An Introduction to Information Design by Coates Kathryn Ellison Andy

Author:Coates, Kathryn, Ellison, Andy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Laurence King Publishing

BBC News iPad app: live page in landscape format. Here the carousel navigation is much larger, allowing more choices to be included on the page for the user.

Designing for mobile phones

Designing for a mobile phone screen can also be challenging, as the space available is even more limited. How do you encourage an audience to watch TV programmes on their mobile device?

In 2012 the BBC released its BBC iPlayer mobile app, having realized that more and more people were choosing to watch television or listen to the radio on their mobile devices. The team tasked with designing this app, headed by senior designer Chris Elphick, identified several goals when developing the platform. These were: to let the audience plan their daily viewing; to encourage the audience to explore more programmes; and to consider the restrictions such as portrait and landscape orientations, screen size and gestural interaction. Since the iPlayer already existed online, it was important to retain the identity and usability of the original platform.

One of the challenges was to understand the differences between the mobile platforms for Android and iPhone. Although both use gestures as navigation tools they can be different. The team chose to keep the gestures simple and universal. The team explored several possibilities regarding landscape and portrait orientation, trying to present as much information as possible in a single view. Research suggested that certain users preferred the simplicity of a menu with fewer options. In the landscape orientation, the view is changed to scroll through like a picture gallery to try to overcome this problem. The team looked to how users interact with TV to improve the live experience. By looking at ‘channel hopping’, a system was devised to allow users to browse channels while watching live TV, without leaving the playback; that way users could peruse other content related to the programme. This presents several channel windows within the interface with important information that users can scroll through.

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