Anthropology of Television

The following guest post is written by Maurice McGinley, a friend and former colleague at Philips Design. While some of the points might be a little outdated, this post showcases a methodology of Design Research and Design Led Innovation that is practiced in companies who aspire to be design leaders in their industry. I hope you enjoy the treat and also the process! Also don’t forget to click on the images for a larger view.

Television’s Secret Sauce

AppleTV, Google TV, Netflix, Ikea Uppleva… So why isn’t TV disrupted already? Where is TV going?
Longer term trends in human behavior can show us where TV is headed. Technology shapes Culture but Culture determines which technologies thrive; and culture changes more slowly than technology. An earlier post looked at television’s job to be done. This post looks at the Anthropology of Television.
The history of television use can be described in terms of four dimensions. These dimensions define the value space of television and we predict they will continue to drive its future evolution:
– Availability of Content,
– Convenience of Control,
– Sensorial Immersion, and
– Social Engagement.

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Availability

…anything, anytime


Description
The availability of content in terms of:
– Extent (What)
– Location (Where)
– Time (When)
– Cost (How Much)
Expectations
– Limitless choice
– Always accessible
– Immediate gratification
– All media
– Low cost
Trends
– Rental / Subscription access
– Time and place shifting
– Granularity of content
– Move to online digital media storage
– Apps provide new narrow yet deep access to specialized content.
– User generated content gets integrated with commercial content.

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Convenience

…as easy as breathing


Description
– The ease of getting the right content for any situation.
Expectations
– A satisfying sense of control
– No thought needed
– Navigation by recognition (not planned intention or forethought)
– Automatic, flexible content management
Trends
– Curated choices and recommendations.
– Metadata enables content discovery
– Control from 2nd Screen.
– Integrated ecosystems of products

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Immersion

… sweeps me away


Description
– The extent, degree, and quality of sensory stimulation
Expectations
– Sensual escapism
– Enjoyment and beauty
– Authentic and credible content rendering
– Fluid and natural control
Trends
– Increasing visual and motion quality rendering.
– More senses, more fully stimulated
– Psychology-based compression and reproduction technologies
– Integration of navigation controls with content
– Apps providing synchronised extensions to content on screen.

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Social

…how I express myself; how I find myself


Description
– The social and cultural aspects of our relationship to media; shared viewing enhances the experience.
Expectations
– Social currency – know what my peers are talking about.
– Discover content “gems” that suit me personally.
– Expression of my identity through my choices
– Pleasure and reassurance of being part of a group
Trends
– Strong links to pop culture and fashion
– Social curation
– Check-ins
– Playlist sharing
– Real-time sharing
– Tagging
– Live!

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Maurice McGinley works at AVG as a User Experience Architect. You can follow him on Google+, on Linkedin or on his awesome UX/UI research blog: “How I got my Kink“. This post has been reproduced with permission. Credit for the project goes to Philips Design.