Sign in video
An instructional video to help users sign in on a TV
Role: Junior UX Designer
Company: BBC
Team: iPlayer - TV
Context
The iPlayer TV team was working on the sign in journey. An instructional screen was part of the project. The purpose of the screen was to explain how to sign in on a TV. Because a second device is needed to sign in on a TV this turned out to be quite a challenging task.
Task
Members of the team tried before me different approaches. They used step by step instructions, an easy to read language and they put it together with illustrations or photography of the second device. This clearly wasn’t enough because the user testing sessions showed that participants were quite confused and that they were looking at the remote control. This problem needed fixing.
Actions
We were testing the whole sign in journey in the lab when, halfway through it, my teammate and I decided to try something different. I recorded a video of him typing the pairing code on an iPad. We replaced the static instructions in our prototype with the video and used it in the remaining sessions. The outcome was quite different, we noticed a change in the participants behaviour.
This made me want to work on a more refined video. Possibly one with voice over to make it more effective and welcoming. That made me dream about using the voice of one of the many BBC celebrities. I thought about how the video could be like and I pictured two versions of it. The first version was a looping video whereas the second one paused halfway through and had a button to resume the playback, giving users the time to get their second device. I made the storyboards for both versions and wrote a script. A copywriter at the BBC reviewed it.
When I told my teammates about the videos I was working on I learned that one of them was a friend of Mark Radcliffe’s. He talked to him and asked if we could record him while he read my scripts. The famous radio presenter kindly agreed to do so in exchange for a bag of Monster Munch. I then filmed two of my teammates and edited the videos with the material I had. I built the prototypes and did the prep work to user test them.
The building where I worked had two big smart TVs at the reception. Using them for user testing had become part of our routine because we could ask people on the near by piazza to come in and help us improve our products. I decided to use one of those TVs instead of the lab and guerrilla tested my prototypes. The outcome confirmed that the video worked, 11 out of 13 participants were able to sign in on a TV. I gained other important insights in the guerrilla testing. People preferred the fist version over the second one and in more than one occasion they told me that they would have rather had a person their age in the video.
I made a deck in which I described my work and captured the findings of the guerrilla testing. I then presented my work to the senior stakeholders in iPlayer. At the end of the presentation a discussion took place in the room. We talked about commissioning the making of a professional video to an external agency and the importance for us to learn what our main audience was so that we could choose the right actor or actress for the video.
Results
The video was made by an agency based in London and it’s now in the iPlayer TV app. Months after its implementation the number of users who signed in increased considerably. The implementation of the video contributed to make iPlayer look and feel more premium, which was one of iPlayer’s objectives as a brand.
