User Interfaces for Digital Television: a Navigator Case Study

Leena Eronen Helsinki University of Technology P.O.Box 9700, FI-02015 HUT Finland Tel. +358-9-451 5130 leronen @tcm.hut.fi Petri Vuorimaa Helsinki University of Technology P.O.Box 9700, FI-02015 HUT Finland Tel. +358-9-451 4794 Petri.Vuorimaa @ hut.fi
has to be positioned to the right place with the arrow keys on the remote control. The information content of the digital television and its applications has a lot of audio and video material.

ABSTRACT
Digital television user interfaces are composed of text, graphics and video. Usability issues that arise include information visualization, searching and navigation. This paper introduces two user interface prototypes for digital television. Both prototypes were tested with real users and the test results are discussed.

1.1 Aim of the Study

In this study, we wanted to design and implement new user interfaces for the digital television. We also wanted to know what features contribute to usability in digital television environment (cf. Section 2.). While implementing the new user interfaces, we took advantage of the pragmatic and action oriented approach of usability engineering [1]. Two Navigator prototypes were implemented and they are presented in Section 3. The Navigator prototypes were tested in user tests and the results are found in Section 4. The area of research included: * * Information searching in EPGs Navigation in digital television environment

Keywords
Digital television, navigation. usability, user interfaces, prototypes,

1. INTRODUCTION
Digital television is a promise of better video and audio, hundreds of channels, WWW browsing, email, games and other interactive services. The challenge of digital television is to introduce, adapt and implement the new technology for the mass TV market where both content and technology must gain consumer acceptance. Set-top box is an important part of the new technology. It gives software developers a means to develop entertaining and compelling applications for the digital television environment. Navigator is the main user interface of the digital television. Navigator is the 'system software' in set-top boxes that gives access to Electronic program guides (EPG), text TV pages and Channel information. It is also used to tune the TV channels, configure the set-top box and launch applications like WWW browser and email client. The idea of a 'system software' resembles the personal computer. However, there are three main areas where the digital television is different from the personal computer. These are the display technology, the input device and the information content. In digital television, the TV screen is designed for displaying moving images to be looked at from a distance. Unlike the personal computer, the TV screen is not good at displaying detailed images. The remote control is an interaction device that can not be used to point at an arbitrary object on the TV screen. The cursor
Permission to make digital or hand oopie of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage, and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. AVI 2000, Palermo, Italy. 2000 ACM 1-58113-252-2/00/0005..$5.00

Conclusion and discussion are found in Section 5. Some important areas of digital television research are not included in this study. For example, research on the interactive applications taking advantage of the return path or information searching in large video-on-demand services are not included.

2. USABILITY OF DIGITAL TELEVISION

Users of the digital television have both entertainment and information search oriented tasks. Usability research of the digital television is needed for many reasons: User's needs vary from passive content viewing for relaxation to more specific information searching. The user should be able to switch back and forth between channel surfing, text TV pages, EPG information and Navigator views. The user should be able to launch applications like banking, WWW browser and email. The digital television should support both individual use and working in groups as TV watching often takes place in a family. An average user is not interested in interaction with technology. He is interested in watching TV: "What's on tonight at 21.30"? The user interface should be simple and intuitive, as the main use of the digital television will be for entertainment. Users are a heterogeneous user group. It is estimated that about 15 % of the European population has a disability, including difficulties due to old age. Within three decades, about a third of the population will be over 60 years. The digital television should support users with varying physical and cognitive skills and abilities.

276

"I;he digital television should maintain the familiar living room TV experience. A simple access to information services should be provided: TV programming information, sports statistics, advertising, product offerings and various other services. All information searching should be easy and natural.

and multiple selections can be visualized at the same time. It is therefore concluded that navigation is part of the functionality and content. Navigation can not be designed independently from the two. When either functionality or content of the user interface changes, the navigation must be redesigned as well.

2.1 Navigation and Scrolling in digital Television

Navigation and scrolling in digital television is different from the personal computers and the traditional GUIs. As stated in Section 1, the display technology, the input device and the information content are different from the personal computer. Navigation and scrolling takes place in the channel surfing, within the interactive applications and the switch from one application into another. At present, navigation and scrolling is based on the remote control. There are three types of remote control buttons in use: arrow keys (Up/Down/Left/Right) and "ok" key color keys (Red/Green/Yellow/Blue) digits (0-9)

3. PROTOTYPES AND TEST METHODS

Two Navigator prototypes were implemented for the purposes of the study. Prototype A and Prototype B were implemented in a three-member team which included a usability engineer, a graphical designer and a multimedia programmer. The prototypes were tested with real users. The estimated workload for prototype implementations and the user tests was 12 man months. The implementations were done with the aid of a multimedia authoring program Macromedia Director that was run on Windows 95/98/NT computer. The output was shown on a TV screen with the aid of SCART connector to a graphics card. The prototypes included an 8-day television programming information database of 12 TV channels and 12 live TV shows which were simulated with the aid of short videoclips. The prototypes were accessed with a remote control. The infrared signals were sent to an infrared signal receiver and further translated for Macromedia Director.

The cursor movement with arrow keys completed with the "ok" key is the most intuitive type of navigation, as the movement of the cursor can be seen instantly on the TV screen. At the moment, approximately 77% of TV viewers hold the remote control in one hand and press the buttons with a thumb [2]. According to this study, the most important activity is to surf the channels. Channel Up/Down buttons are used in approximately 52% of the remote control button presses. Volume +/- and digits (0-9) are used in approximately 19% and 17% of the remote control button presses respectively [3]. The data indicates that the remote control for the digital television should support the 'thumb navigation'. As the TV screen is not good at displaying detailed images, the amount of information in sight must be decreased. This is in contrast to personal computers where large information structures

3.1 Prototypes
As discussed in Section 1, the Navigator is the main user interface of the digital television. The Navigator is often confused with EPG. The Navigator provides information about the current and next available TV shows (i.e., Channel information), whereas EPG has information for several days ahead. The TV programming information is taken from the DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting) Service Information (SI) data fields [4]. A subset of TV channel broadcast and the SI data constitute a multiplex (MUX). In our approach, EPG is included in the Navigator as one of the applications.

17:00 v Liverpool v Manchester U..

i............
Channel 4
( o k ) - remind, video.

18:30 r Well Woman 18:55 19:30 The Wings Of The Dove Cricket: CGU National Le..

20:10 v Tiny Time: Dappledown E.

Heart Beat. Based on the 21:00 autobiography of artist and 21:45 writer Carolyn Casstdy, this tow-budget gem of a movie (22:00 stars Sissy Spacek as Carolyn and Nick Nolle as her hush.. 22:30 v

Grotbags Jake's Progress

Heart Beat Secrets Of World War U 1

23:10 r Collectors' Corner

(a)

(b)

Figure 1. Prototype

A: (a) Main menu. (b) Quick guide.

277

(a) Figure 2. Prototype B: (a) Main menu. (b) Program guide.

(b)

The main design idea in Prototype A was simplicity. There was an assumption that the user wants to complete one task at a time and the number of selections on the TV screen should be kept to a minimum. In Prototype A, the television programming information is available in three applications: Channels, Quick guide and TV program types. These are accessed from the Main menu (cf. Fig. 1. (a)). The Main menu is activated with the "Navig" button on the remote control. The applications are selected and activated with the arrow keys and the "ok" key on the remote control. The Quick guide gives information about individual programs (cf. Fig. 1. (b)). When the user moves the focus on the list on the right hand side, the program information is updated on the left. The list is scrollable. The three buttons "Back", "Down" and "Up" are activated with the color keys on the remote. A live TV show can be seen on the upper left comer. The main design idea in Prototype B was efficiency. There was an assumption that the user wants to stay in one appfication while browsing the television programming information. In Prototype B, this information is available in one application, the Program guide. It is accessed from the Main menu (cf. Fig. 2. (a)). The selections "This channel" and "All channels" both open up a view into the Program guide (cf. Fig. 2. (b)). The Program guide gives information about individual programs. When the user changes a Channel or a Type value from the four color keys on the remote, the program information is updated on the list. The list is scrollable. The Date value is changed with "Left" and "Right" arrow keys on the remote. Unlike Prototype A, there is no live TV show in Prototype B. Our aim was to test which of the two user interface approaches, Prototype A or Prototype B, is more applicable i n d i g i t a l television environment. In both prototypes, all TV programming information is shown in lists. As stated in Section 2, the TV screen is not good at displaying detailed images. Therefore we decided not to use the popular 'grid' layout common in existing EPGs and past research done in the area [5]. In our opinion, a list takes less space on the TV screen than a grid. Also, it is faster and easier to read than a grid.

3.2 User Tests

The user test setup included a TV set, a remote control, a PC, an infrared signal receiver, a video camera and a microphone. The TV set was placed on a table and the PC was hidden from the view. As the test users were dealing with a remote control and a TV set, they felt they were testing digital television applications rather than a PC. The number of user tests was kept small (six) as it is known that a small number of tests can catch the majority of user interface problems. According to a study [6], six tests show 90 percent of the usability bugs in an average user interface. Our test users were under 25 years old: two women, three men and two children (which made the test together). None of the users had taken technology related courses in universities or had any other training in the field. A think-aloud evaluation protocol was used to provide insight into the user's intentions. Video recordings and notes were made during each test. Every user was given four short tasks to be completed with both protoV.pes. The tasks represented users' information needs from everyday life:
1. What's on in " W S O Y " channel at the moment? 2. What's on in "City T V " channel tomorrow at 21.15? 3. In your opinion, what is the most interesting sports program the day after tomorrow? 4. You want to see a movie. Movie called "Chain Reaction" starts on "Movie" channel tomorrow at 00.00. A t almost the same time, at 23.20, starts a movie called "Weekly Western" on "TV2" channel. Please take a look at the program information o f both movies. In your opinion, which o f the movies is more inleresting ? Why ?

Half of the users started with Prototype A and the other half with the Prototype B. Short questions were made during each test: "'Please explain how you got to this page", "Please explain what you see at the moment" and "Please explain how the system works as a whole". As the tasks were completed, user preferences and development ideas were collected in a brief discussion.

278 "

4. RESULTS
The general result from user testing the Navigator prototypes was t h a t the users were not so interested in finding some specific information on the TV screen. Instead, they would have liked to browse through the alternatives. The users also wanted to see a general picture of the available TV shows. The users liked scrolling in program listings except when the list was very long. All users read the texts on the TV screen carefully. Some users preferred Prototype A over Prototype B as it included the live TV show. According to users, 'You don't want to lose what you were watching at'. The presence of the live TV show was one of the reasons for some users to say that 'Prototype A was more like TV and Prototype B was more like PC'. In Prototype A, the Quick guide was users' favourite application as it was very simple to use. According to users, 'This is where you see what's on in which channel. You can change a channel'. In general, users did not like to switch the navigation from arrow keys to color keys and back. They examined the arrow keys before considering the color keys. In users' opinion, the four color keys were in connection with the user interface colors. This was not true, but it made users hesitant to try the color keys. Neither of the prototypes was faster to use than the other. Users spent 22 minutes on the average on the tasks with both prototypes A and B. It is anticipated that there is two things that can be done to make the prototypes faster to use: for Prototype A, the number of applications available in the Main menu must be decreased. For Prototype B, the amount of information in sight in Program guide must be decreased. Also, the change of Date and Channel values should be easier as it was very difficult for many users to change these values. It was not possible to conclude which of the two prototypes was more efficient to use or had a better usability. It was supposed that Prototype A will be fast and easy to use. This turned out to be true. In Prototype A, the television programming information was available in three applications: Channels, Quick guide, and TV program types. The amount of applications was not a problem for the users as the simple Main menu helped them to found the information they were looking for. It was also supposed that Prototype B will be efficient to use but hard to learn. This also turned out to be true, as the Program guide was difficult to use when the user wanted to change the Date and Channel values. Therefore it is concluded that both approaches had their strengths, and they were equally fast to use. It must be stated though that the users were delighted in the presence of the live TV show and the simple application designs in Prototype A.

5.1 Discussion
Results of this study are used in the design and implementation of future Navigator prototypes. An interesting topic for future research is the user's navigation between multiple applications. What features contribute to usability when the amount of applications grows? In a way, this resembles the WWW environment where every WWW site can be considered a separate application. The huge amount of sites (applications) makes it difficult for the user to recall the multiple sites. According to a study [7], users do not form mental models of the sites they have visited. Without a mental model, the user is forced to navigate "in the moment", based on the information in sight at a given moment. The user tries to eliminate the links that seem obviously wrong and pick the ones that are left. Based on this data, it is assumed that TV viewers will utilise the "eliminate and pick" navigation style for television environment as the number of applications grows. If this is the case, the users should not be forced to form mental models of the applications they use. Instead, every digital television application should support user's navigation "in the moment". The user interface should give enough hints for the user and an instant feedback.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to express their appreciation for M.Sc. students Juha Vierinen and Wesa Aapro, of Helsinki University of Technology for their efforts in creating the two prototypes. The authors would also like to thank their other colleagues from the Future TV project for valuable comments on prototype designs and the test users for participating in the user tests.

REFERENCES
[1] Nielsen, J., Usability Engineering. AP Professional, Boston, MA, 1994. [2] Logan R. J., Augaltis S., and Renk T., Design of simplified television remote controls: a case for behavioral and emotional usability. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 38th Annual Meeting, Oct 24-28 1994. [3] Logan R. J., Augaitis S., Miller R. H., and Wehmeyer K., Living room culture - an anthropological study of television usage behaviors. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Oct 9-13 1995. [4] ETSI TR 101 200, Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) - A guideline for the use of the DVB specifications and standards. European Telecommunication Standardization Institute (ETSI), 1997. http://www.ebu.ch/dvb/dvb_articles/dvb_cook.htm [5] Cooper R.L.W., Jourdan P., Ferrier C., and Tazine N.-E., User interface for multichannel television. IEE Conference Publication No. 413, Sep 14-18 1995. [6] Landauer T. K., The Trouble With Computers: Usefulness, Usability, and Productivity, chapter 13. Massachussetts Institute of Technology, second printing, 1995. [7] Spool J. M., Scanlon T., Schroeder W., Snyder C., and DeAngelo T., Web Site Usability: A Designer's Guide, chapters 1-3. User Interface Engineering, Massachussetts, 1997.

5. CONCLUSION
In this study, we wanted to design and implement new user interfaces for the digital television. Two Navigator prototypes were designed and implemented. The prototypes were tested with real users and the test results were discussed. The area of research was restricted to information searching in EPGs and navigation in digital television environment. In user interfaces, navigation is considered a part of the functionality and content, and it can not be designed independently from the two.

279