AbstractsPsychology

This master thesis focusses on the future of television for RTL XL. RTL XL is the digital platform for RTL Nederland, a Dutch broadcasting company. The design anticipates on the future television viewing behaviour of the RTL (XL) user. In the anlaysis phase, first the company RTL (XL) was anlaysed, after which a context analysis was performed by doing a literature and research review regarding the linear and video on demand (VOD) context. Next, a context mapping session was held as an inspiration tool to get insight into the expectations of the user regarding the future of television. The user research phase started off with extensive field research in order to research what viewing behaviour takes place on the sofa; observing the viewing behaviour of different Dutch user groups, while watching television. The field study showed four types of viewer states can be distinguished when looking at the viewing behaviour of different user groups (a family, a couple living together, someone watching alone and a group of friends). Moreover, the factors influencing in what viewing state the user is, were determined. The factors could be categorized into mainly two types of need states: the need for enhancement, which means the user looks for content related information, or to discuss the content with others; and on the other hand, the need for distraction, which is the need for other input when the content does not seem interesting enough; including the desire to watch other content at the same time, scroll social media and contact friends for random information. A remarkable insight gained from the field study, is the big role the smartphone plays in meeting both the need for enhancement as well as the need for distraction. The four viewer types differ in the extent to which the user is focussed on the content or the context. The laid back enjoyer is the least focussed viewer type, enjoying the context and doing many other things at the same time. The social distractor viewer type rather has social contact with friends than diving into the program and initiates a lot of smartphone usage. The engaged viewer type enjoys the content very much, but at the same time likes to share opinions with friends. The content diver does not want to miss out on any of the content and usually is a fan of the program; the smartphone is only used during commercial breaks. The performed user research, together with a literature review of the linear and VOD landscape resulted in the following design brief: Design an enriching personalized TV-experience, by creating a seamless interaction, between the user, TV screen and the RTL XL application; fitting the user’s viewing state. The ideation phase, in which a personal, external and internal brainstorm session was held, resulted into three design directions, translated into three different concept directions: watching content together, personalized content based on the user’s interests, and a social feed of following RTL stars and programs. In the final design, two of the concept directions were…