On-board digital TV solution for Nokia's Lumia line of mobile phones in Latin America.
Client:
Nokia (eventually, Microsoft Mobile)
Concept:
Mauricio Sá Ribeiro & Robson Pereira
UX Design & Information Architecture:
Mauricio Sá Ribeiro (eventually, Laura Sardinha, Felipe Barcellos & Lena Sotto Mayor)
Visual & Motion Design:
Nara Silva (eventually, Mirella Ricci & Alice Santos)
Development & Testing:
Nokia Institute of Technology
Platform:
Windows Phone 8.1
In 2013, Nokia sought its R&D center in Brazil (Nokia Institute of Technology - INDT) to design and develop an embedded Digital TV solution for an upcoming dual-sim DTV-enabled Windows Phone 8.1 device.
Value Proposal:
Develop a straightforward solution that feels like a native Windows Phone application.
Once the app is open, it goes to the last seen channel, briefly showing the controls.
Gesture-optimized controls throughout the application, with motion design hinting every "hidden" gesture (gestures were additional ways to perform such actions, thus having the more obvious yet more time-consuming options available as well).
Benchmark studies were done in conjunction with usability tests. Users' response to solutions on most available platforms were thoroughly analyzed for the concept definition.
The available solutions functioned in a similar fashion, with users claiming those were all cluttered interfaces that got in the way of the real content.
Concept definition was done with constant feedback from the firmware development team, for technical feasibility.
A great challenge was to build an interface that responded well to low-end devices. For this, the front- and back-end developers worked closely with the designers for greater optimization.
Throughout the entire project, there were ongoing usability tests with an interactive prototype for interface validation, with on-site adjustments for quick advancements.
In 2014, this solution became Microsoft's standard embedded Digital TV application for the Lumia line of mobile phones in Brazil.
The design and development were highly praised in several media reviews:
"[Nokia Lumia 630] comes with a beautiful app to tune in Digital TV channels. [It] does it way better than all Android apps that have been tested here." - tudocelular.com
"The software [...] is exemplary: its design respects Windows Phone conventions, is beautiful, practical and little intrusive. One of the best digital TV implementations in mobile devices I've seen recently." - Rodrigo Ghedin, manualdousuario.net
"[Digital TV support] was very well done. The TV app has a very intuitive interface, which is easy to use and combines with the Windows Phone style. It is possible to record shows to watch them later and quickly access the programming guide." - Paulo Higa, tecnoblog.net
"The channel search process is hassle free." - Tecmundo