HD Electronic Program Guide (EPG)

Challenge

Sky wanted to launch a new Electronic Program Guide (EPG) that would work quickly and seamlessly with their new box and new remote control.

They required it to respond to all remote control button commands and deliver an EPG that was efficient, easy to understand and easy to use. There was to be no lag in response time and it needed to help the user based on the context of their use.

Our approach

UX Discovery and Research to uncover the technology landscape - communications, protocols, physical technology components, data locations, schemas and security. Interviews with engineers and current Sky customers to establish thematic insights, desired functionality and current inefficiencies.

Set up a test lab for the technology where user journeys and functional prototypes could be created and tested across the real technology, data sources and comms, with users. All delays or unhappy paths were dealt with gracefully through comprehensive user journey evaluation.

Outcomes

We delivered a research report disclosing the user’s needs, the technical opportunities and limitations and the thematic insights.

We created a useable functional prototype that proved the usability (technically and the user’s needs) of the solution. We created a backlog of development functionality so the solution could be built efficiently.

All unhappy paths were addressed.

Benefits

The remote control and the EPG worked seamlessly together. Sky were happy with the results and it was very well received by Sky’s customers.

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