CADinteractive says that it has been chosen by UK incumbent telco, BT, to lead "phase 2" of the interface development of the latter’s recently launched IPTV service, BT Vision. (Note: BT Vision is a VOD service that is based on Microsoft TV’s IPTV Edition middleware and on hybrid digital terrestrial/IPTV set-top boxes from Philips that have a hard drive, capable of storing up to 80 hours of programming. The boxes include a digital terrestrial receiver, because BT is positioning the service as a supplement to Freeview, the UK’s free-to-air DTT platform, rather than as a standalone pay-TV service. For an in-depth overview of BT Vision, see [itvt] Issue 7.08 Part 2.) According to the company, phase 2 will see it "adding new services and reworking [BT Vision's] core navigation and video-on-demand core structure," as well as implementing new promotional tools for the service.
CADinteractive was also tapped by BT to lead the first phase of BT Vision’s functional design development: its involvement in that project saw it working closely with BT’s in-house design team on navigation design and, among other things, running competitor-analysis workshops and conducting information-architecture, strategy and usability testing, it says. "We have been developing the information architecture for BT Vision since the initial stage of the service," CADinteractive managing director, Chris Averill, said in a prepared statement. "For over a year we have been working closely with the BT Vision design team through workshops, brainstorms and strategy sessions, creating prototypes which we tested in our usability review labs. Our biggest challenge was to develop a series of complex interactions into a fast, simple user experience whilst dealing with very detailed business requirements on a platform that was still under development. Having been at the heart of the system’s development for the last 16 months it is very exciting to see the service launched in the UK. It has been an extremely complex project, not only meeting both BT and end-user needs, but also ensuring that the core platform from Microsoft and interaction principles were acceptable to a broader European market–in alliance with Microsoft. We are currently developing access standards with BT Vision and are planning to undertake more usability and access audit labs. We are all looking forward to Phase 2 of the project."
Originally Published: January 2, 2006 in [itvt] Issue 7.12 Part 2
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