Norigin Diaries
Our Streaming TV Journal about
Tech, Product & Content in between!
Friday, 8th December
The brand or logo represents a cornerstone of any identity, but the user interface and user experience (UI & UX) within Streaming TV Apps create a lasting impression.
Common frontend technologies, such as JavaScript and React.js, help build single-code apps across multiple platforms. This allows for quick changes, where sometimes such efficiencies allow creativity to change or “improve” UI/UX, based on whims alone.
Data collected over time showcases quality measurements of navigation, search and user experiences, which should help with developing such improvements.
There are of course multiple design changes one can see in leading TV Apps like Netflix , but these are based on research that helps prolong engagement and betters the overall experience.
The globally leading streaming TV app – Netflix – is used as an industry benchmark – as it simplifies many aspects of while streaming TV within its app. They choose to focus on making the content central by improving browsing efficiencies for users who can find, trial (in the form of trailers or video thumbnails), and consume long-form content. The simple creation of AutoPlay UX within the player has helped them make binge-watching a phenomenon over the past few years. This is a UI/UX improvement over a long period of time, not just attributed to searching the content alone, but the user experience of how the button is presented, where it can be found (player) and when it appears (during marked and timed tags). Autoplay is not about changing the design, but adding to the UX.
Content browsing across digital services, whether it be social media, webstores or TV streaming apps, have a digital footprint that can be tracked and improved. Design should remain an identity where flexibility should help with improvements to the UX rather than changing the UI.
Branding and Design is based on consumer research carried-out over time. React.js helps build a single app across multiple devices like Apple TV or Samsung Smart TVs – the ease of this technology to efficiently build Apps should not imply that UI/UX should be changed often, unless the data showcases a poor user experience.
Friday, 1st December
Measuring the successes or failures of streaming TV should be based on tangible numbers. Whether it is about the video quality or 5-star reviews – data helps showcase successes or reason for improved changes.
While fragmentation of devices and networks is a “simple” hurdle, the overall success of any streaming app is hard to judge. It can be classified based on the quality of content or experience, or a business success based on profits from subscriptions or adverts.
The data can be from different parts of the value chain, either from a technology, product or business side. When we consider the product, there are both qualitative or quantitative aspects. NPAW, Mux, Agama, Bridgetech, Akamai, and Conviva are examples of companies that track the quality of experience, while many other companies provide analytical tools that can aggregate data of more tangible quantities.
It is important to check the success of OTT or Streaming TV Apps, not only from the perspective of quality (QoE / QOS Analytics), but also other tangibly calculable aspects like show ratings, business profitability, and active usage of the services to ensure a sustainable business and service to consumers.
Friday, 24th November
Video Playback is the final experience created for consumers of every streaming TV App. The play, pause, rewind, and fast-forward buttons, (🔄⏪▶️⏩⏸️), alongside the progress-bar and a range of other control playback features require an identity for themselves.
While all TV apps, from Video on Demand (VoD) to Linear TV to FAST have unique UI & UX identities for content discovery, when it comes to the player and playback features the attention to detail creating a unique design seemingly disappears.”
Content providers or broadcasters spend huge budgets on researching consumer engagement within streaming apps. The main goals are to help increase consumption while also improving experiences, in order to help increase retention of TV streaming consumers while also reducing churn. This should not only require UI/UX research for browsing or searching content, but also unique playback experiences, like subtitles, multiple-audio tracks or ad-skipping ads (if advertisers would allow it of course) – all of which are designed alongside the player of any video streaming app.
Netflix has normalised “binge-watching” and increased consumption patterns with “autoplay” alongside the playback experience. They have made the use of subtitles and multiple audio tracks an optional experience for global audiences within their player, which has also allowed regional content within Netflix to become globally consumed with easy-to-use Player UX. This has changed streaming content consumption patterns for the better by increasing not only audience numbers, but also the amount of time being spent on TV Apps. With the right UX options on the player to support new features, globalisation of content becomes a reality.
The UI/UX of a Video Player is the final destination for any consumer on streaming TV Apps, and it’s all about how one can interact and engage more with the video itself.
For related Information to increase Audience Engagement on CTV Apps, Download our Guide here.