvibes into more than 80 languages, we never would have become what we are today, [...] Now with Netvibes Labs, we're encouraging our users to participate the development of their products."

Netvibes Labs debuts with three useful projects to help users get even more out of Netvibes. These projects include a Theme Designer, where users can create their own custom themes or import third-party XML themes (Netvibes' theme format is compatible with iGoogle's); Tag Cloud, a tool that creates a tag cloud based on a users' collection of feeds and widgets, allowing users to explore and find more widgets based on these tags; and Spring Cleaning, a convenient dashboard that reveals unread or old feeds and enables users to quickly archive them to clean up their startpage. As new projects are released, users can visit Netvibes Labs to test them and provide ongoing feedback.

Netvibes Labs also features a Widget Wishlist, an interactive idea board where users can post their suggestions for future widget projects. Users can develop ideas further by leaving comments and voting whether they think the idea is good or bad. Furthermore, a Top Ten list showcases the most popular ideas. The Netvibes development team will continually review these ideas and promote the best ones into actual development projects.

Now Netvibes users have a great new way to voice their opinions on what features matter to them the most and to experiment with them before they are released. Together with real-time status updates on Twitter (follow @Netvibes), Netvibes Labs further advances the company's ongoing commitment to providing users with complete choice and control over their personal Web.