Models for Broadband Content are Short on Users and Usability

This 'think in' called "Content Matters" at Milbank tower earlier in the month was organised by the BSG (Broadband Stakeholders Group) in association with the PACT and DCF. Given its purpose – models for broadband content and responding to the 'evolution of user behaviours' – it was surprising to see such an under-representation of the HCI industry. In hindsight, this was perhaps not surprising at all – as the day progressed, a gulf became apparent between product owners and those that toil at the sharp end of such services – ie. those that make accessible and usable interfaces.

The UK usability community seems to be too timid to take its rightful position at the centre of user-centred, cross-platform, technology-agnostic design processes. Rather, there is a general resignation – possibly enthusiasm – for usability testing and HCI methods to be bolt-ons to existing design processes. The community stands aside and allows the managers and technologists to impose their wares on a resistant public. Users are resistant to many products because they so obviously fail to meet public expectations, else they jar against shared mental models, or are executed in unexpected ways.

Broadband developments have allowed companies to go once more unchecked in their supply of new services and content. Just as the dotcom crash corrected the then sprawl in spurious services, companies are once again queuing up to throw cash at poorly conceived BB services. The first requirement of a new technology is that it must be useful. For too long, the primary prerequisite for developers is that it is possible. This is not acceptable: so called 'broadband content' must be user-centred. It must be useful, accessible, and usable.

The HCI community needs to embrace this fact. As at this conference, we will too often allow others to discuss revenue models for applications and content above us, whilst we worry about how many subjects will be in the usability tests. The discussions going on around us rarely recognise that the services and models are presented to consumers at one point: the user interface. In fact, users do not spontaneously make the distinction between applications and 'content', such as the industry is prone to do. On a number of occasions, one wondered whether the panel members at the conference had any idea actually why their products are successful.

This point, gladly, was raised by the panel chair, Anthony Lilley of Magic Lantern, who went on to discuss the opportunity for 'content applications' – that which allows users to participate in the opportunities brought to them by broadband. BB users form a network, and the emergent property of such a network – not far removed from Metcalfe's law – is an intelligence that allows members of the network to participate, not simply act as just consumers fed by a dumb node portal.

If only the end user was recognised to this extent as the day progressed. At one point Richard Ewbank from Ingenious Media Consulting claimed that his client, Warner Music International, has spent '100s of millions of dollars' in developing services that offer the same user functionality as unlicensed P2P organisations, yet still required legal assistance to help them in their battle. No one observed that (in addition to the attraction of free music), P2P systems are succeeding because of the high effectiveness and efficiency of applications like Kazaa. They support file access tasks more effectively than any of their commercial counterparts – this being an almost in-built corollary of open source and distributed development communities. The reason companies such as od2, and Apple's i-tunes, are currently enjoying increased success is through direct contact and design research with its users.

Ewbank did, at one point, observe that for Digital Rights Management to succeed it must be sensitive to user needs. He, rightfully, pointed out that DRM systems have traditionally been slow, clunky and difficult to use. DRM systems must be invisible in order to be effective - users do not care for the demands of DRM that are imposed on them. However, DRM is currently far from invisible. Instead, the ill-executed systems – arising mostly from ubiquitous corporate desire to develop and own proprietary systems (with the consequent impact on interoperability) are emasculating what the consumers are actually seeking to do with the content they have paid hard-earned money to enjoy. We seek to consume: we do not seek to consume via a particular channel. DRM is not just a technology issue - it is also one of understanding and embracing the psychology of ownership and interaction with services and content.

As the discussions segued into existing and future models, Lilley once again focused on brand strength and how to build it, control it and extend it. The panel, at this point including luminaries such as James Crabtree from i-Society and Andy Gumbridge from Channel 4, did well to bring this round to a discussion of how the products themselves - their features and service executions - build the brand and do not exist in isolation. Even so, there was notable failure for anyone to even allude to the psychology of trust and credibility in a lengthy discussion of e-payment systems.

Looking back at the day's discussions, it seems clearer than ever that today's broadband developments are derived foremost from new technologies and related market research. These approaches have too long ignored design research – a.k.a HCI - that informs the execution of services. No service is inherently useful - it can only be so if it is executed in such a way that end-users engage with it. It must also be accessible and usable. If we want it to succeed, it must often be in some way persuasive. HCI practitioners are uniquely placed to work to this end – and not leave it up to the suits and techies.

Gerred Blyth
amberlight partners
gerred@amber-light.co.uk

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