Round up: Friday 15 October 2010
It's busy. Well, it's busy where I am. Here are some links:
from . Their conclusion;
On the whole, it seems that the redesign is supporting the primary user goal very well. There are several ways available for users to find their programmes easily although identifying types of search results could be clearer. Featured programmes on the home page pod and in the iPlayer section surface the most popular items and aid serendipitous discovery of others. Browsing and taxonomies could be improved on in future releases to ensure it more closely matches users' understanding rather than reflecting the Ö÷²¥´óÐã's internal language and categorisation...
from Simon Hopkins on the Unthinkable Consulting blog, replies to an Simon says:
In a country where millions upon millions of people are using Facebook to keep in touch, share thoughts, and, yes, presumably talk about what TV and radio they like, it would be insane not to integrate FB into the iPlayer.
Disclaimer: Unthinkable Consulting carried out the research on Social Media and Accountability discussed on this blog earlier in the year.
Many were pleased by the news that the Ö÷²¥´óÐã has changed it's guidance on linking, including Ben Goldacre: and the charmingly named .
Afred Hermida praises the new Ö÷²¥´óÐã Editorial Guidelines:
That's it for now.
Nick Reynolds is Social Media Executive, Ö÷²¥´óÐã Online
Comment number 1.
At 16th Oct 2010, rsf77 wrote:Ben might prefer you call him Goldacre rather than Goldache, although I do suspect he has been called worse!
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Comment number 2.
At 17th Oct 2010, 3Dots wrote:"On the whole, it seems that the redesign is supporting the primary user goal very well. There are several ways available for users to find their programmes easily although identifying types of search results could be clearer. Featured programmes on the home page pod and in the iPlayer section surface the most popular items and aid serendipitous discovery of others. Browsing and taxonomies could be improved on in future releases to ensure it more closely matches users' understanding rather than reflecting the Ö÷²¥´óÐã's internal language and categorisation..."
Could you put this into English please?
I presume "Featured programmes on the home page pod and in the iPlayer section...aid serendipitous discovery of others"
Means the 'user' gets to find programmes they never would have done?
The thing is...it doesn't...that's what the A-Z and genre sections did on each channel (TV/Radio) page did.
Now that has gone I only ever use iPlayer for specific programmes I have missed.
Oh, and the playback is jerkier than it's ever been.
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Comment number 3.
At 17th Oct 2010, Squirrel wrote:I would have agreed that this is not true:
"Featured programmes on the home page pod and in the iPlayer section surface the most popular items and aid serendipitous discovery of others."
But today it, or something like it that makes more sense, happened to me!
I'm shocked, but for the first time I spotted something in "Featured" today while passing the iPlayer/radio home page. I ended up listening to a programme from Radio2 I never would have found otherwise.
But it is the first time I have had this serendipitous rush from the new iPlayer.
I still have not found myself being tempted by Eastenders...
3Dots: You may find the iPlayer RSS feeds for each channel listing of more use. You get a simple list of programmes all of which ARE available, nothing more. Then a single click takes you there. But you will miss out on "serendipitous discovery of others" this way...
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Comment number 4.
At 18th Oct 2010, Nick Reynolds wrote:rsf77 - you know I looked at it several times and it looked wrong but I couldn't figure out what it was. Blame my failing eyesight. Apologies to Ben. Now corrected.
Thanks
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Comment number 5.
At 18th Oct 2010, John99 wrote:I am glad the policy about linking to science articles has changed. Ben Goldacre linking back to the Ö÷²¥´óÐã policy.
I remember thinking at the time of the initial debates that maybe not much would change
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Comment number 6.
At 18th Oct 2010, OfficerDibble wrote:Trouble is... most people go to iPlayer to find what they want... not to find what they didn't know they wanted, nor something that they probably didn't want.
If they can't achieve their primary objective they will be leaving unsatisfied.. which completely negates any slight, potential, marginal benefit of seeing something they weren't looking for -especially when the supporting information is so scant that you can't decide to watch it.
So the lesson for iPlayer is - just play the programmes - Serve us for our stated needs - not your perceptions of what we might want, because quite often the Ö÷²¥´óÐã's ideas are too broad and very wide of the mark - that is why you get such a poor audience reaction to IPPs, trailers, and credit interruptions. Every marketeer will tell you peer recommendation is the way to get people to watch more diverse offerings... and that is why the message boards are more important than Ö÷²¥´óÐã recommendations.
If we don't get to see the Ö÷²¥´óÐã's "wider offer", who cares? we can't moan about missing something we didn't know about.
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