India’s First Android Set-Top Box
Bharti Airtel Ltd.
Television UX & UI | Android
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The Indian media consumption market is rapidly changing, With the advent of 3G, 4G & smart devices, there has been a steady growth in consumption & desire for 'On Demand' content. The Indian market though differs from many western ones where the phenomenon of 'chord cutting' (getting rid of cable TV) grew very strong. The Indian audience, unlike others, still retains a very strong love for traditional cable TV content.
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Another interesting situation in the Indian market was that one could buy really good display televisions for affordable prices, but the price jump to a 'Smart TV' was painfully high.
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It is this interesting juncture that was noticed by Airtel. Their plan was to launch one of the most revolutionary products in the Set-Top Box market in India at a scale of innovation that hasn't been seen in this domain in a long time - a smart Set-Top Box that could make any regular TV give a 'Smart TV' experience at a really low price.
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This was going to be India’s first Hybrid DTH Set-top box, powered by Android TV middleware, which would bring the best of Online World to the TV screen along with a bouquet of 500+ satellite TV channels.
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The Challenge
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The challenge for us at the UX design front was fairly unique. A Set-Top Box is a product consumed by arguably the most diverse audience - it cuts across all different age groups, economic backgrounds, languages, cultural zones & levels of comfort with technology. We had to design a product that would not only be intuitive to use for a senior citizen in Aligarh (a tier 3 city), but would also be exciting as a product for a young Netflix-watching tech-geek in Mumbai!
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The timeline for this project was really short given that it had to be released strategically during a specific festive season in India where there is a custom of making the major purchases of the year. This meant that there was near-zero time for research & we had to rely on our instincts, past experience & the understanding of the Indian audience from the research done in other projects. This was going to be exciting.
PRODUCT TOUR FROM THE PRESS RELEASE
Source: Digit.in
Our journey began with understanding the essence of an 'Android Experience'.
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What makes a device an 'Android Device' (in a non-technical sense)? How must it behave to be perceived as a part of that family?
There was a thorough study done on the Android TV guidelines & the various mandates/limitations of Android-M to be used while designing for TV.
01. UNDERSTANDING
ANDROID
02. KEY PILLARS OF EXPERIENCE
Studying the Android guidelines gave us a sense of the bounds in which we had to design. It was now time to see what was required as an experience.
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A television is a device used by all age groups to unwind & to be entertained. The hero is always the content. The UI must therefore celebrate content & be the best platform for its presentation, exploration, discovery & access. To achieve this goal, following were the four key guiding factors that we created for the experience:
Seamless Cloud & DTH Experience
Presenting & connecting cloud + DTH content in a way that users don't notice any jump. For users, it then simply becomes 'content that they enjoy' without having to bother about the source.
Simple menu structures
Being mindful of the hassle of using a remote control - every single button press to navigate increases the time taken for operations & adds to the frustration. Simplicity was key.
Expectations from the app world
Matching feature expectations related to VoD content that the users have developed over using other OTT apps on their smartphones. A large user base of ours is accustomed to content consumption from OTT apps.
Priority to habituated actions
Being mindful that the television is not a new gizmo for the users where they would be ok about learning new ways of performing habituated functions. A very large part of our target market is not tech-savvy, hence changing habituated flows would alienate them very quickly.
The design was meant to create a simple, clean & intuitive navigation. All the sections of the app are easily accessible from the left menu, hence giving a clear overview of everything that the app has to offer.
The section on the right is contextual to the menu item selected on the left. Content is celebrated by using large tiles This not only creates a sense of excitement towards the media being offered, but also makes the browsing experience more fun & inviting using a remote control.
HOME SCREEN
Row order has been curated with utmost care to give an amalgamation of the content users usually consume & new content that is recommended for them.
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The left menu collapses as the user jumps to the tiles presented on the right, hence giving more space for the rows to be presented. The motion also adds dynamism to the UI.
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Highlight is shown by zooming-in the card, adding depth of shadow to showcase elevation & using the brand color for emphasis.
INTERACTION
One of the most essential menus to present live content in a time-based format is the Electronic Program Guide or EPG.
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The layout & interaction had to make this mosaic of content more palatable.
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Given that the volume of content is directly proportional to the loading time, the layout had to be simple & yet deliver a punch.
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To make this grid offer more than just program names, each highlighted program tile was designed to open up a cascade style card to give details of the show along with the poster & a space for monetisation (advertisements).
TV GUIDE
Clicking on the 'Options' button on the remote would showcase the actions that the user can perform on each program within the same cascade style card.
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The users could add the channel to their 'Favourites' list, start recording the program or even set a reminder for a future program.
ACTIONS PLUS
The experience of browsing through live channels had to be re-imagined to make it more immersive & unique.
The Zap Banner was designed to allow the users to continue their live playback uninterrupted, while at the same time, be able to browse through the subsequent shows on the channel. The users could also browse through other channels & their shows without actually changing the live playback for the most seamless browsing experience.
ZAP BANNER
The Zap banner not only enabled better browsing behavior, but also allowed the users to perform actions on the channel/show that they are watching.
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By simply clicking on the 'Options' button on the remote, relevant actions would be presented to the users for maximum flexibility & control.