Tou.tv, an on-demand service that needed focus
Tou.tv, also called ICI Tou.tv, is Radio-Canada’s own on-demand streaming service. The service was launched in 2010 and, after many successful years, started having issues with content discoverability. The sheer amount of available shows made it difficult for users to find what they wanted, and for the marketing team to showcase new releases.
The app experience needed to be simplified. We were able to build out an experience that closely answered the viewer's expectations. User data was vital to the success of this endeavour; we pinged power users throughout the conception phases and fleshed out micro-ux issues by staging the release of the platform through multiple phases.
Streamlining navigation
Simplifying the navigation was primordial to the success of the new app.
The usage of a tab bar allowed us to separate the viewing experience from the personal experience, without having to withdraw access to both experiences throughout the app.
Ultimately, users are drawn to a "Show" page (Émission). The app's architecture natural convergence to that screen allows us to answer the needs of the user (more shows, more related shows, and so on) on that screen.
A personalized experience
The app kickstarts the general experience across all platforms for Tou.tv. Users will be able to browse and view content on the app and save their favorites to be later accessed through other mediums (computer, tablet or Smart TV/TV apps).
As Tou.tv users needs are evolving towards mobile usage, we are creating an ecosystem that gracefully expands on this new concept. The availability of on-demand content is what makes a platform like Tou.tv thrive.
Favorites and search
A simple flow surrounding adding shows as favorites and searching them enabled the platform to get cues about what shows its users were interested in.
Adding the feature proved useful for the viewers, and the potentiation of BI data surrounding their usage made it clear to show producers what worked well, and what didn’t, and how to deliver the best value to the viewers through the Tou.tv platform.
The TV context
Designing for TVs is drastically different than designing for mobile devices or responsive web design. The device used has few inputs (usually a few buttons from the remote for a smart TV, a game controller or an Apple TV remote). Simplifying the experience whilst keeping the new content discovery was key to creating a successful TV application.
TVs also offer the challenge of having, in absolute, a lot of real estate. However, since the viewer is typically 2 metres away from the screen, we needed to triangulate that distance to create a proportion used in the interface that would be suitable for proper viewing and interaction. Although TVs offer usable resolutions of about 1920x1080, the interface had to be scaled up to the equivalent of a mobile device, with interactive elements blown up to be readable and understandable at a significant distance.
Tou.tv was designed to accommodate Apple TV, Xbox and Smart TV apps.
Iterative design
Achieving the redesign of the Tou.tv platform also necessitated the redesign of work processes across product, design and development teams. By adopting an iterative approach, the team was able to quickly deliver a viable product to the Tou.tv viewer, and as time progresses, new features and improvements will be added. The built-in modular approach taken to create this new viewing experience enabled the team to view the design of the product as an iterative process instead of opting for a traditional tear-down-and-build-back-up approach.
The Tou.tv platform is available on all mobile devices, TV devices and the Xbox gaming console.
Timeline
October 2016 and ongoing.
Role
Senior Manager, Design and UX at Radio-Canada
Team
Julie Desilets, Marjorie Lazaro, Olivier Fortin, Yoann Jailin, Zhuzi Cui, Mathieu Côté, Stéphanie Dorval, Linda Hersant, Gabrielle Fiola Masson, Stéphanie Francoeur, Jean-François Bastien, amongst many, many others.