Interactive TV for the Home: An Ethnographic Study on Users' Requirements and Experiences

Abstract

Interactive TV (iTV) will only succeed if user-centered solutions are provided. Despite an increasing focus on the home environment within the human–computer interaction field, there is still a lack of studies of the context home and empirical data on users' domestic activities (Blythe, Overbeeke, Monk, & Wright, 2004 Blythe, M. A., Overbeeke, K., Monk, A. F. and Wright, P. C. 2004. Funology. From usability to enjoyment, 277–281. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Kluwer Academic. [Google Scholar]; Mateas, Salvador, Scholtz, & Sorensen, Mateas, M., Salvador, T., Scholtz, J. and Sorensen, D. . Engineering ethnography in the home. Proceedings of the Human Factors in Computing Systems Conference (CHI'96). pp.283–284. [Google Scholar] O'Brien, Rodden, Rouncefield, & Hughes, 1999 O'Brien, J., Rodden, T., Rouncefield, M. and Hughes, J. 1999. At home with the technology: An ethnographic study of a set-top-box trial. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, 6(3): 282–308. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). In this article, the results of an ethnographic study conducted during the summer 2005 as part of a field trial on iTV in the country of Salzburg, Austria, are presented. The research aim was to gain a deeper understanding of selected household types and household members, their daily habits and social background, their TV viewing behavior and experiences, and expectations on iTV. Within the research, patterns of what people do, how existing technologies facilitate their daily activities, what meanings people connect with the TV, and how iTV services can support people at home could be identified. The findings of this study and the lessons learned from the usability study during the first field trial (Bernhaupt, Ploderer, & Tscheligi, 2005 Bernhaupt, R., Ploderer, B. and Tscheligi, M. . Relevance of prior experience in MHP-based ITV services. Human-computer interaction–INTERACT 2005, IFIP TC13 International Conference. Edited by: Costabile, M. F. and Paterno, F. pp.149–152. Rome, Italy: Springer. [Google Scholar]) guided the design and development of the iTV services for the second field trial in spring 2006.