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Tactile Interfaces for Television Post

1. The up button has a non explicit tool tip suggestion Folder 23 a s 10 parent folder instead Browser 24 The up button appears when it is not possible to go 3 4 Folder up Browser It is not clear where can I add a device to the system Creating a 25 f 6 f Is it device profiles or device types device Shutdown restart server options do not ask for users 26 3 5 Browsing confirmation To delete a device from the system users have to Creating a 27 1 4 delete it and then save device 28 In Storage and MAM the left column lists the objects 4 Creating a created In devices the same column lists the types device 29 The same name field that is editable in Storage and 4 Creating a MAM is not editable in Device Types device When adding a device it s only possible to name it Cieatinsa 30 after creating it the name field doesn t appear in the 4 2 isa device pop up form When there is one device selected and the mouse is Creating a 31 aed y 1 4 i hovering it the selection disappears device 32 Edit device and add backup have the same icon 2 4 E E 33 Add backup allows a disable backup incongruence 24 Creating a between adding and disabling device 34 It is possible to give the same name to multiple 5 Creating a devices device 35 There is not a confirmation when user deletes a 1 3 Creating a device i device 36 It is not clear that you have to save after adding 1
2. character MSS 58 Username can have spaces in it 2 cranes user When I delete HiRes and Proxy there is still a creating a 59 8 workflow combobox hidden profile Creating a 60 Combobox in proxy is repeating HiRes combobox 8 workflow profile Creating a 61 Metadata is repeating clipnaming 8 workflow profile 90 F1000 Evaluation Creating a 62 Advanced options have many options 8 workflow profile What is that number one in output and asset resida 63 8 workflow management profile 64 When I login as ingester I do not see any locations 6 Ingesting and I do not have a clue how to add them files In Asset Explorer when I mark one location s inees n 65 checkbox there is no immediate feedback whether it 1 E les 8 has assets or not 66 As an ingester the New Job button appears 3 Ingesting although I am not able to create jobs files 67 Ingester cannot choose language and admin s 4 Browaing language is not applied to ingester 68 I don t know which locations are devices storages or Ingesting MAMs neither the state of them online offline files 69 sa button in notifications has a tooltip that isn t 10 Brewein Asset selection has a asset browser that lets i E we Ingesting 70 ingesters adding files from folders that aren t in 5 files locations In automatic jobs the confirm button is small and Creating
3. 77 Proposed Solution It is also important to note that users are still focused on the desktop usage of the application which means that they may not be completely aware of the advantages in using mxfSPEEDRAIL in a mobile context To overcome this it is important to identify specific use scenarios for tablets for which the mobility factor and the natural interaction of the touch screens are advantageous comparing to the desktop interaction User testing was an important step to validate the proposed solution Testing the new design with users made it possible to gather real insights of users perception This was important in order to understand justify and readapt some of the design choices made according to the application use environment Some of the modifications were already incorporated as seen previously However this is an evolutionary process since users may assign different importance values to different things in different situations As a part of the UCD process the proposed solution should now incorporate some of the results gathered and continue to be tested with users in an iterative process This will guarantee that the gap between the resulting solution and the users needs is decreased 78 Chapter 5 Final Conclusions and Future Work Designing interfaces suitable for both desktops and tablets can be a challenging task These are two very different devices with different characteristics different ways of in
4. A model of the attributes of system acceptability 28 x1 Oo on a 10 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 20 20 21 21 21 22 23 23 25 25 27 Figure 2 25 User Experience 2008 nnGroup Conference Amsterdam 32 Figure 2 26 Four main activities of a UCD methodology Figure 2 27 Basic gestures for tactile commands 38 Figure 2 28 Worldwide tablet market share by screen size band 2011 2017 1 Figure 2 29 Different ways to hold a tablet 40 Figure 2 30 Difficulty to reach screen areas when holding a tablet in landscape 40 Figure 2 31 Desktop first design approach Figure 2 32 Mobile first design approach Figure 3 1 mxfSPEEDRAIL GUI structure session toolbar red panels area blue and status bar green Figure 3 2 mxfSPEEDRAIL F1000 GUI organization Figure 3 3 mxfSPEEDRAIL S1000 GUI organization Figure 3 4 mxfSPEEDRAIL F1000 conceptual diagram Figure 4 1 mxfSPEEDRAIL F1000 layout displayed in a monitor with 1680x1050 resolution Figure 4 2 Draft of the layout for S1000 left and F1000 right main screens Figure 4 3 Layout editor in mxfSPEEDRAIL S1000 Figure 4 4 Login form mockup with contextualized hints Figure 4 5 Suggested help hierarchy Figure 4 6 Location list in Asset Explorer panel left and its redesign draft right Figure 4 7 Monitor Control and VTR panels in mxfSPEEDRAIL S1000 left and the merged panel draft right Fig
5. Figure 4 12 Mockup of the projects screen after user testing When creating a new project a new screen is shown Figure 4 13 for project setting In this screen project settings are grouped into eight categories e General for broader settings 1 e project name e Input for configuring the input signal i e resolution frame rate and timecode e Output for configuring the output files including the high and low resolution proxy settings e Metadata to select and edit the metadata preset to be used e Locators to select and edit the locators preset to be used e Clipnaming to edit the name of the output clips e Permissions to select which users have access to the project e Advanced for other type of configurations that may not be frequently required These categories are displayed in vertical tabs Each time that a tab is selected its related settings are shown on the right side This is a common pattern in tablet applications According to Android Design guidelines 46 this is the combination of a related list and its detail view into a single compound view and it ensures the efficiently usage of the tablets screen space as well as make the navigation easier When selecting a setting a dialog is prompted to ask for user input whether to select from a list of options or to enter some text as shown in Figure 4 14 and Figure 4 15 61 Proposed Solution New Project ALE General m
6. Having this in mind the following design decisions were taken 1 When accessed by desktop mxfSPEEDRAIL interface should allow some customization This should be implemented in a way that elements on the screen take advantage of the whole width and height using for instance the magnetic window mechanism used in Adobe Premiere Pro as described in section 2 2 2 2 It should be possible to adjust tabs size to move them and to regroup them 2 Customization in tablets should not be allowed due to screen size restrictions and given the lack of input precision However users should be capable of accessing 52 Proposed Solution layouts that they previously created on a desktop This way it is possible to guarantee continuity between devices 3 mxfSPEEDRAIL shall provide layout presets that fully take advantage of the screen for the most common use cases This way users have access to optimized layouts for specific tasks accomplishment These design choices also take advantage of the chosen tab system Similar to some video editors it shall be possible to drag tabs in order to change the layout directly This way it is not required a layout editor as an intermediate step 4 1 3 Project concept A new concept was suggested in the proposed design the concept of project A project is an abstraction that encapsulates the configurations and resources needed for a specific task or job By using such concept it is possible to o
7. it is important to consider this step since it is essential for the system to be ready to use and to work well 3 3 3 Personas and Scenarios Personas are archetypal users invented to represent a specific type of user while scenarios are stories that explores user needs to achieve a given goal These two techniques may be helpful throughout the design process by pointing out real situations and contexts The following sections describe the personas and scenarios created from the collected data from the interviews and the task analysis They served as a guide in process design since they point the application goals and motivations and represent potential users and contexts This was particularly useful since it was not possible to have contact with real users during the requirements gathering process 3 3 3 1 Case 1 Name Paul M Smith Job Senior Editor Breaking News TV Description Paul is a 43 years old senior video editor that works for Breaking News TV an American television company that aims to deliver the latest political and financial news in first hand to its audience He has a bachelor degree in broadcast production and 18 years of post production experience He started his career working as a video editing assistant on a small local TV for 5 years but then applied for a video editor position in Breaking News TV where he has been working since then He considers himself as a very methodical person and he likes to keep
8. to display and play the output files of the project e Schedule to add and control the recording events of the project Users can also access project settings by clicking tapping the button with the cog icon on the top right of the screen 63 Proposed Solution Top Gear x Figure 4 16 Mockup of the default S1000 project screen When the user starts recording the input signal the system state changes and some elements are modified as shown in Figure 4 17 In the player tab a REC label appears on the top right of the video player The start timecode as well as the output duration are registered below the recording button The seek bar beneath the video is enabled and makes it possible to review and add locators to the recorded content while recording In the files tab a new item is added in order to represent the file that is being recorded To stop recording user must click tap on the record button again Top Gear w x Title tum REG zavan cason Figure 4 17 Mockup of the default S1000 project screen recording 64 Proposed Solution The Figure 4 18 shows the interface while controlling several S1000 Each video player represents one controlled device until six units maximum It is possible to control all the systems at the same time or individually by using the record button below each video player The resulting output files share the same settings as specified in project settings o
9. lt pc rserra 9 ens tmp in_smpte y Processing Ingest See pc rserra 9 a tmp in_smpte pc rserra Disabled Merge amp Ingest tmp in_smpte Figure 4 26 Mockup of the Auto tab close up To manually select an asset to ingest users have to click tap in the button with the plus icon on the activity tab Then the asset explorer will appear as shown in Figure 4 27 In this screen it is possible to search and select assets from different sources and to perform some auxiliary actions like preview trim or merge On the left there is the location list as described in section 4 1 5 and below there are the view options that can be shown hidden The assets are displayed on the center with the selection being displayed on the bottom Each asset is represented with a thumbnail with its name and format beneath it Clicking or taping an asset will select or deselect it and to clear the selection the user must click tap on an empty space similar to most of the desktop interfaces On the right side there is a list of assets to process This list was thought as an intermediate step in order to list trimmed and merged assets 70 Proposed Solution separately However this was not effective during user testing since users find it confusing and too complex The new redesign according to these results can be seen in Figure 4 28 Asset Explorer x Locals Assets p do ell A o To Process S pcrserra Agsecmt E m
10. www uie com brainsparks 2007 03 16 the difference between usability and user experience Accessed 26 Jun 2013 Usability gov User Centered Design Usability gov Online Available http www usability gov basics ucd Accessed 26 Jun 2013 IBM IBM Design UCD process W D ISO ISO 13407 1999 Human centred design processes for interactive systems Usability Usability Methods B C Villamor D Willis and L Wroblewski Touch Gesture Reference Guide 2010 Nokia Mobile Design Patterns Interaction Models 2012 LukeW Responsive Navigation Optimizing for Touch Across Devices Online Available http www lukew com ff entry asp 1649 Accessed 25 Jun 2013 L Wroblewski Mobile First 2011 J Nielsen Severity Ratings for Usability Problems Article by Jakob Nielsen nnGroup 1995 Online Available http www nngroup com articles how to rate the severity of usability problems J Johnson Designing with the Mind in Mind Simple Guide to Understanding User Interface Design Rules Elsevier Science 2010 J Nielsen Users Pagination Preferences and View All nnGroup 2013 Online Available http www nngroup com articles item list view all Accessed 26 Jun 2013 J Nielsen Progressive Disclosure nnGroup Online Available http www nngroup com articles progressive disclosure Accessed 26 Jun 2013
11. 114 Prototype 7 02 2013 08 50 21 Duration 00 03 32 12 tart TC 00 00 00 00 Current 08 53 12 05 Initial Duratio 115 Prototype 116 References References 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 IDC IDC Forecasts Worldwide Tablet Shipments to Surpass Portable PC Shipments in 2013 Total PC Shipments in 2015 2013 Online Available http www idc com getdoc jsp containerld prUS24 129713 Accessed 10 Jun 2013 File Family watching television 1958 jpg Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Online Available http en wikipedia org wiki File Family watching television 1958 jpg Samsung Smart Interaction controla la televisi n con la voz y los gestos Online Available http www configurarequipos com actualidad informatica 46 10 samsung smart interaction controla la television con la voz y los gestos Accessed 22 Jun 2013 H Zettl Television production handbook 2003 B Devlin What is MXF no July pp 1 7 2002 G Doyle Broadcast Media Management in a Data Centric Workflow 2004 Wikipedia Videotape Wikipedia the free encyclopedia 2013 N Wells O Morgan J Wilkinson and B Devlin The Mxf Book An Introduction to the Material Exchange Format Taylor amp Francis Group 2006 Avid Media Composer 6 Video Editor Professional Film and Video Editing Software and Systems from Avid Online Available http www
12. 2 3 and recording format analog or digital and that most of the times lack interoperability 6 These tapes can be reused after recording but they have a limited lifetime since the magnetic tape tends to lose quality over time Figure 2 3 Examples of magnetic tapes used for video recording 7 In this type of systems audio and video are recorded into a tape This can happen directly in the camera that is capturing or in the television studios using for instance video tape recorders VTRs After recording it is necessary to identify the tapes by attaching notes that may specify both their content and their technical characteristics In terms of edition tapes only allow sequential access which means that the editor has to go through the whole tape to reach a given moment of the recording This is a typical process in tape based systems and it is called linear edition Splitting and merging media content in tapes requires at least two VTRs one to serve as player and the other to serve as recorder 4 The player is responsible to play the tapes content while the recorder captures the needed content State of Art to another tape generating an edition sequence This tape is called master tape and when finished it can be used for broadcasting or archive Although tape based systems are still used in some production houses this kind of system reveals some inefficiency during the workflow Some of its disadvantages include the
13. 3 Which features are prone to usability issues vulnerability In gang control stop record buttons size are smaller than the main buttons so users keep clicking in the wrong ones Users may take half a day to input the week scheduling in S1000 Sometimes it is hard to perceive some elements due to the default low contrast look and feel Although there is the option to choose high contrast in settings users usually don t find this feature or don t know that it is possible to change 9 3 Questions about training 1 Do users find it easy to master the application Yes usually users don t have difficulty understanding the application Training sessions are also given according to each company workflow There is no need to explain all the features since that the company will only use some of them 96 Interview with the Support Team 2 How long does it take a user to learn how to use the application Most of the times training services are requested for 1 2 days Usually the admins are the ones who attend training sessions and then they give instructions to operators i e in case of this do that 3 How often are the training sessions required Some companies ask for it Others don t 9 4 Questions about support 1 What are the most common problems that users report related to lack of knowledge about the application Sometimes users don t know where to click either because they don t know or they don t fin
14. 5 Figure 2 3 Examples of magnetic tapes used for video recording 7 Figure 2 4 Workflow of a tape based system 8 Figure 2 5 Screenshot of a NLE software Avid Media Composer 6 5 9 Figure 2 6 Workflow of a file based system 8 Figure 2 7 Content of a MXF file 12 Figure 2 8 Overview of mxfSPEEDRAIL capabilities 14 Figure 2 9 Example of a workflow using mxfSPEEDRAIL S1000 15 Figure 2 10 Screenshot of mxfSPEEDRAIL S1000 Figure 2 11 Screenshot of mxfSPEEDRAIL F1000 Figure 2 12 Screenshot of mxfSPEEDRAIL 01000 Figure 2 13 Screenshot of mxfSPEEDRAIL P1000 Figure 2 14 AmberFin iCR 4 5 left and AmberFin UQC right Figure 2 15 DVS Venice left and DVS Spycerbox right Figure 2 16 Editshare Flow Browse left and Editshare Flow Logger right Figure 2 17 EVS IPDirector control panel left and playlist panel right Figure 2 18 Cinegy Ingest left and Cinegy Capture right Figure 2 19 Final Cut Pro 7 2009 left and Final Cut Pro X 2011 right Figure 2 20 Adobe Premiere Pro CS 5 5 2010 left and Adobe Premiere Pro CS 6 2012 right Figure 2 21 Avid Media Composer 5 5 2010 left and Avid Media Composer 6 2012 right Figure 2 22 Bill Moggridge s comparison between Design Interaction and other fields 23 Figure 2 23 Bill Verplank s three questions an interaction designer must answer when creating an interactive product 23 Figure 2 24
15. Composer File Edit Bin Clip Output Special Tools Windows Script Marketplace Help St F 4 E Wed 9 59 PM a Figure 2 5 Screenshot of a NLE software Avid Media Composer 6 5 9 By not depending on a physical medium files can be advantageous over tapes since they can be accessed in parallel by various users for different purposes while tapes impose a serialized workflow 10 They can also be manipulated and transferred virtually easing and accelerating it diffusion through the workflow as show in Figure 2 6 10 State of Art Acquisition Post Production prooronororororerororororonororerg Es EE S The Internet Mobile Phones Figure 2 6 Workflow of a file based system 8 Although files save time in non creative tasks 11 this type of system can have some drawbacks in terms of files format compatibility Given the large number of existing formats and resolutions it may be a complex task trying to integrate some type of files in some workflows 2 1 4 MXF Format MXF Material eXchange Format is an open format created by SMPTE 5 in collaboration with several video industry entities Its creation comes as an answer to the need for video standardization over the workflows and a way to improve device interoperability It works as a wrapper capable of transporting media material along with other data like metadata as shown in Figure 2 7 This means that different types of video files can b
16. Some of the main F1000 functionalities include e Editing while processing it allows the use of editing software to work on files even if they are still being ingested e Transcode capabilities it is possible for the user to control each step of the ingest process enabling media transcoding and homogenization across the workflows e Video edition it allows simple editing tasks like video trimming and merging for a preliminary control over the assets 15 State of Art e Simultaneous ingest it allows multi clip processing reducing their processing time e Automatic rules it is possible to configure the system in order to automatically process a given folder or device e Remote access allows the possibility to control remotely through the web interface accessible through any browser with Adobe Flash compatibility As shown in Figure 2 11 F1000 has also a panel based design in which it is possible to select resize and move panels Moreover it is possible to select between three layout presets User Driven Automated and Preview Each layout preset has different panels according to its functionality Among other panels there is a video monitor a device manager a metadata panel notifications an asset explorer a panel that shows system activity progress a session toolbar and a panel to display the automatic rules Its frontend was also developed in Adobe Flex the backend was developed in C The commu
17. an idea This idea is then communicated and transformed into a workable concept or script To turn it real it is necessary to gather and manage the resources needed which include among others personal recording equipment and local to record The access to the video archive may be also needed in order to include images that were already recorded This process of preparing the production is called pre production After the idea approval and planning it comes the production phase It starts from the moment that the production team goes to the recording local until the capture or transmission of a certain content or event The image capture can be done using a single camera or several cameras recording at the same time multi camera The captured media can be recorded directly in the camera for a specific storage a tape or a flash disc for instance or it can be recorded externally in the TV stations after its transmission for live programs for instance Finally after the media is captured it has to go through a set of processing and editing steps called post production During this phase the content is gathered prepared edited and finalized in order to be transmitted broadcasting phase and or archived In certain production stages there is the need to describe the captured and edited content in order to ensure the video production workflow quality and efficiency This process usually happens during the post production preparation where
18. and developers to focus on the essential and then improve it according to the device This concept was first introduced by Luke Wroblewski 41 in 2011 and it has been largely discussed since then 35 State of Art 36 Chapter 3 Analysis and Requirements Gathering This chapter aims to gather and analyze the user requirements needed to create the new interface for the mxfSPEEDRAIL products First the current solution will be analyzed as well as some of the competitors solutions and related software in order to get knowledge about the currently trends and practices After that the users requirements will be gathered through different methods in order to discover how mxfSPEEDRAIL can be more user friendly both in desktop and tablet devices The main goal of these findings is to justify future design decisions 3 1 Problem Description This project was proposed by MOG Technologies S A and aims to redesign the actual interface of its products mxfSPEEDRAIL making them possible to be accessed either via desktop and tablet mxfSPEEDRAIL is a set of solutions for video production workflows It includes four main products Each product is composed by a dedicated server that deals with the required processing and a web application made with Adobe Flex Flash that interfaces the system and that can be accessed either by web browser or local application AIR application Since mxfSPEEDRAIL is related to post production its main au
19. at 8pm for 2h User Testing Script 12 5 F1000 Tasks 1 Log in 2 Open the project Top Gear 3 Create an automatic rule that automatically ingests all the assets that will appear in the main folder of the Input Server Ingest one asset manually but before doing that play it so you can confirm that is the asset that you want Log out 12 6 Questions Gde Na Ss co o do Te What frustrated you most about this layout How would you improve this layout What did you like about this layout Is there any functionality that you would like to see Did you find this new interface understandable Did you find this new interface easy to master Did you find this new interface efficient and practical 111 User Testing Script 112 Prototype Appendix H Prototype 13 1 Technologies This prototype was built using HTML CSS and Javascript web technologies For fast development some frameworks were also used jQuery for DOM manipulation backbone js for MVC structure Twitter Bootstrap for layout customization and responsiveness and Handlebars for template building It was also used Backlift a backend as a service BaaS that ease the creation of a small yet functional backend 13 2 Screenshots mxfSPEEDRAIL S1000 113 Input Output Metadata Clipnaming Permissions Advanced Prototype mxfSPEEDRAIL S1000 Username fee username Password n JH Keep me logged in E Favorite
20. big revolutions since its creation in the 19 century Even its definition has been changed in the past decades in order to include new sets of characteristics and functionalities as a result of the ever growing technological innovation The elite only box with black and white images has turned into a trivial object accessible to everyone capable of reproducing not only colored images but also high definition multimedia content Although these changes are clear from the outside by simply observing our advanced TV sets there were also big revolutions on the inside in the way television content were and continue to be made As new paradigms and new production methods arise television has become both an essential daily object and a competitive market becoming at the same time one of the most important means of communication in the industrialized countries The way of developing technology has also changed over the years In the beginning with appearance of the first computational machines systems were big and heavy objects made to be used by those with good technical knowledge Systems were not designed to be inclusive but rather to be functional and pragmatic no matter how difficult it was to operate them Since the spread of personal computers this way of thinking has been converging into a user centered approach since now users are persons from different contexts and with different technological knowledge Since technology is now part of pe
21. continued and it was developed a new interface for touch screens based in web technologies 20 Several mockups were made as well one prototype and some usability tests and validations that contributed to create a set of guidelines that were later integrated in MOG s products Aiming to continue the investigation about the mobile shift paradigm in the following year another master dissertation was conducted this time with the goal to create a metadata management application 21 During this project some studies about news production were performed at RTP studios contributing for a better understanding of how touch interfaces can change the television production workflow Some mockups were also created alongside one functional prototype to demonstrate the study results Finally one year after MOG has once again proposed the study of touch interfaces application in television context the topic of this current project However the goal this time is to redesign the graphical interface of its products mxfSPEEDRAIL in order to make them compatible with mobile devices The expected output includes a set of design proposals and guidelines as well as a prototype to test and validate the proposals As it is possible to see MOG has been aware of the latest technological trends that are changing the market The appearance of new interaction paradigms motivates the study of new ways to use its products as it increases their value and potentiates work
22. control one S1000 The second refers to projects where the control of several S1000 is needed As shown in Figure 4 11 there are also three buttons in the top right of the screen that provide access to the schedule settings of the application and logout respectively To create a new project users have to click on Add new at the beginning of the list Hello Admin Projects 2 Single Recents cm Gang Control Favorites o g ToP Gear Ho Figure 4 11 Mockup of the projects screen before user testing As described in section 4 1 7 it was thought initially to implement a context menu to ease and empowering the interaction This menu would be accessed in desktops by clicking with the right button and in tablets by long pressing the layout However this idea was discarded as a result of user testing since users were not able to figure out that there was a new type of interaction The projects screen was then redesigned in order to solve this problem as shown in Figure 4 12 It now includes a specific button to delete a project mark as favorite or even to duplicate a project in order to ease the creation of similar projects The redesign also discarded the single and gang control separation since user testing revealed that every project shall make it possible to add and control several or just one S1000 section 4 3 1 60 Proposed Solution Hello Admin Projects Co o All ft Recents o A g OM Favorites
23. de Ved AG Oa Ss sees sinais E Sousa oad Heed aoe Sonda cs nana 1 4 Document Structure reais Ze State of ATE ccs csesecsccsesnscecsenesdcenscncsonsonusesctosatseosseenedentecsieesovesseebeceteesiee Ql TRIG VASIOM ss aetan nna Sead EA vente hs 2 1 1 Production Processes ccssccsssesseceseceseceeeceeeeeeseeseeesseeeaes 2 1 2 Tape based Workflows eee 2 1 3 File base Workflows eee 2414 MXF Format sais nitirras einnota ams bei 2 2 Video Production Software cccccccssessseeseestecstecetecsteeeeeees 2 2 1 MOG s Solutions e ssie ai T 2 2 2 Other Solut onSs sin a ar deed na 2 3 Interaction Design ccccesccesscescesseeeseeeseeeeeeeecseeensecneenseeees 2 3 1 Usability and User Experience 2 3 2 User Centered Design eres 2 3 3 Designing for touch eres 3 Analysis and Requirements Gathering scscsscesssessccssscseee 3 1 Problem Description eee eeeeeeerererereereerenas 3 2 Current Solution Analysis ccccccceesecsseceseceseceseeseeeeeeeesseeenes 352 SUCE 20225 coesa a ia td sa DRA PE A 3 2 2 Heuristic Evaluation cceecceesessceeseeesseeseeesseesseeseeesnees 3 3 Requirements Gathering Process c ccsccescescessceeeeeeeeeeseeeees 33 10 INLCEVIEW SA ita ndash else ue A ia E e Dea 3 3 2 Task Analysis sata airreinimionid rio cairia creatina i 3 3 3 Personas and ScenarioS c cccccecsceesceeseeetseeseeeseeesseeseeessees 3 3 4 Measurab
24. feel confident to try alternative ways when they get lost As stated in the interview with the support team sometimes they end up asking to the support team where to click This means that it should be provided a trustable well organized and error proof system that guides users and incentives them to explore Like most of the people only feels like exploring a city when it is well organized and secure the same principle goes for interface design 43 3 3 2 Task Analysis The aim of task analysis is to understand the way people perform their tasks in terms of the required actions the required objects and the required knowledge The appendix F enumerates the needed steps to accomplish the main tasks in mxfSPEEDRAIL By doing so it is possible to identify the crucial steps of each operation and to get better insights for the design process By analyzing tasks of each product two conclusions were taken The first is that system is normally used for repetitive tasks such as selecting files workflows process them and add metadata This points the necessity for system accelerators like keyboard shortcuts which may speed up task resolution and improve productivity The second conclusion is that system 44 Analysis and Requirements Gathering configuration is complex which means that it may be time consuming and take a lot of input Although configuration is likely to be done fewer times than the other operations like ingest and record
25. form to add a new event the Cian 34 combobox to select the type of an event capture or 4 8 reboot is in the bottom of the window ee i 35 Scroll in events may be confusing because it only 4 Creating a adjusts the zoom it does not scroll capture event The arrows above the calendar as well as the label 36 saying today may be confusing Clicking in the 4 6 Creating a arrows affects the label that is above rather than the capture event label today for which the arrows are aligned to 37 There is a save button in events but created events Creating a are saved anyway capture event 38 To add another layout user has to edit an already 4 7 Changing existing one and save as new layout In layout editor the two categories crash record and Changin 39 batch capture should be two layout presets since 4 lay i t 8 they only differ on one panel 85 S1000 Evaluation 86 F1000 Evaluation Appendix B F1000 Evaluation 7 1 Description Product F1000 v2 9 11 Evaluator Andr Alves Date 27 03 2013 Main Goal Ingest video files Tasks 1 As admin add a storage to the system As admin add a MAM to the system As admin add a device to the system As admin create a location for the added storage As admin create a location for the added MAM As admin create a location for the added device As admin create a metadata profile As admin create a naming template As admin create a workflow profile As adm
26. in order to improve it According to Nielsen qualitative studies often generate deeper insights than bigger more metric focused quantitative studies 47 User feedback was gathered and analyzed according to the criteria proposed in section 3 3 4 Some of the considered measures included the number of user mistakes the relative time that they took to perform the tasks the users description of what they were seeing and thinking and at the end of the test the users answers to the questionnaire The tests were performed with two different groups of users First the proposed solution was tested with collaborators from MOG and then with users from RTP as described in the following sections In total 8 users were inquired This number is based on the Nielsen s study 48 that states that for qualitative studies testing with at least 5 users is sufficient to find most of the usability problems 4 3 1 MOG Testing User testing in MOG was done with 6 of its collaborators 2 software developers responsible to develop and maintaining the current interface 1 designer 1 business developer 1 field application engineer responsible for system setting and support and the MOG s chief technology officer Collaborators were chosen according to their function in order to gather feedback from different areas of expertise Tests were conducted individually in an isolated room at MOG s facilities Some of the results gathered during th
27. non immediate access to different content parts of the tape the need to transport tapes physically throughout the different production stages as shown in Figure 2 4 the need for manual tape identification and the complexity of consulting the tape archive These characteristics contribute to a labor intensive and slow workflow Post Production Distribution Figure 2 4 Workflow of a tape based system 8 2 1 3 File base Workflows With the computer proliferation and the raise of digital storage tapes began to be replaced by multimedia files which led to systems file based In this kind of system video and audio are captured then stored in digital files and finally saved in digital storage units like hard drives optical discs and memory cards In these systems the term media asset or simply asset is commonly used to refer the multimedia file that contains both video also called essence and metadata Metadata is used to describe the asset essence and it can contain keywords descriptions tags technical specifications among other information In file based systems there is no longer the need to physically transport media between production stages Instead there is a new operation introduced in the workflows called ingest Ingesting files consists in capturing transferring or importing different types of media into a digital editor or a storage system During this phase media can be converted from analog t
28. object 5 4 8 storage allowing operations Although there is a save button if I didn t click the Creating a 11 4 5 4 modifications are still saved storage Although there is not a server address typed a Creating a 12 4 3 loading wheel still appears storage 13 Whenever I click save I do not get a visual feedback 1 2 Creating a about whether the information was saved or not storage The color of the selected storage in storage settings Creating a 14 ae 1 1 is very similar to the color of the column header storage 15 It is possible to repeat storage names due to 5 4 Creating a automatic saving storage 16 It is not clear that the storage name is editable Why 6 2 Creating a is it not a field with a label like the others storage 17 It is not possible to select multiple storages to delete 7 2 reanna storage Confirmation window of delete should provide a Creating a 1 8 p oe 99 gt 1 more specific button than ok storage 19 Examples should be provided by a help button 8 1 Cregg storage When opening out_temp in folder browser I got one Rn Folder 20 warning saying Failed to compare two elements in 9 5 4 Browser the array It s possible to select it though 21 Some folders don t have children but they have also 4 2 Folder the option to expand it Browser The select button is small and has the same color as Folder 22 6 1 the up button Browser 88 F1000 Evaluation
29. on the screen e Double Tap touch quickly twice on the screen e Drag Slide move fingers in a given direction without losing the contact with the screen e Pinch touch on the screen with two fingers approximate them e Spread touch on the screen with two fingers moving them in opposite directions e Press touch on the screen for a long time e Rotate touch on the screen with two fingers and then twist them clockwise or counterclockwise Double tap Flick Pinch Spread Press and tap Preto CR CHS Figure 2 27 Basic gestures for tactile commands 38 As said before it may be possible to implement touch sequences combinations and small touch variations when developing for touch interfaces However they should not compromise the overall interface usability User may not understand immediately which actions there are and in which context they should be used 39 Designing interfaces for touch may be a challenging task and it should consider some aspects First it is important to understand that a touch interface does not provide the same stability and physical feedback as mouse and keyboard Therefore it is necessary to guarantee that users get and percept visual feedback as a response to their interactions Another aspect is the screen dimension The tablet dimension can vary depending on the manufacture It can be small from 7 to 7 9 inches medium from 8 to 10 1 inches or large 32 State
30. technological component and therefore it has a great impact on industry and society 25 Its concept was first proposed by Bill Moggridge in the mid 1980s and fully developed by Alan Cooper 26 As shown in Figure 2 22 Bill Moggridge defines Interaction Design as a discipline that can create solutions with human and subjective qualities in a digital context 24 State of Art Physical design Human and subjective Digital design Figure 2 22 Bill Moggridge s comparison between Design Interaction and other fields 23 An interaction can be defined as an action between two entities that have an effect or influence upon one another As shown in Figure 2 23 to fully understand an interaction the interaction designer must understand how the user affects the world do how the user gets feedback from the world feel and how the user knows about the world know By doing so it is possible to understand how to improve interactions diminishing the negative aspects as user frustration and boredom and enhancing the positive aspects like pleasure and enthusiasm INTERACTION Figure 2 23 Bill Verplank s three questions an interaction designer must answer when creating an interactive product 23 25 State of Art Pleasing users may not be a simple task since each person has different expectations According to David Liddle 23 there are three phases for the adoption of a new technology the enthusiast stage th
31. users informed about what is going on through appropriate feedback within reasonable time Match between system and the real world The system should speak the users language with words phrases and concepts familiar to the user rather than system oriented terms Follow real world conventions making information appear in a natural and logical order User control and freedom Users often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked emergency exit to leave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue Support undo and redo Consistency and standards Users should not have to wonder whether different words situations or actions mean the same thing Follow platform conventions Error prevention Even better than good error messages is a careful design which prevents a problem from occurring in the first place Either eliminate error 27 State of Art prone conditions or check for them and present users with a confirmation option before they commit to the action 6 Recognition rather than recall Minimize the user s memory load by making objects actions and options visible The user should not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another Instructions for use of the system should be visible or easily retrievable whenever appropriate 7 Flexibility and efficiency of use Accelerators unseen by the novice user may o
32. with a press and drag and keyboard input with the virtual keyboard originally available in touch interfaces In order to achieve a cleaner design a context menu was designed as shown in Figure 4 8 A context menu is a pop up menu that usually appears in desktop interfaces by clicking with the right button of the mouse These menus are advantageous since they allow showing contextual tools according to the clicking point This idea was later refuted during the testing phase since users could not figure out that there was a new type of interaction 57 Proposed Solution gle x A Eliminar dd new Top Ge key Mouse Marcar como Favorito Figure 4 8 A context menu mockup that provides the Delete and Mark as favorite options on a given project 4 2 Prototyping In order to validate the design proposals described before several mid fidelity mockups were designed For this purpose Indigo Studio v1 update 12 was used as a mockup tool considering a resolution of 1280 x 800px These mockups allow interaction and screen state changes Each screen is described in the next sections A web based prototype was also built Due to time restrictions and for demonstration purposes this prototype only includes the S1000 screens It also includes some responsive mechanisms in order to adapt to either big or small screens Further information can be found in the appendix H 4 2 1 S1000 Mockups The first scre
33. Android Multi pane Layouts Android Developers Online Available http developer android com design patterns multi pane layouts html Accessed 26 Jun 2013 119 47 48 49 References J Nielsen Kindle Fire Usability Findings nnGroup 2011 Online Available http www nngroup com articles kindle fire usability findings Accessed 26 Jun 2013 J Nielsen How Many Test Users in a Usability Study nnGroup 2012 Online Available http www nngroup com articles how many test users Accessed 26 Jun 2013 J Nielsen First Rule of Usability Don t Listen to Users nnGroup 2001 Online Available http www nngroup com articles first rule of usability dont listen to users Accessed 26 Jun 2013 120
34. Creating a devices device In Location if you click to add storages 37 accidentally there is no way to undo the operation 3 5 Creating a besides going to storage settings and delete the location created storage When you log in and you do not perform any e operation shutdown and restart just log out j Boyo Search here in asset explorer disappears when filter 39 options are shown due to panel size in default 6 Browsing layout 40 After changing the layout user may forget that he 2 Browsing needs to save to use the system 41 After you create a user you cannot save password 3 Powie changes 42 If user do not click save configurations are available Browsi until server shutdown due to data automatic saving sueca The button to save device modifications has a green Creatine a 43 confirmation icon while the button to save storages 4 ng TO location and mams has a floppy disk icon Locations for storages and MAM s device profiles for Creating a 44 devices Both appear in the same way in asset 4 ocaton explorer 89 F1000 Evaluation Things deleted in browser still appear in remote Creating a 45 1 5 desktop with errors user 46 When I create a new storage undo option is 4 Creating a available although I did not do anything storage It is not possible to write special characters like a 47 in display na
35. FACULDADE DE ENGENHARIA DA UNIVERSIDADE DO PORTO Tactile Interfaces for Television Post production Environments Andr Neiva Pereira Alves PORTO FEU FACULDADE DE ENGENHARIA UNIVERSIDADE DO PORTO Integrated Master in Informatics and Computing Engineering Supervisor Maria Teresa Galvao Dias June 17 2013 Andr Alves 2013 Tactile Interfaces for Television Post Production Environments Andr Neiva Pereira Alves Integrated Master in Informatics and Computing Engineering Approved in oral examination by the committee Chair Ana Cristina Ramada Paiva Auxiliary Professor External Examiner Joao Paulo Jorge Pereira Adjunct Professor Supervisor Maria Teresa Galvao Dias Auxiliary Professor June 17 2013 Abstract Television has suffered big changes since its creation With the revolution of computers there was not only an improvement of the TV sets but also a change in the way television was made One of the major changes happened with the change from tape based systems to file based systems optimizing the overall production process However with the continuous technological innovation new formats methods and ways to accomplish tasks arise which forces television to continuously reinvent itself as a response to the competitive market With the mobile devices proliferation and the revolution of the touch interfaces there is the need to adapt the actual systems to new interaction paradigms taking ad
36. Figure 4 27 Mockup of the Asset Explorer screen before user testing Figure 4 28 Mockup of the Asset Explorer screen after user testing Figure 4 29 Mockup of the dialog to preview and trim assets Figure 4 30 VTRs in the ingest room at RTP Studios Figure 4 31 Video tapes identified by project ready to be ingested at RTP studios Figure 4 32 Desktop running the mxfSPEEDRAIL S1000 application at RTP Studios xiii 68 69 70 70 71 71 72 76 76 77 xiv List of Tables Table 2 1 Usability methods applied to the UCD steps XV 31 xvi Abbreviations Admin BaaS CSS CTR DOM F1000 FEUP GUI HTML IP LCD MAM MVC MXF NLE 01000 P1000 RTP S1000 SDI SMPTE SOAP UCD TV VTR XML Administrator Backend as a Service Cascading Style Sheets Cathode Ray Tube Document Object Model mxfSPEEDRAIL F1000 Faculty of Engineering of University of Porto Graphical User Interface HyperText Markup Language Internet Protocol Liquid Crystal Display Media Asset Management Model View Controller Material eXchange Format Non Linear Editing mxfSPEEDRAIL 01000 mxfSPEEDRAIL P1000 R dio e Televis o de Portugal mxfSPEEDRAIL S1000 Serial Digital Interface Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers Simple Object Access Protocol User Centered Design Television Video Tape Recorder eXtensible Markup Language xvii xviii Chapter 1 Introduction Television has suffered
37. P uses two mxfSPEEDRAIL products S1000 and F1000 that are located in a specific room for ingest along with several VTRs and screens as shown in Figure 4 30 The recorded media is delivered in this room using tapes as shown in Figure 4 31 and then played by VTRs while mxfSPEEDRAIL S1000 records it into files as shown in Figure 4 32 After this process mxfSPEEDRAIL F1000 is used to trim the files in order to remove undesired frames The resulting files are then transferred to an edition server where they are imported to Avid Media Composer in order to be finalized Although the user testing at RTP was planned according to the specifications stated in the last sections it ended up being performed differently due to time and space restrictions Since this test was conducted at RTP studios during the office hours the user feedback ended up being gathered through an informal conversation with one of the RTP s media operators and one of the RTP s technical directors Although it is better to observe users than to listen to them 49 the gathered information proved to be useful since it helped to understand users expectations and reactions when facing the new design Initially users were asked about how the mxfSPEEDRAIL is currently being used at RTP Their answers had confirmed some of the problems raised in the chapter 3 like the difficulty in 74 Proposed Solution learning how to use the current interface and the big amount of info
38. RAIL S1000 application at RTP Studios 4 4 Conclusions The proposed solution was designed in order to improve the learnability understandability usability and user satisfaction of the current mxfSPEEDRAIL interfaces and to make them compatible with touch interfaces The new interface appears as a more structured well organized and pleasant solution By contextualizing the information that is displayed on screen it improves the understandability of the system since it only shows what is necessary for the user Consequently there is more space in the screen that leads to a better understanding of how the elements are grouped and their importance These aspects contribute for an intuitive interface that offers a low learning curve as demonstrated in user testing However user testing has also demonstrated that the proposed solution can be further improved for some use cases In the majority of the tests users spent more time configuring the system rather than using it It also gave users a false sense of too much screens when in fact only two are needed to operate the system This happened because configurations are extensive and they require a big amount of input Since touch screens do not favor input speed the system configuration is more likely to be done in desktops rather than tablets However tablets seemed to be a good option for monitoring and controlling the system since these tasks were achieved with ease during user testing
39. Saas EE 30 Sob eee bon seas Sea NOVAS a RELER SOU sends Woes a RAD Ra E 81 A 1000 Evaluation sccccccssssssccsccssscsssscsscssscssssssssnsssnsssnsssesssessssscssscssssssssescsesseeses 83 B F1000 Ey alu ati ntisssscisscssusvexconcncovssavcnonsvavensvusnneiaensunesesaavepensbavonsousowenalevendensubesupeuoseveson 87 C P1000 Eval tion viscscsisiesscssasssscssisneocsssssoessvssvwsssdesavasassonconsssssnadersvesnstavbiesgotioarenssspanens 93 D Interview with the Support Team esssesssessosssoessocssosssocssoessocsssesssesssesssesssesssesssese 95 E Interview with the Sales Team e seseoesessoesosssesoessesoosseesoesossoesoesoeeoosseeeoesessoesossoeeoesseee 99 F STaskcAmall ySiscssescncscsescisccsssontscvasccsuasesonsscbanceususssnsssesecccseasesenssdsvesescesscensseveecsseasesenastoe 103 G User Testing Script cccccsccssscssscssscsssscssscssscssscssssssssnsssnssensssssssssssessscssssssssesses 109 H Prototype vsssiisssiccsaccssasssisssocsascsenseisissesvaseosacsdecaseseas sdeessesceaceusssssesssdboscesessssnss sonossseseses 113 References i scactecscsicessiciustdces censbetcestsetestatbiectsct shes edenbetetestbetucedeucsenaststaccaevucdsosensetesnsesseseuss 117 List of Figures Figure 1 1 IDC s forecast about Tablet and PC shipment worldwide 1 Figure 2 1 Family watching television 1958 2 left and the gesture interaction in Samsung Smart TV 3 right Figure 2 2 Stages in creating a TV programme
40. Stop recording a Press stop 11 1 2 Schedule one ingest 1 Create an event a Define start date b Define end date c Choose the periodicity of the event d Choose the priority of the event e Choose the workflow f Select output label g Choose the action capture h Apply 11 2 F1000 Tasks 11 2 1 Ingest file manually 1 Define the workflow a Choose the operation ingest or merge i Choose the input type b Configure the high resolution output if you want i Choose the essence format ii Choose the wrapper format 104 Task Analysis iil Choose the output folder c Configure the proxy output if you want i Choose the essence format ii Choose the wrapper format iii Choose the output folder d Configure how the output files will be named e Configure how the metadata will be handled Configure the asset management of the output files g Configure other options 2 Choose the input a Access the desired folder b Select files you want to process 3 Ingest files a Select the workflow configured b Start ingesting 11 2 2 Trim a video 1 Choose file to trim a Open the desired folder b Select the desired file 2 Play file a Press play 3 Trim clips a Select the in point b Select the out point c Repeat the operation if necessary 105 Task Analysis 11 3 01000 Tasks 11 3 1 Outgest files automatically 1 Define the workflow a Choose the ope
41. alysis and the creation of personas and scenarios that made it possible to gather and define both the system requirements and the main usability goals to achieve with the new design From the design phase resulted a concept that was reproduced in a set of mid fidelity mockups which solved some of the problems raised during the heuristic evaluation as well as made it possible to use the interface in both desktops and tablets By contextualizing the screens it was possible to fit the layout in small screens but keeping the functionality Due to time restrictions it was only possible to focus on two of the four products of MOG Technologies However since these products are very similar the proposed solution already covers the most important elements of the other two Last but not the least the testing phase helped to understand the feasibility of the proposed solution giving insights about what was improved and what needs to be improved First testing was conducted with some collaborators from MOG and then it was done at RTP studios in Vila Nova de Gaia with users from the television context This was particularly grateful since it allowed to better understanding how the proposed solution can improve the television workflows and what the impact of touch interfaces on these environments 80 Final Conclusions and Future Work 5 2 Future Work As conclude before tablets are convenient for monitoring and controlling the system with ease and
42. and broadcasting environments Its main mission is to optimize and simplify video workflows by fostering systems interoperability MOG s main product mxfSPEEDRAIL represents a set of solutions based in MXF that includes recording ingesting outgesting and playout capabilities in order to assist several phases of the most common video production workflows mxfSPEEDRAIL s layout was designed with desktop in mind and developed with Adobe Flex With the mobile proliferation and the rise of free web technologies like HTMLS and JavaScript a paradigm shift is required in order to prepare applications for new challenges and use contexts Due to their intuitive characteristics companies are taking advantage of touch interfaces to potentiate new use cases and to enhance the overall user experience Having this in mind MOG wants to adapt its mxfSPEEDRAIL solutions in order to make them possible to be accessed both from desktop and tablet 1 2 Motivation This topic is motivated by the shift of paradigm that is being seen in the last years As a result of the need for technological mobility the use of mobile devices especially tablets has been growing Figure 1 1 and potentiating use cases that cannot be supported by other devices These devices have been evolving over the last years and are now equipped with powerful processing capacities fast response and big screens diminishing the overall gap between mobile devices and computers This evolu
43. as seen in Figure 4 9 After this it is also displayed the projects screen Figure 4 12 where all the projects are listed and can be deleted or marked as marked as favorite as well After creating or opening a project user sees the main screen of the project This screen is also similar to S1000 project screen since it also offers navigation through tabs and it is by default divided in two sections Figure 4 24 All the tabs are listed below e Activity this is where the system activity is displayed to let user monitor which assets are being processed which ones have failed or were canceled and which ones are waiting to be processed e Overview this is the default tab to be displayed it lists the main project settings e Auto this is where the automatic rules are defined Figure 4 25 and Figure 4 26 and controlled e Metadata to change and control the assets metadata e Log to display warning and error messages as well as keep the actions historic e Files to display and play the output files of the project e Schedule to add and control the recording events of the project Top Gear wo x Filename caga Figure 4 24 Mockup of the default F1000 project screen 69 Proposed Solution New Rule Type Storage Ingest Merge amp Ingest cls Base path Existing files Ignore processed Figure 4 25 Mockup of the dialog screen to create a new automatic rule Auto o Z Ingest
44. at involves human interaction are made by humans most of times they are not designed with the human interaction in mind which leads to problems and doubts during its use Applying usability criteria during the design process leads to better interfaces by making them more intuitive efficient memorable effective and enjoyable to use As shown in Figure 2 24 these characteristics are referred by Nielsen as a way to achieve system s acceptability by users among other factors like cost reliability and social acceptability 28 26 State of Art Social acceptability Easy to learn Efficient to use System acceptability Easy to remember Few errors ili Subjectively bility pleasing Figure 2 24 A model of the attributes of system acceptability 28 There are several methods to evaluate interfaces accordingly to its usability A usability study can be conducted during different stages of a system development in order to satisfy different purposes like requirements gathering and product validation as shown in Table 2 1 In 1994 Jakob Nielsen suggested a new method for usability inspection the heuristic evaluation 29 The heuristic evaluation consists on a system inspection done by evaluators in order to identify problems according to a given set of heuristics Nielsen has also suggested 10 main heuristics as design principles 30 1 Visibility of system status The system should always keep
45. avid com US products Media Composer Accessed 23 Jun 2013 J Hoffman P Soetens and M De Geyter An integrated file based media production workflow the digital media factory in Proceedings of the International Broadcasting Convention Amsterdam 2007 117 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 References S Cunningham and P de Nier File based Production Making It Work In Practice in Proceedings of the International Broadcasting Convention 2007 A Kovalick A Quick Tour of Wrappers and MXF 2012 M O G Technologies MOG Technologies Products 2013 MOG Technologies mxfSPEEDRAIL Brochure 2012 Carvalho Tania mxfSPEEDRAIL S1000 User Manual 2012 Carvalho Tania mxfSPEEDRAIL F1000 User Manual 2012 Carvalho Tania mxfSPEEDRAIL O1000 User Manual 2012 Carvalho Tania mxfSPEEDRAIL P1000 User Manual 2012 J N Ferreira Graphical User Interfaces for Television Production Software FEUP 2011 R Serra Interfaces T cteis baseadas em HTMLS CSS3 JavaScript FEUP 2011 A Duarte Mobile Metadata Logging System for Audiovisual Content FEUP 2012 L T Martin Nonlinear editors Broadcast Engineering Online Available http broadcastengineering com production nonlinear editors B Moggridge Designing interactions MIT P
46. ble to manage panels and to display them accordingly After logged in the user can see a media player with timecode information an audio monitor a metadata panel a notification panel and one asset explorer Its frontend was developed using Adobe Flex and its backend was developed in C The remote communication is done according to SOAP protocol II lt Em o gt FE ii 1 1 1 00 0 1 55 04 o ner 23 8 32 03 saa ish Figure 2 13 Screenshot of mxfSPEEDRAIL P1000 18 State of Art 2 2 1 5 Previous work MOG Technologies has been worrying about the paradigms shift in its products Aware of the technological trends it has developed in collaboration with the Faculty of Engineering of University of Porto through several dissertation proposals a set of guidelines and interface prototypes that have been integrated in their products in order to improve their usability and functionality In 2010 MOG has proposed a master s dissertation about the graphical interfaces use for television production software The proposal was accepted and it results in a set of mockups and in prototypes of a news application called newsRail 19 The main goal of newsRail was to assist the news preparation and edition by managing the news coming from different news agencies A few months later a new master dissertation was done at MOG aiming to continue the previous project now from a mobile development perspective newsRail was
47. cessary to adapt each method to each situation 2 3 3 Designing for touch As seen on Figure 1 1 the tablet market is growing and is expected to overcome the desktop market soon One was to justify this is that although computers can be a powerful and useful tool they lack mobility Even laptops can be inconvenient in certain circumstances due to its size and weight This is where tablets take advantage Tablets which are becoming more and more powerful just like computers offer a relevant screen size in which it is possible to interact with the system by only touching with the fingers Although this touch paradigm is an old concept it was only recently that it started to become stronger on the market mostly due to its incorporation on the mobile devices Touch interfaces had become popular by guaranteeing a simple and natural way to interact with systems without the need for intermediates like keyboards or mice Touch interfaces are particularly advantageous due to its flexibility In the same touch screen it is possible to simulate several types of interactive inputs like buttons numeric pads different keyboards among others that may be personalized and adjusted to user Besides the current touch screens are prepared to allow several types of touch that can be combined allowing different types of interaction 31 State of Art As shown in Figure 2 27 some of the main types of touch include e Tap touch quickly once
48. ckup with contextualized hints 54 Proposed Solution However if users need information with more detail a button to access the user manual is still provided with the possibility to search for keywords In the end if users still have doubts they are encouraged to contact MOG s support team by providing email and telephone contacts Figure 4 5 illustrates the help hierarchy described This solution applies a design pattern called progressive disclosure 45 This pattern consists in only showing information according to users needs If the information is too long it s more likely that users will skip it Considering so it is important to not explain everything at once but provide different levels of detailed information instead and let the users decide what they need a short explanation or a more detailed user manual This way both novice and advanced users are benefited 1 User Interface Hints User Manual 3 MOG s Support Team Figure 4 5 Suggested help hierarchy 4 1 5 Panels redesign In order to correct some of the problems that were raised during the heuristic evaluation some panels had to redesigned and prepared for touch gestures This process helped to better understand each panel s functionality and purpose Due to screen sizes restrictions there was also the need to reduce the number of panels keeping the functionality Panels were therefore disposed by functionality and analyzed in terms o
49. d what they need Since not all users try to click in everything they end up asking for support service 2 Did the usability problems arise after the previous change of interface No not really 97 Interview with the Support Team 98 Interview with the Sales Team Appendix E Interview with the Sales Team This interview was conducted in MOG S offices in March 13 of 2013 with Nuno Silva Business Developer Northern Europe at MOG 10 1 Questions about users 1 Who are the users of the application primary and secondary users There are users and clients Sometimes clients are also users like technicians and operation managers There are two types of users operators and administrators 2 How would you describe the users user characteristics i e age experience education etc It depends on the workflow There may be both people with high technological background and people with less technological knowledge They can be for instance engineers or journalists 3 Why they need the application user needs interests and goals Their main need is to centralize workflows and to save time and money 4 When and where do users use the application physical environment and user context There are three main purposes post production news production and live transmissions The space used for each purpose can be anything from a garage to an open room with more or less light 99 Interview with t
50. dience is generally composed by people from multimedia and communication areas such as radio television and production houses There are different user profiles since some users are journalists other are technicians operation managers engineers and media managers among others However two main groups of users were identified Analysis and Requirements Gathering e Administrators are users that are responsible for the system s setup 1 e operation managers e Ingesters or operators are users that actually use the system i e journalists Both positions may be occupied by people of all ages usually with higher education However it is more likely that administrators have more video and post production knowledge than operators do Sometimes administrators are also ingesters The new interface design should be user oriented in order to correctly fulfill users needs and to achieve their goals The main challenge to be solved is to build a new interface easier and practical to use but keep it powerful and flexible enough to be easily adaptable to each costumers context 3 2 Current Solution Analysis Before starting the new design it is important to understand how the current interface is designed what should be kept and what should be modified or improved Dealing with change can be difficult for old users hence the new interface must keep the coherence with the previous one in order to avoid user frustration F
51. e transmitted no matter its content format making it possible to break compatibility barriers between devices and empowering the overall video production processes One of the advantages of MXF is to allow the transmission of metadata across the workflow This is particularly useful since it allows a better control and centralization of the assets information that neither physical documentation nor oral communication through the production team could provide The fact that MXF was created from scratch in collaboration with the broadcast industry and community makes it a powerful format able to satisfy production needs The incorporation of metadata not only optimizes the workflows but also potentiates the appearance of more powerful media management tools 11 State of Art The Wrapper gt File mxf 1 1 1 L Individual A V essence closed caption and metadata components are mapped to the internals of the wrapper 1 1 1 1 4 s 4 7 Metadata Indextables LE j Figure 2 7 Content of a MXF file 12 MOG was one of the first companies to implement and provide software solutions with this format for the broadcast market promoting the use of standards in television workflows 2 2 Video Production Software File based systems led to the emergence of video software Since media is now processed and edited virtually there is the need of using software in order to control and o
52. e can be divided in several steps e Design evaluation this is the most important part of the process It includes gathering and analyze feedback from user about what was designed This way it is possible to redesign and to change what was specified in order to fulfill user s needs Ideally this should be done with real users to get more precise feedback Another aspect to consider in the UCD methodology is that it is transversal and multidisciplinary This means that it may be applied both to a software and to other ordinary objects that involve user interaction like a toaster for instance Several usability methods can be applied in different stages of the UCD process depending on the purposes as shown on Table 2 1 30 State of Art Table 2 1 Usability methods applied to the UCD steps 37 Analyze Design Test Card Sorting x x x Contextual Interviews x Focus Groups x x Heuristic Evaluation x x Individual Interviews x x x Parallel Design x Personas x Prototyping x x Surveys x x x Task Analysis x a A Usability Testing x x x Use Cases x It is important to notice that although these are useful methods they should be used accordingly to its purpose in the right stage of the UCD process in order to take advantage of them The same method may be more or less efficient depending on the project in which it is being applied Therefore it is ne
53. e professional stage and the consumer stage The first stage happens when the technology is exploited In this stage users don t care if the technology is difficult to use or not since they appreciate it in an aesthetic way Sooner or later enthusiasts will want to apply the technology for work purposes because they see practical value in it This is part of the professional stage in which the technology is used to help people work Here technology might be a little bit difficult to handle since people are selling their skills to use it When the technology reaches an accessible price for consumers to buy the consumer stage is reached Here technology is used in order to satisfy user s needs as an end consumer If the technology is hard to use users won t buy it 2 3 1 Usability and User Experience There are two concepts that one should have in mind when designing interfaces usability and user experience Although they are related each concept has a different meaning and focus regarding a specific product or service According to its ISO definition usability is concerned with the effectiveness efficiency and satisfaction with which specified users achieve specified goals in particular environments 27 Thereby usability can be described as the qualitative attribute that verifies and measures how easy to use and easy to learn some objects are Although these objects software websites tools machines books or anything th
54. e tasks regarding the same project Once a project is opened there is no need for configuration since everything is configured and contextualized for that project goals Consider for example the use of mxfSPEEDRAIL F1000 in a TV studio A TV studio deals with a lot of programs and productions each one with different settings and different formats With the current solution once logged in a user has access to all the configurations used in that TV station This means that if users want to ingest an asset for the news program they will have access to locations and workflows from other TV shows that they do not need The same situation is simplified with the concept of project since now by previously selecting 53 Proposed Solution the news project the user will only have access to locations and workflow settings specific for that program 4 1 4 Contextual Help According to Nielsen Heuristics 30 even though systems should be ready to be used without consulting the documentation they still should provide clear help and documentation Nielsen also defends that information should be easy to search and focused on the user s task There are some flaws in the current implementation of help in mxfSPEEDRAIL as described in section 3 2 2 1 There is no contextual help since the help button is only reachable once every window is closed This makes it impossible for instance to consult the documentation while changing settings In addit
55. e the accessibility of the touch areas Figure 2 30 shows the areas that are easy ok and hard to reach 7 Figure 2 29 Different ways to hold a tablet 40 when holding the tablet in landscape State of Art Figure 2 30 Difficulty to reach screen areas when holding a tablet in landscape 40 Finally when designing both for desktop and for tablet two design approaches may be used desktop first or mobile first The first approach happens when a certain project is designed with desktop in mind and after that is readapted in order to be compatible with mobile devices as shown in Figure 2 31 The second approach refers to the opposite It happens when a certain project is designed with mobile in mind and after that it is readapted for desktops as shown in Figure 2 32 Figure 2 31 Desktop first design approach DL Figure 2 32 Mobile first design approach 34 State of Art Although they may seem equivalent they are actually very different and may have a huge impact on the final product When designing for desktop first the project tends to take advantages of the desktop capacities which have few or no restrictions When adapting the project for mobile some features are not compatible and it is necessary to remove functionality to the system On the other side when designing for mobile first mobile restrictions are taken into account since the beginning of the project which forces designers
56. efficiency However desktop seemed to be more suitable to perform configurations since they require a lot of input Considering this the proposed solution can be optimized and enhanced by changing the layout according to each device and its specific context By providing a different but consistent graphical interface it will allow to address the different use cases and use contexts of each device which results in a better usability and a better user experience Besides considering the differences between devices the improvement of the proposed solution can include a new type of user the creative user That way admins would be responsible to configure the system ingesters would be responsible to monitor and to control the system and creative users would be responsible to preview media and operate it This way the interface would be adapted in terms of functions and technical knowledge improving its accessibility by different roles of persons involved in the video production process Since video workflows are integrated processes it is also important to consider that having one global interface for controlling several products may lead to better results As seen during the RTP testing mxfSPEEDRAIL products are used complementarily which means that user has to access different interfaces to control them With one global interface user would be possible to control and monitoring the system in one place speeding up the process 81 Final Conc
57. eing displayed on the monitor they can be merged into a single panel grouping functionality and saving space as shown in Figure 4 7 56 Proposed Solution do IB conan a vir Controvs A ae a nS AVAILABLE e US a 1 Figure 4 7 Monitor Control and VTR panels in mxfSPEEDRAIL S1000 left and the merged panel draft right 4 1 6 Merge as an auxiliary action In the current implementation of F1000 when creating a new workflow profile it was possible to select two kinds of operation ingest or merge However using merge as action means that all the selected assets are going to be merged and after then ingested which means that the name is being used incorrectly Since the ingest is the common operation between ingest and merged it was decided that merge should be an auxiliary action rather than a workflow action Since the opposite operation the asset trimming is currently viewed as an auxiliary action it makes sense that before ingesting users may choose if they want to cut or merge an asset and after that ingest the edited assets This way system becomes more modular 4 1 7 Context Menu In terms of interaction the actual interface of mxfSPEEDRAIL only allows left click scrolling dragging and keyboard input on desktops It is easy to adapt these actions for touch interfaces since there is an equivalent touch gesture for each one Left click would be done with a single tap scrolling with a swipe dragging
58. en the users see when they access the system is the login screen As shown in Figure 4 9 this screen contains only the login form for user authentication Since unauthenticated users do not have access to the system this form must be separated from the rest of the layout The login form contains one Keep me logged in checkbox in order to avoid logouts by for instance accidentally closing the browser window It also has an option to unmask the password to ease the password input especially in tablets where input mistakes may be common 58 Proposed Solution mxfSPEEDRAIL Figure 4 9 Mockup of the login screen As seen in section 4 1 4 if users have any doubt regarding the interface they can get more info by clicking the question mark icon in the bottom right of the screen This will provide contextual help by giving hints about the layout elements that are being displayed As shown in Figure 4 10 there is also the option to see the user manual to access to a more detailed information mxfSPEEDRAIL Figure 4 10 Mockup of the login screen with help hints After logged in the user sees the projects screen In this screen users see all the projects they have access to listed It is possible to search for projects as well as to see their recent and favorites projects Projects are also divided in two types single and gang control The first 59 Proposed Solution refers to projects where it is only possible to
59. ese tests demonstrated that the project approach proposed in the new solution is not a strange concept and ends up being intuitive to use However they also demonstrated some inefficiency in terms of navigation and operation speed Users complained about the complex navigation flow and the high number of screens On the other hand they felt that information was better organized and contextualized contributing for a more pleasant experience During testing all the users failed when trying to delete a project This happened because of new type of interaction introduced in this new design To delete a project users had to right click the project in order to open a context menu Since the current interface does not support the right click input users didn t expect that it was possible to use it This was specially a big problem since that it was the only way for users to delete a project Another aspect that raised some problems was the use of the same elements for different purposes This happened particularly in the S1000 record screen in which users had to use the record button to both start and stop recording It also happened when using the same media 73 Proposed Solution controls control both the VTR and the recorded output In most of the tests users found these situation ambiguous and did not felt confidence about its behavior Also in S1000 users did not find the type of project division useful since they felt that it should be pos
60. everything organized He is married and he has two young children Scenario As a senior editor Paul has to ensure that new content gets published as fast as possible This means that his team has to import video from different types of HD cameras edit different video files in an NLE editor and send all the edited content to their playout servers in a small period of time This is usually a stressful job since that Breaking News TV is known for its first hand news guarantee 3 3 3 2 Case 2 Name Jo o Silva Job Broadcast Engineer TVS 45 Analysis and Requirements Gathering Description Jo o is 35 years old broadcast engineer that works for TVS a Portuguese TV company specialized in broadcasting sports events He finished his master degree in electrical engineering 11 years ago and he has been working for TVS since then The thing that he loves the most about his job is to be able to cover live events and communicate with the audience in real time He is a very enthusiastic person and a passionate about sports and technology He is recently married and does not have children Scenario Since most live events take place in different locations mobility is crucial to Joao He has to ensure the digitization of the video captured by the analog cameras and ensure that it gets to the streaming server in real time to be displayed in millions of sports fans televisions His team will cover the next Olympic Games and Joao is very anxiou
61. f dependence in order to find related panels that could be merged Since there were some panels closely related these panels were merged in order to optimize the overall layout Figure 4 6 shows the redesign of location list displayed in the Asset Explorer panel in F1000 Now it displays an icon before the location name in order to identify the location as a folder in a storage server a MAM or a device This list was also merged with the Device Initially it was thought that mxfSPEEDRAIL could sync with MOG s servers in order to get the latest version of the user manual but this idea was later discarded since most of the systems don t have internet connection 55 Proposed Solution Manager panel since it now displays if locations are offline by graying them out Initially location list was designed with buttons to add and hide locations However this was later discarded with the introduction of the project concept since these operations are already done inside the project settings The final design can be seen in Figure 4 28 Asset explorer B location 1 location 2 location 3 vo Po RSE ten O ovur_sr O Mxf 1w O E nyna E Pe BaALvis DO 44 Figure 4 6 Location list in Asset Explorer panel left and its redesign draft right There is another example in S1000 The controls for recording and controlling VTR are separated from the monitor Since they are dependent controls manipulate what is b
62. fixed layout e The concept of project as an abstraction for a better content organization e Auto detection of the input format e Ingest as the main operation trim and merge as auxiliary operations e No need to save settings everything is automatically saved Proposed Solution e Improved user and permissions management e Some panels were merged and redesigned e Improved trimming with visual feedback e Possibility to view the output files e Remember me option in login form e Improved help with contextualized hints e Tabs instead of panels e Two types of settings application settings and project settings e Improved automatic rules layout with its state feedback ready processing or disabled The following sections describe the most important choices during the design process 4 1 1 Responsive layout One of the problems raised during the analysis described in the previous chapter was the lack of space optimization In fact there is a lot of empty space in the current GUI of mxfSPEEDRAIL that is not being taken advantage of as shown in Figure 4 1 This problem contrasts with the large amount of information that RTP users complained as described in section 4 3 2 There is a lot of space that is not being used and at the meantime there is a lot of information being displayed Figure 4 1 mxfSPEEDRAIL F1000 layout displayed in a monitor with 1680x1050 resolution This happens because the current lay
63. flows optimization 2 2 2 Other Solutions Being aware of the market dynamics is an important activity in business When designing new interfaces it is also important to have some knowledge about what already exists and what is being done In this section the main competitors of MOG s mxfSPEEDRAIL will be analyzed as well as some video editing software 19 State of Art 2 2 2 1 Competitors For this section seven direct competitors of mxfSPEEDRAIL were considered Although there is not much information about the competitors interfaces and how the user interacts with their systems some screenshots were provided in order to get an overall idea of the concurrent GUIs on the video production market Figure 2 14 Figure 2 15 Figure 2 16 Figure 2 17 and Figure 2 18 Figure 2 14 AmberFin iCR 4 5 left and AmberFin UQC right Figure 2 15 DVS Venice left and DVS Spycerbox right 20 State of Art Figure 2 18 Cinegy Ingest left and Cinegy Capture right 21 State of Art 2 2 2 2 Video Editors Since NLE editors play an important part in post production area and mxfSPEEDRAIL is usually integrated with them it s also important to have a look to some of the most used video editors GUIs their evolution and how they are organized Most video editors are organized by a project driven interface If a user needs to edit a video or to create a sequence it has to create a new project and
64. ften speed up the interaction for the expert user such that the system can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users Allow users to tailor frequent actions 8 Aesthetic and minimalist design Dialogues should not contain information which is irrelevant or rarely needed Every extra unit of information in a dialogue competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility 9 Help users recognize diagnose and recover from errors Error messages should be expressed in plain language no codes precisely indicate the problem and constructively suggest a solution 10 Help and documentation Even though it is better if the system can be used without documentation it may be necessary to provide help and documentation Any such information should be easy to search focused on the user s task list concrete steps to be carried out and not be too large While usability is focused on functionality user experience is focused on the overall experience of an interaction According to its ISO definition user experience is concerned with all aspects of user s experience when interacting with the product service environment or facility 31 It involves user s emotions beliefs preferences perceptions physical and psychological responses behaviors and the occurrences that happened before during and after the utilization context As shown in Figure 2 25 a good user experience is achie
65. hat implications it will have during the task accomplishment One of the advantages in testing with users is that it makes it possible to evaluate the new design according to a specific criteria that otherwise would be difficult to verify The proposed solution was tested using a laptop with a mouse The prototypes described in the section 4 2 were displayed in a web browser in full screen with highlighted links between them At the beginning of each session a brief description of the test and its purpose was given to the users For these tests the thinking aloud protocol was used in order to get a better understanding of users perception when interacting with the proposed design During each test users had to describe what they were seeing while they were executing some suggested tasks Users were also asked to consider both the desktop and tablet usage of the displayed screens Since not all the interactions were prototyped users got an explanation of its behavior whenever they tried to use them A script was also developed and delivered to each user in order to guide them through the testing process The script describes a use scenario and contains a sequence of tasks for the 72 Proposed Solution S1000 and the F1000 interfaces that users had to perform using the new solution The script is presented in the attachment G The purpose of these tests was mainly to obtain some qualitative feedback about the proposed solution
66. he Sales Team 10 2 Questions about tasks 1 What are users doing in the application users tasks content features and functionality There are multiple ways of using the application from a simple to a more complex one There are users that configure the application to run automatically and therefore they only need to monitor jobs However there are also users that need to do some operations manually specifying for instance a small group of assets to ingest 2 Which features are most important to users importance Avid integration edit while ingest metadata management and the possibility to play watch clips 10 3 Questions about sales 1 What is the actual client s vision about MOG s products simple hard to learn but efficient etc In terms of product clients find MOG s products simple to use instead of being techy In terms of GUI they usually find it nice and pleasant to use 2 Why do clients choose MOG s mxfSPEEDRAIL differentiation factors They choose it mainly because of its versatility and flexibility It is possible to reach standards in less time with less effort and in fewer steps Also clients like the fact that SPEEDRAIL is a dedicated tool 3 What are the client s expectations when asking for a product They usually want something to fulfill their workflow needs Mainly they want to solve compatibility issues and to increase efficiency 4 What are the most requested feature
67. he main tab is the player in F1000 the main tab is the activity The main tab is bigger than the secondary tabs and it is shown on the left of the screen since the most common order of reading is from left to right MAW TAB C Player Figure 4 2 Draft of the layout for S1000 left and F1000 right main screens 51 Proposed Solution During the design process there was a big discussion about allowing users to customize the layout of mxfSPEEDRAIL Currently this is done by using the layout editor to add remove resize or move panels in the panel area as shown in Figure 4 3 eO lt 0048082 Figure 4 3 Layout editor in mxfSPEEDRAIL S1000 According to Nielsen 44 usability research on customization features has shown that most users do not want to customize and prefer to use the default settings Although interviews stated the opposite as seen in section Erro A origem da refer ncia n o foi encontrada it was also noticed during the testing session at RTP studios that RTP users do not customize and only use the default layout as described in section 4 3 2 Although user customization potentiates products flexibility to fit in different use contexts it may raise some usability problems as well as leading the user to not take advantage of more efficient alternatives Nielsen also states that is the designer s responsibility to pick the optimal default solution in order to benefit the majority of users
68. hive content For future content searches content metadata must be 46 Analysis and Requirements Gathering ensured during all digitization process Stefan is one of the archivists that will be conducting this process 3 3 4 Measurable Goals Some measurable goals were defined in order to validate the design proposals for the new solution The following criteria will be used e Learnability user s effort in learning how to interact with the interface must be low e Understandability the new interface must be consistent and easy to understand e Usability the new interface must be easy to use e Satisfaction users should feel pleased for using the product These goals will be evaluated through testing the new design with users They will also serve as guidelines for the designing process 3 4 Conclusions During this chapter mxfSPEEDRAIL products interfaces were analyzed along with other related interfaces in order to understand the current solution The overall conclusion is that although the current interfaces are easy to use there are some flaws that may affect user performance and learnability Since efficiency is important for users the new interface should be capable of overcome these issues providing a more satisfying experience The next step of this project is to gather concrete ideas and solutions to solve some of the analyzed problems in this chapter along with some problems that may arise from
69. ideos Replace the second video for another Adjust sound volume Browse around the application BSD Re IS 8 2 Results Find currently playing video information and metadata ma Violated i 2 Description Heuristics Severity How found 1 Stop button is always highlighted 8 l Playing assets Stop button is always activated even when the movie is already stopped or there is nothing to stop i 4 Paye ai 3 Control buttons does not have tool tips 10 3 Playing assets 4 Video seek bar is very similar to the controls 6 3 Playing ease separator line 5 Video seek bar is far from controls making seek 7 2 Pir pause operations difficult 93 P1000 Evaluation 6 Hover in control buttons is not distinguishable 1 2 Playing assets In playlist each video is identified by one number 7 its position in playlist rather than the name that is 1 3 Playing only shown by hovering it making it difficult to playlist identify the assets g Eject button appears as clear playlist rather than its 4 3 Playing common eject purposes playlist 9 Playlist created by admin appears in the ingester 5 2 Playing session playlist 10 It is not clear which video is playing in a playlist It 1 6 3 Playing should be highlighted playlist 11 It is not possible to edit a playlist User has to eject 7 3 Playing all assets and then add one by one again playlist I
70. in create an automatic job As admin create a new ingester user As ingester ingest files As ingester change your layout As ingester trim files and ingest them Browse around the application SOLO TON TS a a pi o eS aA BW WN 87 F1000 Evaluation 7 2 Results Violated 8 as 2 Description Heuristics Severity How found In login form the title of the form is Login but the 4 l Login button to perform the action is labeled as Log on o8 2 As ingester I still see the settings icon although I am g 2 Bowne not able to access them 3 Help button is presented with an info icon 2 4 3 Browsing 4 There are several star plus icons that don t let me 4 8 2 Browsin add nothing because the system is empty 8 5 Layout button does not have tool tip and it is hard to 10 3 Browsin understand what it does without clicking it eee When the system is empty the new job button is i i enabled but it does not do anything after clicking it ae Rrowsmg 7 There is a back button hidden in settings 8 1 orean a storage Buttons duplicate and remove are active when Creating a 8 3 8 2 there are no storages in the system storage 9 It is not obvious where the user should start 6 4 Create a storage When I create a new object for instance a new Creating a 10 storage system automatically saves the empty
71. ing a Button Editor making it more flexible Magnetic windows allow that everything snaps together perfectly It has the Hoverscrub function that allows clip preview by moving the cursor over clips icons It also supports gestural controls from a trackpad Adobe Premiere Pro CS 6 is being seen as a good alternative to FCP X and some even call it Final Cut Pro 8 Avid Media Composer Figure 2 21 Avid Media Composer 5 5 2010 left and Avid Media Composer 6 2012 right 23 State of Art According to Broadcast Engineering 22 Avid s Media Composer is still the most used NLE on primetime TV productions being employed on up to 90 percent of evening broadcast shows One great feature of this NLE is the Avid Intelligent Architecture that enables the Media Composer software to constantly evaluate the resource that can most efficiently get the job done Regarding GUI the new interface version 6 Figure 2 21 offers a tab system bin layouts and workspaces that may be mapped to keyboard shortcuts However some users complained that the actual interface is a little messy less enjoyable to use and hard to customize it right 2 3 Interaction Design Some years ago technological features were the big focus when designing interactive systems since there were no worries about creating user friendly interfaces Computers were expensive and consequently they were only used by an elite of persons with technical kno
72. ion the provided help consists in a PDF viewer that displays the user manual as a document Although it allows some navigation like page navigation and table of contents with hyperlinks it is still difficult to navigate and to find information quickly since the manual is extensive and there is no search field Another aspect to consider is that changing an interface implies some relearning and may raise questions about what is new and what has changed In addition when designing for touch interfaces some interactions may not be clear increasing the learning curve To solve this a new type of help is suggested in this redesign By clicking in a help button present in every screen the user should now get visual and textual hints of each element in the screen as shown in Figure 4 4 This allows help info to be contextualized providing a quicker understanding and a better guidance through the interface NOTE if you don t have an account please contact your system administrator mxfSPEEDRAIL Username admin Insert here your username letters only Password se O mente Click here if you want to see your password Inserte here your password v Keep me logged in Click here after entering your username and password Login to enter in your SPEEDRAIL account Click here if you want to stay logged in If this option is checked you ll be logged in even if you close your window Figure 4 4 Login form mo
73. it is necessary to organize the recorded material and the archive phase where it is necessary to describe the finalized content in order to make it easier to catalogue and to reuse in the future These descriptions are called metadata and they may vary according to its goal and its content They can include information like production title recording date clip duration involved staff image description and recording format During production and post production phases media content is transferred several times from one stage to another alongside its corresponding information The way this happens is State of Art closely related to the recording medium used For a long time magnetic tapes were the most used type of storage as most of the systems were tape based However due to its ineffectiveness in some steps of the production workflow and the digital revolution tapes started to be replaced by digital files the main units of a file based system This change had a big impact on the way television was made since that allowed not only the optimization of some processes but also the simplification of television workflows Both systems tape based and file based are going to be described in the next sections 2 1 2 Tape based Workflows As said before magnetic tape is the type of storage used in tape based systems during the production process There are different types of tapes that can differ in terms of size as shown in Figure
74. le Goals reu nean aa a eai 3 4 Conclusions seeeesseseeseeessssereesesesssseretssssssrrersessssesrrersessssserrens ix AeA Desig irela r Are chiceal Sd E Kadai Chae a ud Muah Maven 49 4 1 1 RESPONSIVE layout eninin r E e E ava 50 4 1 2 Layout structure and customization 0 ec ceecceeceesseeteeeceeseceeceaecnseeneenseenes 51 4 1 3 Project CONCEDE wavs wees teeter ae a ai iad ed E ahaa E Hee alee 53 4 T4 Contextiial Helps icpscncset oes cnzis irn E EE AE E E DR RS VADE 54 4 1 5 Panels TEd sign i s9 252 estimates ove diasiaerige hasta tere va ai Dado ea efi 55 4 1 6 Merge as an auxiliary action ccceccccsccessceesceeeeeseeeseeessecssecaecsecsseceeenaeenes 57 AY lt 7 S COMER MENU ass Aa nn a bared hte dha vedi esi so O sata ares uae ah vel O nao 57 42 PROLOLYDINE arero a a iaeees ada cece ns aes dla CNT aa iaS tas a Dana Dna camadas asas 58 4 2 1 S1000 Mockups inet neiii a a a aait 58 A D FI QOO MOCKUDpS jes eaa ri ER E E EEEE E a Fiais neta 69 4 3 Testing m en JAR RO E RD RUNAS PRO E AD ND 72 4371s MOS Testing aresta ses erdetcn teehee Site frontal aa a ae tn Sena bee eek 73 4 32 REP TESH G4 ccccatesnelize capeior id a ea lek tsk ce cerdas 74 4 4 Conclusions sse meteen e a a E ensaia DU SINA pads SED qu eam 77 5 Final Conclusions and Future Work sscsscssscsssssssscssscssssssscssscssssssssnsssnesenes 79 5 1 Accomplished Goals ee eaa estar e rara R ol eaten sete aes 80 52 Future Woke ec
75. ls with the required processing and a web application made with Adobe Flex that interfaces the system and that can be accessed either by web browser or local application Adobe AIR application The access to each application is done through logging in with users credentials username and password In terms of graphical user interface mxfSPEEDRAIL was designed to be used in desktops with the production environment in mind Its layout is easy to use and customizable which makes it handy to use in the different contexts of post production Its look and feel has mainly dark tones since most production environments have no natural light Figure 2 8 shows the connection between the four mxfSPEEDRAIL products The next sections will describe them with more detail MULTI CAMERA GANG CONTROL 1 REAL TIME PLAYBACK QUALITY CONTROL PREVIEW IN BROADCAST MONITOR REAL TIME PLAYBACK LIVE FEEDS OB VANS aya x pee e gt VIR MANAGE CONTROL SCHEDULE EDIT WHILE INGEST CAPTURE mip i XDCAM and SxS READER P2 READER PORTABLE DISK lo a PLAYOUT SERVERS SDI RECORDER WEB PUBLISHING Q lave rece mem 26 vooo oem SD 4 gt x w 2 par w a al lt P2 XDCAM PLAYER XDCAM STATION E o U MEDIA STORAGE MEDIA BACKUP PROXY STORAGE PORTABLE HARD DISK ONLINE STORAGE Figure 2 8 Overview of mxfSPEEDRAIL capabilities 14 ARCHIVE A o a uu n lt a u
76. lusions and Future Work 82 S1000 Evaluation Appendix A S1000 Evaluation 6 1 Description Product 1000 v2 7 1 Evaluator Andr Alves Date 01 04 2013 Main Goal Ingest video from SDI input Tasks 1 As admin add a storage to the system 2 As admin add a MAM to the the system 3 As admin create a ingest profile 4 As admin create a new ingester user 5 As ingester ingest from stream 6 As ingester add metadata 7 As ingester manage streams 8 As ingester schedule multiple up to 5 ingests 9 Change your layout 10 Browse around the application 6 2 Results Description R o Severity How found The default look and feel has low contrast 1 3 Browsing Sound control is not clear 4 3 Browsing It is possible to copy and delete a storage when there 5 8 2 Creating a is none i storage 83 S1000 Evaluation After creating a storage profile it is only possible to 4 delete it after saving Until then if the user wants to 2 4 creating a cancel he has to click Undo storage In remote interface when the system is loading 5 before the login the action field does not ask for 13 Ras confirmation and do not give feedback when a given 8 action is complete 6 In remote interface there is no TAB support for the 4 7 San login form 7 In storage there is no confirmation after typing the IP 1 Creating a address st
77. m configuration desktop seems to be the most preferred and practical device Moreover due to screen size restrictions designing the proposed solution with tablets in mind has forced the Final Conclusions and Future Work system to be better structured and organized with a cleaner layout making the system easier to learn and to use 5 1 Accomplished Goals During this project most of the goals and sub goals initially defined were met along four different phases state of art gathering analysis and requirements gathering designing a new solution and testing it First the state of art was gathered and analyzed in order to understand better the context of the project This was successfully done as it gave insights about the video production workflows its processes and the related software solutions Since there was also some study about the user centered design process it also helped keeping in mind the main usability and interaction design principles which were useful for the next project phases The analysis and requirements gathering was also successfully conducted since it helped to clarify some doubts to understand the structure and the layout of the current solution and to focus on the most important requirements for the new design To do so it was conducted and heuristic evaluation that resulted in a list of potential usability errors that were considered during the design phase It were also conducted some interviews task an
78. me field but it is possible to write 3 4 Creating a them in the name field above although they are the i user same When creating a new metadata profile same icons appear twice and some have different behavior i e Creating a 48 trash icon in the left column is to delete one metadata 4 metadata profile but in the right section is to delete all of profile metadata fields Creating a 49 In source fields there is an empty column 8 metadata profile Combobox to change all options is not correctly Creating a 50 identified and it is away from the column that it 6 metadata modifies profile When type is a list it appears a pencil to edit You Creating a 51 can add several items with the same name but when 1 metadata you save it only saves one profile Creating a 52 Nothing happened when choosing a metadata profile 4 clipnaming profile Counter should be numbers by default instead of oe maunga 53 2 clipnaming letters profile It should be possible to delete labels with the Er sane oy keyboard by pressing delete clipnaming profile In remote version after changing language there are 55 still some options in english i e shutdown restart 4 Browsing help search here 56 Help manual is only provided in english no matter 10 Browsing what language is selected When creating a new user it is possible to include Genoa 57 in the username However login form doesn t accept 4 8 the
79. mxfSPEEDRAIL products utilization in touch screens In order to obtain viable solutions it will be created low fidelity prototypes to quickly test the ideas They will be tested first with MOG s team and then with users from a TV production context in RTP 47 Analysis and Requirements Gathering 48 Chapter 4 Proposed Solution This chapter describes the overall concept of the proposed solution and the main design choices made It also documents the testing process used to validate the ideas proposed during the design phase 4 1 Design Redesign a graphical interface is an evolutionary process To adapt the current interface for tablet screens some strategies were considered The proposed solution is the result of a study that involved mainly a structure reformulation and content organization It was analyzed how to display the current interface in a smaller and touch based screen Having that in mind some aesthetic aspects like colors and fonts were not particularly tested However there was also some preoccupation with the size of the elements in order to make them compatible with touch interactions As stated before 01000 and P1000 interfaces are very similar to the interface of F1000 Considering this and due to time limitations the proposed solution had its focus essentially on the S1000 and F1000 interface Some of the final changes made to the current layout include e Responsive layout instead of the current
80. n t support keyboard shortcuts to control the interface Since RTP users are used to work with NLE s like Avid Media Composer which allows keyboard usage as a quick way to access the system s functionalities implementing keyboard shortcuts would be useful to accelerate some operations like media navigation and asset trimming The new solution also lacks elements for sound control as implemented in the current design For trimming assets some additional controls are also needed especially marker controls like Go to In Go to out and Clear Marks These controls are also frequently used in the video edition software When considering the use of the proposed solution in tablets users demonstrated some reluctance Similarly to MOG s users RTP users considered that tablet and desktop should be used for different purposes in order to take full advantage of their characteristics They stated that tablets can be useful for basic operations and especially for system monitoring Complex operations like configuration are likely to be done with desktops since it would be faster RTP users also confirmed that tablets would also be useful in terms of mobility which is important for them 75 Proposed Solution Figure 4 30 VTRs in the ingest room at RTP Studios Figure 4 31 Video tapes identified by project ready to be ingested at RTP studios 76 Proposed Solution Figure 4 32 Desktop running the mxfSPEED
81. n asset explorer you user have to click twice to pla E an asset In Sine user only has to click e j 4 2 Paye e 13 It is not possible to adjust sound volume 3 3 Playing assets 14 It is not possible to save playlists 7 2 i 15 Select override time code while playing a video file 3 4 3 Brownie does not do anything 16 Seek bar does not color the section already played 1 3 Playing assets 17 After clicking in play feedback is not immediate 1 3 Playing assets 18 It is not possible to set current position by typing a 7 3 Dinda time value 94 Interview with the Support Team Appendix D Interview with the Support Team This interview was conducted in MOG S offices in March 11 of 2013 with Sandro Fraga Support Engineer at MOG 9 1 Questions about users 1 Who are the users of the application primary and secondary users There are two main users admins and operators Admins are the ones who configure and set up all the settings profiles and layouts They prepare the system for operators to use enabling them to access needed features only Operators are responsible to use the application doing simpler operations This hierarchy is more likely to be followed by big organizations while there may be small organizations where the admin is simultaneously the operator 2 How would you describe the users user characteristics i e age experience education etc It depends on the client The
82. n different buttons Figure 3 3 describes how the GUI of mxfSPEEDRAIL S1000 is organized Metadata Legend Screen Areas Buttons Categories Product Monitor 3 Figure 3 3 mxfSPEEDRAIL S1000 GUI organization Figure 3 4 shows how the information is related in F1000 in conceptual terms This diagram does not represent how the system is implemented but the information dependencies 40 Analysis and Requirements Gathering Device Profile Name Name Base path pee Type Smb Cifs Search depth Asset kind Base path Interpl Location Storage Location MAM nierpay E Workgroup A AvidUnitylsis Max files per directory Workspace Media Manager There are several device 1 ER types that are not listed Storage Co here to keep this AvidUnityMedianet FC Interface IP Address Max files per directory Workspace diagram simpler Name Server address Username Password AAF Base path XML 1 4 Base path Name MAM HiRes Output MAM Proxy Output Creation Dats Base Path 0 3 GenericFtp Port Max connections Base path The output storage type depends on the output wrapper Q HiRes Output Operation Wrapper Format sesh Base Path cor Base Path MAM Output typed XML AAF Interplay Q according
83. n of the user when using this interface in the above mentioned devices 12 2 Instructions These mockups were designed for desktop and tablet use Please keep that in mind while doing this test You are testing the mxfSPEEDRAIL S1000 capture and F1000 ingest proposed graphical interface Note that the first screen is an auxiliary screen so that is possible to access to both S1000 and F1000 These mockups have interaction Interactions are highlighted in yellow Not all elements have interaction If you need to do something that doesn t have an interaction PII explain Please keep describing what you are seeing thinking during the test 109 User Testing Script 12 3 Workflow VTR pc rserra mxfSPEEDRAIL 1000 mxfSPEEDRAIL F1000 The editor server must receive files with the following formats Editor Server Format MPEG LGOP 50 Wrapper Quicktime Resolution PAL Metadata type AS11 Clips name Topgear 000 Topgear 001 Topgear 002 12 4 S1000 Tasks 9 Sea SO 60 ON Ue Log in Create a new project called Top Gear two users of your choice Record a file and add info to footage during recording Write some metadata Delete the created project Create one ingester user Log out 110 Setup the project according to the specifications given and give access permissions to Schedule one capture event in order to automatically record today
84. nd Requirements Gathering features and different panels on the same product might lead to user not understanding why some features are not working for instance the metadata shortcuts in S1000 only work in the local version but it is still possible to see them in the web application Also some data that appears in the local interface might not appear in the web interface and vice versa This should be handled carefully to make sure that users know exactly what they can do in each environment and what data is available at each moment Although all products have a similar looks and feel there are also some inconsistencies between products This is more accentuated in S1000 since it was developed differently from the other products Besides the differences of how the information is organized for instance contrarily to the other products in 1000 there is no metadata profile concept and displayed there are some interaction differences for instance in S1000 there is a contextual menu This may be confusing since that mxfSPEEDRAIL is seen as an integrated and centralized solution In terms of accelerators although there is some effort of speeding up user actions there are some needed improvements like multiple selection of objects and keyboard shortcuts In terms of user control and freedom mxfSPEEDRAIL provides some protection against user s mistakes However there are some critical actions like shutdown restart and delete that don t a
85. ng form Why not change directly user 21 The field admin password and old password are 6 Creating a not ambiguous user 22 In Layout Editor when adding new panels already Changing visible panels are not highlighted layout Local and web interfaces are different i e monitor panel it has sound control in the web interface but E 23 4 Browsing in the local interface sound control is a different panel 84 S1000 Evaluation Creating a 24 It is not possible to edit proxy clip name T capture profile 25 Metadata shortcuts do not work in browser and user 4 Ingesting is not informed from stream 26 Log messages are too technical 9 iieestne from stream VTR controls does not do anything and user does not Ingesting 27 3 8 know why from stream There is a customizable settings label hidden in Cree 4 28 rofile Dan l 8 capture p pangs profile 29 It is not possible to move panels by only dragging 3 4 Changing them like the operative system i layout 30 It is possible to resize panels that aren t visible 14 Changing because they are visible in remote layout 31 Shuttle Jog switch has low contrast 1 Browsing 32 Edit Delete Copy event are available when there is 5 8 Creating a no events capture event 33 Label and From Metadata are fields that are not 6 10 Creating a obvious i capture event Although it affects all
86. nication of the application with the server is also done through web services using SOAP protocol Figure 2 11 Screenshot of mxfSPEEDRAIL F1000 2 2 1 3 mxfSPEEDRAIL 01000 While S1000 and F1000 are ingest tools mxfSPEEDRAIL 01000 is an outgest solution which means that it prepares videos to be stored and published This allows users to manage their media export processes in a simple and fast way This is particularly useful since it frees 16 State of Art the video editor 17 by delegating this task to 01000 It is possible to export media to playout servers web servers and archive servers Some of its main functionalities include Direct export of Avid sequences it allows Avid assets management and metadata maintenance with the possibility to generate web versions Multi format and resolution compatibility it adapts to every type of workflow by supporting the most used professional formats and resolution Simultaneous processing it allows the outgesting of several assets at the same time Remote access allows the possibility to control remotely through the web interface accessible through any browser with Adobe Flash compatibility Background execution system will run in background freeing the video editor for its purpose In terms of GUI 01000 is very similar to F1000 as shown in Figure 2 12 Besides the panel driven design both 01000 and F1000 share the same type of panels The main diffe
87. nto de televisores mais sofisticados mas tamb m a uma mudan a na forma de fazer televis o Uma das maiores mudan as aconteceu ao n vel do suporte de media com a mudan a dos sistemas baseados em cassetes para sistemas baseados em ficheiros optimizando assim o processo de produ o Contudo a cont nua inova o tecnol gica leva ao aparecimento de novos formatos m todos e novas formas de cumprir tarefas que por sua vez leva a que a televis o seja obrigada a reinventar se constantemente de forma a dar resposta ao mercado competitivo Com a prolifera o dos dispositivos m veis e a revolu o das interfaces t cteis h uma necessidade de adaptar os sistemas actuais a novos paradigmas de interac o tirando partido das suas features e casos de uso que os computadores n o podem abranger Os tablets em particular t m vindo a ser equipados com cada vez melhores capacidades de processamento e dimens es de ecr relevantes tornando os potenciais ferramentas para complementar as tarefas dos computadores e para auxiliar os v rios trabalhos Com isto em mente a MOG Technologies empresa de solu es de ingest de v deo prop s esta disserta o com o intuito de estudar e analisar a forma como a produ o de televis o pode incorporar estes dispositivos nos ambientes de p s produ o O principal objectivo consiste no redesenho da interface gr fica dos produtos mxfSPEEDRAIL da MOG de forma a torn los compat veis tanto com desktop
88. o digital by capturing a tape s content into a file for instance or from digital to digital The State of Art latter is called transcoding and consists in the conversion of one media format or encoding into another Besides transcoding it can also occur rewrapping the change of the media wrapper of the assets Ingest can occur both with local and remote files This process also allows the addition of metadata to assets After the ingesting process assets are ready to be used in the next stages of the workflow When the size of the asset essence is too big and heavy to operate a small resolution file may have to be created This file is called proxy and it is a copy of the asset with the same characteristics but with different audio and video quality in order to ease its handling This is particularly useful for some operations that don t need high definition like preview editing and web publication avoiding excessive memory consumptions and allowing to simplify some processes In terms of edition file based systems are characterized by the nonlinear edition NLE Unlike linear edition it is now possible to instantaneously access to specific parts of a clip or sequence This way the editor has more control over the media since it is easier to manipulate it This process is cheaper and more effective compared to tape based systems since it only requires a computer and a video editing software as shown in Figure 2 5 Avid Media
89. o manage the locators presets e Metadata it allow to manage the metadata presets e Users it allows to managed the users that have access to the system e Advanced other general configurations that aren t used frequently e Import it allows to import files that contains settings from other systems to make it faster to configure the system e Export it allows to export files that either contains the current settings or the application log 67 Proposed Solution Settings v x General LANGUAGE Language English Date Format DD MM YYYY Data Separator LOOK amp FEEL Skin Default Figure 4 22 Mockup of the application settings screen New User Type Administrator Ingester Name Username Password Figure 4 23 Mockup of the dialog screen for creating a user It is important to notice that only administrators have access to settings either the project or the application settings Ingesters only have access to projects that the administrator allowed them to access This means that administrators must configure the system in order to users operate it 68 Proposed Solution 4 2 2 F1000 Mockups In order to maintain some coherence between solutions F1000 follows the same layout structure as S1000 They both share the same login projects and scheduler screen When users access the application they see the login screen where they have to input their credentials
90. of Art over 10 1 inches and have different resolutions It is important to consider this specially when designing dimensions or responsive layouts in order to make sure that all the content is readable and easy to reach Figure 2 28 shows the tablet market share by screen size between 2011 and 2017 according to IDC Worldwide Tablet Market Share by Screen Size Band 2011 2017 Screen Size 2011 2013 2017 lt 8 27 55 57 8 11 73 43 37 11 0 2 6 Total 100 100 100 Figure 2 28 Worldwide tablet market share by screen size band 2011 2017 1 The input precision is also something to consider In general touch precision is lower than mouse precision Different screens may have also different touch precisions Touch technology may not always be the same which means that the pressure and the area of the touch may also differ from tablet to tablet For instance small buttons lacking feedback can be a problem in screens with low touch precision It is also important to understand how the users use tablets Typically users hold tablets with hands along the sides or they simply place the tablet on a surface and use both hands for typing as shown in Figure 2 29 Tablets can be used in two orientations landscape in which the width is bigger than the height and portrait in which the height is bigger than the width These two factors how users hold the tablet and in which orientation influenc
91. of GUI S1000 is composed by several independent panels organized according to their functionality as shown in Figure 2 10 It has one video monitor for video previewing that displays the video timecode and that can be replicated up to 10 monitors in order to support several streams control Moreover it has recording and VTR controls sound control panel for clip listing multi camera control gang control and a metadata panel It also has a 14 State of Art status bar and a log panel for registering the events and give user information about the system s state Since different operations require different functionalities these panels can be activated deactivated resized and moved using the layout editor tool easily adapting to users needs In terms of implementation its frontend was developed using Adobe Flex while its backend was developed using Python The communication of the application with the server is done through web services using SOAP protocol 00 43 24 23 READY Figure 2 10 Screenshot of mxfSPEEDRAIL S1000 2 2 1 2 mxfSPEEDRAIL F1000 mxfSPEEDRAIL F1000 is very similar to S1000 but it differs since its input is now files instead of SDI channels F1000 receives and transfers media files from and to editor devices servers and network folders acting as a converter and preserving metadata 16 By centralizing this process it is possible to minimize errors and to streamline the workflows
92. ommon problems that mxfSPEEDRAIL s products have is the lack of consistency between each other and between other conventions Along the evaluations there were some similar objects that had different behavior for instance the trash button that sometimes was meant to delete one occurrence and other times was meant to delete all occurrences and that might lead to a difficult learning of the product Also some interactions were inconsistent with platform standards for instance after resizing a window user expects to be able to use it without having to save its position opposing the users behavior expectation Another problem that has led to some potential error situations is that data entered by users is always saved whether they click the save button or not This means that users may perform operations with data that was not saved is volatile and may be wrong for instance empty storage profiles This also leads to a lower visibility of system status since that what is seen by the users might not be what is on the system s database Although there is some error prevention regarding this issue it is not efficient enough to prevent this system malfunction There are two ways of using mxfSPEEDRAIL products through local application interface or through web interface Since the execution environments are very different interfaces end up being different too Some inconsistencies between these two environments like different 42 Analysis a
93. ople s everyday lives it is essential to ensure that they do not compromise or constrain users tasks Designing software is now a challenge that not only involves the incorporation of different technologies but also the understanding of the user needs and expectations in order to provide them a pleasant experience Different user needs and contexts has emerged concerns with different ways of interaction with computational systems The traditional mouse and keyboard may not be efficient in some situations as for instance tasks that need user mobility Therefore new interaction ways are being studied in order to fulfill new demands Touch interfaces are one of the interaction paradigms that has been emerged during the last years These type of interfaces has been Introduction spreading among devices from computers to household appliances since they are an intuitive and simple way of interaction Besides their flexibility potentiates its use in different areas and for different purposes These revolutions have potentiated new opportunities that companies are being exploring in order to create innovative products This way they are capable to offer bigger and better services and products as well as they are ready to compete with the ever growing technological market 1 1 Context The topic for this dissertation was proposed by MOG Technologies S A a leading company specialized in products and solutions for file based post production
94. or a better understanding the next section analyses the current interface and describes the heuristic evaluation process that was performed 3 2 1 Structure Figure 3 1 shows the GUI structure of mxfSPEEDRAIL that is shared by the four products S1000 F1000 01000 and P1000 There is one session toolbar at the top of the screen where some of the main control buttons are disposed the status bar at the bottom of the screen shows the current system status server IP address date and time and the software version and in between there is the panels area that can be fulfilled with panels according to users preferences 38 Analysis and Requirements Gathering Figure 3 1 mxfSPEEDRAIL GUI structure session toolbar red panels area blue and status bar green Since F1000 01000 and P1000 were implemented with the same tools they all have a very similar structure with few differences related to their different functionality Figure 3 2 describes how the GUI of mxfSPEEDRAIL F1000 is organized Activity Asset Explorer Asset Selection AutomaticJob Clip List Device Manager Drive Management Job Control Legend Screen Areas Buttons Categories i Product Workflow Profile Figure 3 2 mxfSPEEDRAIL F1000 GUI organization 39 Analysis and Requirements Gathering On the other hand although S1000 has the same look and feel as the others it has different panels different settings and eve
95. orage g Color of the currently editing storage is too bright g Creating a and it hides its name on the storage list storage 9 There is no base path in Storage and MAM 4 E a e In Input tab there is a dropdown for proxies codec Creating a 10 which is presented even when there are no proxies 3 8 capture although it is disabled profile In Input tab outputs HiRes and proxy have Creating a 11 ambiguous icons which have no tooltips lock icon 10 capture and sound icon for instance when they are activated profile Creating a 12 Examples should be provided through a Help Button 8 capture profile When adding a new proxy proxy audio is canceled Creating a 13 by default The icon is not clear It does not look 10 capture clickable profile Users have to create several storage profiles for the Geane 14 same storage if they want to save different formats 7 storage there In Capture Profile Metadata trash icon appears Creating a 15 twice with different behavior delete one and delete 4 capture all profile 16 It is not possible to create new users 4 7 Baa E 17 Help button is not reachable with settings window 3 10 Creating a open user 18 Help does not offer a search feature making it 10 Creating a difficult to find information user 19 There is no feedback error or success after changing 1 Creating a admin s password user 20 Change password is a check box that enables disables 4 Creating a the correspondi
96. out is fixed and it was not designed to adapt to different screen sizes This means the bigger the screen the larger the amount of unused space 50 Proposed Solution since the panels dimensions remain the same On the other side users with low resolution screens may have to scroll to see all the content Hence one of the design decisions for this project was to implement a responsive design in which the layout adapts to the viewing environment displaying elements homogeneously and taking advantage of the whole screen space This is particularly useful for tablets since their screen size is much smaller than desktops and it can range between 7 to about 10 inches as shown in section 2 3 3 A design that adapts to the device to what is being displayed is not only a good practice but also a future proof experience 4 1 2 Layout structure and customization Another problem with the current interface is that although it is possible to edit the layout the default screen has a lot of information that most of the times the user does not need Therefore it was thought to apply a tab system rather than maintaining the panels This has the advantage of grouping similar information in one place hiding it and only displaying it when it is really necessary Figure 4 2 illustrates the main concept differentiating by default the main tab and the secondary tabs The main tab corresponds to the tab that holds the most important content in 1000 t
97. perate all the files needed during the production process There are many types of video software that can be used in different moments of the workflows including software for video recording video conversion video editing and even video broadcasting However different workflows may require different software in order to satisfy their specific needs In the following sections some of these video software solutions will be described and analyzed 2 2 1 MOG s Solutions One of MOG s main products is the mxfSPEEDRAIL one centralized ingest outgest solution that allows among other functionalities video transcoding and rewrapping in order to guarantee systems interoperability across the workflows 13 As its name states this solution is based in the MXF format and is divided into four products each one with a specific function e mxfSPEEDRAIL S1000 used for SDI recording and ingest e mxfSPEEDRAIL F1000 used for video ingesting 12 State of Art e mxfSPEEDRAIL 01000 used for video outgesting e mxfSPEEDRAIL P1000 used for video preview and SDI playout Clients can choose a product based in a preset list of features There is also the possibility to customize the product according to a specific workflow in order to adapt to clients needs After its acquisition client gets an annual license which activates and deactivates features and that can be renewed Each product is composed by a dedicated server that dea
98. pine London x x 08 53 12 07 3 12 07 K a gt a Figure 4 18 Mockup of the S1000 project screen with gang control 3 To go back to the initial screen projects users have to close the project with the X button on the top right of the screen The scheduler screen is similar to most of the calendar applications for tablets as shown in Figure 4 19 It has the option to view the calendar by day week or month It has also the option agenda view where all the events are listed and grouped by days as shown in Figure 4 20 There are two ways to create an event either by dragging one project that is listed on the right to the calendar or by simply clicking tapping on the calendar It will open a dialog Figure 4 21 asking for the event type whether a recording event or an event to reboot the system the time and date of the event it can be specified either the starting time and the duration or the starting time and the end time the project if it wasn t dragged and the event periodicity if unique every day week month or year 65 Proposed Solution Scheduler x Month 4 May 2013 gt SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT i 2 3 Calendar May 5 6 7 8 9 10 Projects E E E E 7 a A Football 16 07 G Mickey Mouse s 10 00 Top Gun Olympics London G 12 00 Top Gun 19 20 2 2 23 24 25 Top Gear s Top Gear HO s q Tese 26 27 28 29 30 3 Figure 4 19 Mockup of the scheduler screen in month view Sched
99. plicitly the opposite For this evaluation it was used a desktop computer with Google Chrome v 26 0 as browser Windows Remote Desktop Connection for the remote access to the local application and a monitor with 1680 x 1050 as resolution 41 Analysis and Requirements Gathering For these evaluations the evaluator used Nielsen s Usability Heuristics This set of heuristics consists in 10 general principles of design as described in section 2 3 1 In terms of severity the problems were classified from 0 to 4 according to the following criteria 0 Don t agree that this is a usability problem 1 Cosmetic problem 2 Minor usability problem 3 Major usability problem 4 Usability catastrophe imperative fix This severity criteria was also proposed by Jakob Nielsen 42 and is based on the frequency impact and persistence of the issues This will help to prioritize problems and to measure the usability of the current interfaces The complete output of the mxfSPEEDRAIL heuristic evaluation is presented in appendix A B and C Since 01000 has a very similar interface to F1000 the same results gather during F1000 evaluation are valid for 01000 The slight difference is that in 01000 the main goal is to outgest files instead of ingest and there is no trim functionality 3 2 2 1 Results In a general way the current mxfSPEEDRAIL is simple and easy to use However there are some flaws that deserve some attention One of the most c
100. ration i Choose the input type c Configure the high resolution output if you want i Choose the essence format ii Choose the wrapper format iii Choose the output folder d Configure the proxy output if you want i Choose the essence format ii Choose the wrapper format iii Choose the output folder e Configure how the output files will be named f Configure how the metadata will be handled g Configure the asset management of the output files h Configure other options 2 Choose the input folder 3 Start a Choose if you want to process all the existing files 11 4 P1000 Tasks 11 4 1 Play a file 1 Choose file to play a Open the desired folder b Select the desired file 2 Play 106 Task Analysis a Press play 11 4 2 Play files from a playlist 1 Create a playlist a Open the desired folders b Select the desired files c Add files to the playlist 2 Play a Press play 107 Task Analysis 108 User Testing Script Appendix G User Testing Script 12 1 Introduction This user test is part of the study that is being conducted regarding FEUP s dissertation about tactile interfaces in post production environments This study aims to create a new graphical interface for MOG s mxfSPEEDRAIL suitable both for desktops and tablets The main goal of this test is to understand how the proposal solution would improve the learnability the efficiency and the overall satisfactio
101. re are people of all ages usually with higher education 3 What is the average user background Are they familiar with post production and video fields It depends on the client Usually admins are experienced persons familiar with video and post production technology On the other hand operators may have less technological knowledge 95 Interview with the Support Team 4 When and where do users use the application physical environment and user context Mainly low light rooms with lot of screens and controllers In some cases i e OB Vans space is limited so there is the concert of keeping the space as organized as possible 5 How are users accessing the application user computer settings i e connection speed resolution sound etc Screen size may vary but usually it is greater than or equal to 15 inches Computers have no sound since that audio is processed separately Local connection speed is usually fast 9 2 Questions about tasks 1 What are users doing in the application users tasks content features and functionality Users usually change layout using layout editor generally keeping the workspace organized Sometimes they even resize panels meticulously They also use export settings in order to configure multiple computers 2 Which features are most important to users importance Being able to configure the system to run automatically is one important feature for most of the users
102. rence between them is the operation that each one executes User can now choose between two layout presets User Driven and Automated Similar to F1000 the frontend was developed using Adobe Flex and the backend was developed in C The communication of the application with the server is also done through web services using SOAP protocol Figure 2 12 Screenshot of mxfSPEEDRAIL 01000 17 State of Art 2 2 1 4 mxfSPEEDRAIL P1000 mxfSPEEDRAIL P1000 is a player capable of reproducing media with broadcast quality for a wide variety of platforms and channels 18 It is compatible with most of professional codecs and formats used Its playout capabilities provide a better quality control over the media Some of its functionalities include e Preview and monitoring it allows to visualize media file with broadcast quality ensuring quality since its ingest until its transmission e Multi format and resolution compatibility it allows a precise HD SDI preview of a wide range of formats and codecs e Remote access allows the possibility to control remotely through the web interface accessible through any browser with Adobe Flash compatibility e Enhanced quality control it enhances the quality control by providing a complete media player with integrated sound control that allows external monitors Regarding its GUI P1000 has only one layout preset User Driven as shown in Figure 2 13 However it is still possi
103. ress 2007 IxDA IxDA Mission 2013 CIID Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design G Fioretti and G Carbone Integrate business modeling and interaction design IBM 08 Jun 2007 Online Available http www ibm com developerworks library ws soa busmodeling index html Accessed 26 Jun 2013 W D ISO 9241 11 Ergonomic requirements for office work with visual display terminals VDTs Guidance on usability 1998 J Nielsen Usability engineering vol 9 1993 J Nielsen Enhancing the explanatory power of usability heuristics in Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 1994 pp 152 158 J Nielsen 10 Heuristics for User Interface Design Online Available http www nngroup com articles ten usability heuristics Accessed 26 Jun 2013 118 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 References I S O DIS 9241 210 2010 Ergonomics of human system interaction Part 210 Human centred design for interactive systems International Organization for Standardization ISO Switzerland 2009 R Nilsson Usability vs User Experience UX 2010 Online Available http www neospot se usability vs user experience J Spool The Difference Between Usability and User Experience User Interface Engineering 2007 Online Available http
104. rganize what is displayed in a contextualized way removing elements that are not needed and optimizing the screen space This abstraction is not new since it is commonly used in other professional video software like video editors as seen in section 2 2 2 2 This concept is in part similar to the concept of workflow profile already present in the current interface Both concepts are abstractions that incorporate a collection of settings and make the application more modular by supporting repetitive tasks The difference lies in the broader conceptual value of project as it potentiates a new set of features like permissions resources allocation and contextual media and scheduling Besides the concept of project is easier to be understood by people with less video production knowledge since it abstracts the technical word workflow and it is more business oriented In a television studio for instance a project would represent a video production or a TV program Although this approach allows a better organization of the application content it may have some weaknesses comparing to the actual interface Using a project driven design requires a new interface layer the management of projects This means that once users log in they will have to pass through an intermediate screen to select a project in order to be ready to operate the system This may slow down some use cases since it is an additional step but on the other hand it benefits repetitiv
105. rmation that is displayed It was also possible to conclude that users were not taking advantage of all the functionalities of mxfSPEEDRAIL since they were not aware of them all They also confirmed the need for operation speed especially when trimming videos The next step was to show the new interface to the users The same low fidelity prototypes used for user testing in MOG were used and displayed in a laptop with a mouse Generally users find the new interface more pleasant and easier to learn They specially liked the idea of using tabs to organize the information since it hides the unnecessary information and at the meantime it keeps the functionality They also liked the layout structure since it favors the size of relevant content like the video player in S1000 and the activity status in F1000 The seek bar in player was also seen as a good improvement since it eases some operations like assert trimming and video navigation The introduction of the concept of project in the mxfSPEEDRAIL interface was also seen as a good feature for the users As it is possible to see in Figure 4 31 most of the tapes to be recorded are identified with the project TV show name However there may be tapes that do not belong to a specific project Hence the new solution should also provide instant access to the system functionalities without forcing users to create a project According to users the new solution still lacks some functionality First it does
106. roject 2 1 Television Since the mid 19 century that television has been gaining presence in people s quotidian being one of the most important communication mediums nowadays The word television comes from the combination of the Greek word tele and the Latin word visio meaning distant vision Its definition includes not only the television sets but also the television shows their production processes and in terms of telecommunications the television transmission also known as broadcasting The technological evolution and development that is being seen in the last decades has forced television to redefine itself From CRT to LCD monitors from the analog signal to the digital and high definition television from tapes to internet broadcasting the way of seeing television is becoming more and more sophisticated potentiating new opportunities that weren t so far possible as shown in Figure 2 1 Television has stopped being one static instrument for signal receiving and playing and started to become a dynamic media center capable of adjusting to user s preferences and needs Smart TVs are an example of this effort it allows not only internet connection but also offers better processing capabilities and connectivity State of Art Figure 2 1 Family watching television 1958 2 left and the gesture interaction in Samsung Smart TV 3 right However in television industry not every change is visible to
107. rrent document is divided into five main chapters The first and present chapter introduces the problem that will be solved and presents the main motivations and goals of this dissertation The second chapter includes the state of art of this topic including the definition of its relevant concepts and the analysis of trends and previous work For a better understanding of the problem the third chapter analyses and describes the current graphical interface as well as new requirements that will be considered for the new solution In the fourth chapter the proposed solution is described by explaining the overall design process the created prototypes and the testing results The fifth and last chapter concludes this document with a reflection about the achieved goals and future work Chapter 2 State of Art For a better understanding of some concepts and technologies this chapter will analyze the actual state of art First it will analyze the television evolution and its production processes as well as some relevant concepts Then it will be described the most relevant video production software for this dissertation including MOG s and its competitors main products After that it will be explained the processes models techniques and concepts involved in designing interactions both for mobile and desktop Lastly the current state of the web technologies will be analyzed including web and mobile frameworks that might be needed for this p
108. s Requested features include most of the times support for some video formats like DPP Cannon XF and uncompressed Other features include monitor multiple S1000 being able to watch the output while recording to check if the ingested file is ok internal storage capability and continue recording when one destination fails 100 Interview with the Sales Team 5 What are the client s main requirements and preferences Clients want something simple and fast For instance something like inserting the Top Gear s card on the system and then click on Top Gear s button to start ingesting Then repeat this process for other cards without having to wait 6 How does the interface of the product influence sales Did the previous changes affect sales in a good way Do clients ask for a screenshots for a trial version of the products before buying Usually clients give more importance to technical specifications rather than the product s interface Interface is usually seen as a good extra Previous changes did not affect sales although the costumers that were used to the old version had difficulties to accept the new one Usually clients ask for a trial version Screenshots can be found in flyers 7 Do clients usually buy multiple products or just one It depends They can also use multiple products together or separately 8 How often do clients ask for training sessions It s not that frequent Usually clients learn how to
109. s about it 3 3 3 3 Case 3 Name Marie Ren Job Journalist France News Description Marie is a 24 years old journalist that works for France News a French TV company that delivers national news either through its private channel and its famous website She has a bachelor degree in Communication Sciences and she started working as journalist 2 years ago Although she just started her career Marie aspires to become one of the news anchors of France News Marie is single Scenario Usually Marie has to cover cultural events Besides interviewing she has to add metadata and edit the captured video adding for instance voice over 3 3 3 4 Case 4 Name Stefan van Brummen Job Archivist Berlin TV Description Stefan is a 53 years old archivist that works for Berlin TV a public generalist TV channel very popular in Germany that has recently turned their processes into tapeless workflows He has a professional degree in Information and Documentation and he has been working as an archivist for 28 years starting in a local library After that he had been working with radio and TV production companies He is a very calm and open minded person although he prefers to do his job like the old times He can deal with computers although he does not like them much He is married and he has 3 children and 1 grandchild Scenario The recently change of Berlin TV to tapeless workflows has arisen the need to digitalize all the old arc
110. s como com tablets Assim foram identificados os pontos fortes e fracos do actual design assim como os principais casos de uso de cada produto Isto serviu como uma base para criar um novo conceito para a organiza o do sistema que permita a sua adapta o para ecr s mais pequenos e de toque A partir deste conceito foram implementados v rios mockups que depois foram testados com os utilizadores Primeiro foram testados com os colaboradores da MOG e de seguida com utilizadores de um contexto real nos est dios da RTP Estes testes foram importantes na medida em que ajudaram a validar a solu o proposta e a recolher informa es para a sua melhoria Este relat rio descreve os processo usados e os seus respectivos resultados iii iv Acknowledgements I could not conclude my dissertation without thanking all of those who have helped and supported me during this process First of all I would like to thank my supervisor Teresa Galv o for all the advices talks meetings emails Skype conversations and especially for always having the right answers for the right moments Her guidance patience time and sympathy helped me to overcome the obstacles and to keep my head up I would also like to thank MOG Technologies Pedro Ferreira and Luis Miguel Sampaio for this opportunity Developing this dissertation in a corporate environment made me grow both professionally and personally For that reason I would like to thank to all my colleag
111. sible to control several players no matter the type of the project particularly in projects with two video channels Also in F1000 users had difficulties to understand the asset explorer screen Although they understood the overall purpose of the screen they had doubts about the purpose of the To Process list This list was also perceived as an unnecessary element since it end up being an extra step for manually ingest an asset Despite these problems users find the overall interface more pleasant and clear They specially liked the content organization since there is less unnecessary information being displayed decreasing the visual noise of the screens Since it has more space it is easier to understand its structure and consequently it is easier to use They also found the new help structure useful although they did explore it in detail Some of the suggestions made by the users include the separation of the desktop and tablet use cases They found it difficult to configure a project from the tablet perspective considering that it involves too much input for which touch interactions may be harder and slower Some users considered that by having different but coherent designs for each device it would be possible to take the most of their characteristics and to provide a better user experience 4 3 2 RTP Testing RTP is a public radio and television service that produces several television contents In terms of ingest workflow RT
112. sk for user s confirmation Other frequent issue is that there are some controls that are activated but do not do nothing because the system is not in the right state for them to work for instance there are buttons for delete and copy profiles when the system is empty These controls are not only irrelevant information that is being displayed but also they might trick users For the situations when the user does not know what to do there is a help button that opens the product manual Although this can be helpful there is no option to search for specific keywords making problems resolution take longer In addition help button is not reachable with the settings window opened making it harder for user to receive contextual help Some controls do not have also tool tip making it sometimes difficult to understand what they do Apart from these problems products are practical and easy to use once mastered 3 3 Requirements Gathering Process In order to gather requirements for the new interface some methods may be used as seen in 2 3 2 This section describes the methods used and the resultant conclusions 3 3 1 Interviews In order to have a better insight about how mxfSPEEDRAIL is being used two interviews were planned for MOG s team One interview was conducted with one person from the support 43 Analysis and Requirements Gathering team since they are responsible both for the user assistance and user training in order to
113. st Ni 6 automatic hidden i ingest profile Creating an 72 It is not possible to edit an automatic job 7 automatic ingest profile 73 Notifications are too big and too technical 8 Browsing 74 Selected color in activity is not obvious 1 a 75 An ingester can stop flows created by the admin 5 we E 76 Clear clip list does not ask for user confirmation 3 ee 77 Distance between in point and out point buttons 7 Trimming is too big clips 78 In and Out icons are not obvious 6 ae Activity does not have clear all options as in the Ingesting 79 ops 7 clip list panel files When Out point is smaller than In point there is Trimmin 80 an error But user only sees the error during the 5 9 clins 8 ingest process and with a technical message p 81 After ingesting the clip list of a file disappears 7 Eoi 82 Too many clicks to add a clip 7 une clips 83 Control buttons have no tool tips 10 aie 91 F1000 Evaluation Clip list only appears after two clicks 1 3 a Edit time values should avoid user to delete the 5 2 E 92 P1000 Evaluation Appendix C P1000 Evaluation 8 1 Description Product P1000 v2 9 11 Evaluator Andr Alves Date 29 03 2013 Main Goal Video files playout Tasks 1 Playa video file pause it and then stop it Choose another file to play Seek a specific position in a video file Create a playlist with 3 v
114. stall to learn to use and to update The UCD methodology not only increases the overall user satisfaction but also diminishes technical support expenses accelerates the learnability and contributes to greater market success 35 Although there are several ways to apply these principles there is an international standard 36 that defines the UCD methodology basis and that describes the overall process without specifying exact methods As shown in figure Figure 2 26 this model is divided into four main activities 29 State of Art Identify need for human centered design Specify context of use System satisfies specified requirements Evaluate designs Specify requirements Produce design solutions Figure 2 26 Four main activities of a UCD methodology e Specify context of use by identifying use context problems and restrictions In this stage it is important to answer to specify the users the tasks the user wants to perform how and why they will achieve them and in which context e Specify requirements by identifying business and interaction goals in order to achieve product s success It must be considered users needs preferences and limitations as well as what the company wants to achieve e Produce design solutions in this stage solutions are designed and prototyped It starts with the conceptual idea and extends until the idea is translated into a tangible design This phas
115. t output wrapper Naming Template Metadata Profile Template EE Mimmi 5 E 4 Do Metadata Profile Metadata Type My Fields O 1 Advanced Settings E Figure 3 4 mxfSPEEDRAIL F1000 conceptual diagram 3 2 2 Heuristic Evaluation As seen in section 2 3 1 heuristic Evaluation is an inspection method in which an evaluator analyses one interface according to a set of criteria or heuristics in order to find potential usability problems For each product it was identified the product s main goal as well as the most representative tasks for the evaluator to test All the tasks were tested multiple times in order to identify issues during the utilization A brief description of the issues was written in a template document along with the violated heuristics the severity of the issue and the where how it was found The evaluator the author of this document had already a small medium level of application knowledge and its area of context as well as some HCI background when performing this heuristic evaluation Tasks may be performed either by web browser or by local application To simplify the evaluation process most of the tasks were performed using a web browser unless the evaluator deems it useful for the study to test the task in the local version Having this in mind all the resulting issues were found through the browser interface unless it says ex
116. teraction and consequently they require different approaches However it is known that mobile is becoming a technological trend which means that nowadays running an application or accessing a web page does not necessarily require a computer Moreover this provides an interesting new set of opportunities that favors the digital experience by making it possible to do desktop tasks on the go and with little effort Video post production can also be very challenging With the appearance of the file based systems video workflows became more efficient but at the same time less interoperable They may require tasks like ingesting and transcoding in order to support different formats which may be repetitive and time consuming Media companies are continuously evolving in order to offer better products and optimized experiences to their clients With this project the graphical interfaces of the post production solutions provided by MOG Technologies were redesigned aiming to make them compatible both with desktop and tablets On one hand it was proved that it is possible to have an interface design for post production that addresses both devices requirements and provides consistency and functionality One the other hand it was concluded that tablets can in fact improve post production workflows by helping controlling and monitoring the ingesting systems They are also advantageous since they are a compact device that offers mobility However for syste
117. the audience In fact the incorporation of new technologies in television makes it possible to improve not only the television shows quality but also their production and transmission processes Thus the use of more and more sophisticated tools makes it possible to automate and optimize some production tasks that once were manual enabling better error proof results One of the major evolutions in terms of production processes was the paradigm shift from tape based systems systems that use magnetic tapes as media storage to file based systems systems that use files as media storage This change has affected the way television was produced and simplified media transport broadcasting and storage as described in the next sections 2 1 1 Production Processes Television production can be a complex and time consuming task It may take several technological human and financial resources and different integrated steps to translate the ideas to the screen as shown in Figure 2 2 However no matter the size of the production producing television involves at least three major phases pre production production and post production 4 State of Art IDEA A CATALOGUE DEVELOPMENT ARCHIVE a POST PRODUCTION COMMISSION REPORTING TRANSMISSION RESEARCH aio PLANNING FINISHING Logistics and x a Content EDITING Pe das LOGGING Figure 2 2 Stages in creating a TV programme 5 First every production starts with
118. tion has not only allowed the automation of some processes but it also allowed the exploitation of new opportunities Introduction Worldwide Tablet and PC Forecast 2013Q1 Units 500 m 400m 300 m 200 m 100 m Om Tablet Portable PC oO Total PC Portable Desktop Figure 1 1 IDC s forecast about Tablet and PC shipment worldwide 1 Alongside this phenomenon a new interaction paradigm has arisen due to its innovative capabilities Touch interfaces are nowadays used in several devices as they allow flexible and natural interactions Technological innovations contribute to new ways of accomplishing tasks namely in terms of television production However there are not many solutions available when it comes to the use of tablets in this area This can be a big opportunity since that with the appearance of the file based systems optimizing workflows and support mobility are big concerns that media companies are seeking in order to face the competitive television market 1 3 Goals The main goals for this dissertation include e To understand the impact of tactile interfaces in post production environments e To create a set of proposals and design guidelines for mxfSPEEDRAIL products interfaces that allow their utilization both in desktop and tablets e To develop and test a set of low and medium fidelity prototypes in order to validate the proposed solution Introduction 1 4 Document Structure The cu
119. to configure it accordingly This is particularly helpful in terms of organization since projects encapsulate media settings and preferences needed to accomplish a specific work Final Cut Pro Figure 2 19 Final Cut Pro 7 2009 left and Final Cut Pro X 2011 right Final Cut Pro is a NLE created by Apple Inc There were many complaints about its recently upgrade from version 7 to version X Figure 2 19 since many editors used to the previous versions were having a hard time getting used to the new one Users complaint about old features missing like multiple scopes windows open at the same time custom recallable window layouts and multiple monitor compatibility According to Broadcast Engineering 22 there is a SCRI international market research that points that in 2011 Apple s Final Cut Pro 7 software was being used by 54 6 of the professional editing community 22 State of Art Adobe Premiere Pro Figure 2 20 Adobe Premiere Pro CS 5 5 2010 left and Adobe Premiere Pro CS 6 2012 right Adobe Premiere Pro is a NLE created by Adobe Systems Its last upgrade Figure 2 20 involved a few GUI changes making it cleaner and easier to use It is possible to choose between a dark or a light grey skin for the previous versions users and the dead space was removed i e player as you can see in the above figures as well as some transport controls Besides it is possible to customize layout includ
120. u wu 13 State of Art 2 2 1 1 mxfSPEEDRAIL S1000 mxfSPEEDRAIL S1000 is multi format recording system which permits capture audio and video from SDI and HD SDI interfaces 15 as shown in Figure 2 9 The received signal coming for instance from a video camera is recorded into files which may contain metadata to local or remote storage units It is possible to generate clips with high resolution clips with low resolution proxy or both Figure 2 9 Example of a workflow using mxfSPEEDRAIL S1000 15 Besides video recording S1000 includes other functionalities like Editing while capturing it allows the use of editing software to work on files even if they are still being recorded Live feed recording it allows real time capturing Scheduling system it allows to schedule recordings in order to automate the process Metadata logging it allows to add additional information to the media VTR controller it allows controlling VTRs internally providing some actions like play pause stop rewind fast forward and jogging Fallback storage allows to save the output in case of main storage failure Multi format resolution it adapts to every type of workflow by supporting the most used professional formats and resolutions Remote access allows the possibility to control remotely through the web interface accessible through any browser with Adobe Flash compatibility In terms
121. ues at MOG for the shared knowledge lunch talks and for letting me annoy them with stupid questions and non sense proposals A special thanks to Ricardo Serra for all the sighs and the endless discussions that made me see the other side of the equation His friendship and great supervision at MOG helped me to keep my feet on the ground while my head was on the clouds I would also like to thank RTP namely to Paulo Brand o for receiving me and making it possible to gather feedback from real users in a real context This was unquestionably a rich experience and a valuable contribution for this project Moreover a special thanks to my fellow finalist Joao Estevinho for all the good laughs usability jokes conspiracy theories and geeky talks It was funnier with him around without a doubt I would also like to thank my friends for all the support and comprehension due to my absence during this journey Thanks to them all the effort was worthwhile Finally a special thanks to my parents and my sister who taught me to never give up and helped me to become who I am Thank you Andr Neiva Pereira Alves vi The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas Linus Pauling vil viii Contents LeIMtrOductiOn cc ccsscessccsescosseooss sosvescsecssesessossessosecsasedsesvessosnssececsesseass Da CC ONE ae 8 tanh tact a CA RA SR ROC taut h lak 1 2 MO tiv ALON cs samira terete dokere dh RT deters En Tede
122. ui Project Name Click to insert Figure 4 13 Mockup of the project settings screen Resolution 1280x720p 1440x1080i 1440x1080p 1920x1080i 1929x1080p NTSC NTSC 16 9 PAL PAL 16 9 PALPlus Cancel Figure 4 14 Mockup of the dialog screen asking for user to set the project resolution 62 Proposed Solution Select Users Andr Alves Jo o Estevinho Paulo Furtado lt aalves jestevinho pfurtado Ingester e t ngester Ricardo Serra rserra Ingester Figure 4 15 Mockup of the dialog screen asking for user to select the users that have access to a project After configuring the project users access the main screen of the project as shown in Figure 4 16 As described in section 4 1 2 this screen is composed by several tabs and it is by default divided in two sections On the left there is the primary tab the player tab where media is being displayed and can be controlled On the right there are the secondary tabs where is possible to add metadata see the output files or create recording events All the tabs are listed below e Player this is where media and its timecode is displayed and controlled e Overview this is the default tab to be displayed it lists the main project settings e Locators to activate locators during recording e Metadata to change and control video metadata e Log to display warning and error messages as well as keep the actions historic e Files
123. uler x Asenda 4 May 2013 gt Thursday 9th Calendar UEA Top Gear 10 02 10 11 03 10 May Season 2 Episode 1 01 01 00 Uma TopGear 12 02 10 13 03 10 p Projects Season 3 Episode 2 01 01 00 Football 16 07 G Friday 10th Mickey Mouse s 7 Top Gear 10 02 10 11 03 10 A Olympics London G 1 01 Season 2 Episode 1 01 01 00 EE A Bia Top Gear 12 02 10 13 03 10 or sto s Season 3 Episode 2 01 01 00 Figure 4 20 Mockup of the scheduler screen in agenda view 66 Proposed Solution New Event Duration Project Periodicity Figure 4 21 Mockup of the dialog screen for creating an event As seen before the application settings are accessible through the button with the cog icon on the top right of the projects screen Here it is possible to change general configurations about the system like language look and feel presets and users Figure 4 22 and Figure 4 23 Application settings use the same pattern as the project settings with the vertical tabs on the left and the content on the right It has the following tabs e General it contains the overall configuration of the application language look and feel date format e Input it contains the options regarding the input of the machine where the application is running e Storage it allows to manage the storages servers on the system e Asset Management it allows to manage the media asset managements on the system e Locators it allows t
124. understand how users are using the product and what the main problems of their utilization are The other interview was conducted with one person from the sales team in order to understand what clients are asking for and what they think about mxfSPEEDRAIL Both interviews were conducted in an isolated room at MOG s offices The interviews both with the support and the sales team are presented in appendix D and E 3 3 1 1 Results The main conclusion taken from the interviews conducted is that users expect speed and efficiency from mxfSPEEDRAIL Since that some operations may be repetitive users want to achieve their goals wasting as less time as possible In addition this highlights the possibility to automate some processes as a high value feature for users However system must be flexible and provide manual handling for situations that require special attention Some features like layout customization metadata management settings import export in order to configure multiple systems may also be important for users In terms of user context it is important to notice that it may vary from client to client However special situations such as physical restrictions places with limited space studios with low light equipment restrictions low resolution screens separately audio processing and user technical knowledge restrictions specially ingesters must be considered It is also important to have in mind that not all users
125. ure 4 8 A context menu mockup that provides the Delete and Mark as favorite options on a given project Figure 4 9 Mockup of the login screen Figure 4 10 Mockup of the login screen with help hints Figure 4 11 Mockup of the projects screen before user testing Figure 4 12 Mockup of the projects screen after user testing Figure 4 13 Mockup of the project settings screen Figure 4 14 Mockup of the dialog screen asking for user to set the project resolution Figure 4 15 Mockup of the dialog screen asking for user to select the users that have access to a project Figure 4 16 Mockup of the default S1000 project screen Figure 4 17 Mockup of the default S1000 project screen recording Figure 4 18 Mockup of the 1000 project screen with gang control Figure 4 19 Mockup of the scheduler screen in month view Figure 4 20 Mockup of the scheduler screen in agenda view Figure 4 21 Mockup of the dialog screen for creating an event Figure 4 22 Mockup of the application settings screen xii 29 30 32 33 33 34 34 34 39 39 40 41 50 51 52 54 55 56 57 58 59 59 60 61 62 63 64 64 65 66 66 67 68 Figure 4 23 Mockup of the dialog screen for creating a user Figure 4 24 Mockup of the default F1000 project screen Figure 4 25 Mockup of the dialog screen to create a new automatic rule Figure 4 26 Mockup of the Auto tab close up
126. use the products during the presentation sessions and tech fairs 9 Do clients ask for mobile features No it s not an asked feature mainly because there is no need for it most of the times But maybe it could be useful for media managers considering their high mobility function 10 How strong is the clients fidelity with SPEEDRAIL Do they change after use it Why The repurchase rate is relevant 10 4 Questions about competition 1 Why do clients choose competition Some reasons may include it takes some time to customize our products our products may not be flexible enough 101 Interview with the Sales Team 102 Task Analysis Appendix F Task Analysis 11 1 S1000 Tasks 11 1 1 Ingest from a Steam 1 Configure the stream a Connect SDI cable b Configure input settings 2 Define the workflow a Choose the output codec b Configure the high resolution output if you want c Choose the wrapper format d Choose the output folder e Configure the proxy output if you want f Choose the wrapper format 3 Choose the output folder a Configure how the output files will be named b Configure metadata options c Define the output metadata fields d Define metadata shortcuts 103 Task Analysis e Configure the asset management of the output files f Configure other options g Choose the output folder 4 Record a Press record b Press metadata shortcuts to add metadata 5
127. vantage of their features and use cases that computers cannot address Tablets in particular have been equipped with better processing capabilities and relevant screen sizes which make them potential tools for complementing computers tasks and assisting people s work Having this in mind MOG Technologies a video ingest solution company has proposed this dissertation in order to study and analyze how the television production can incorporate these devices in post production environments Its main goal consists in redesigning the graphical user interfaces of MOG s mxfSPEEDRAIL products in order to make them compatible with both desktops and tablets To achieve this the strengths and flaws of the current design were identified as well as the main use cases of the products This has served as the basis to create a new concept for the system organization that allows its adaptation for smaller and touch screens From this concept several mockups were then implemented and tested with users First they were tested with collaborators from MOG and then with real context users from RTP studios These tests were very important since they made it possible to validate the proposed solutions and to gather feedback for its improvement This report documents the processes used and their respective results ii Resumo A televis o tem sofrido grandes mudan as desde a sua cria o Com a revolu o dos computadores assistiu se n o s ao aparecime
128. ved when the product or service is useful easy to use and desirable and it has a good brand experience 28 State of Art UX starts by being useful Functionality people must be able to useit 4 The way it looks and feels must be pleasing Pa Utility This helps create It is useful an overall brand to me experience i It meets my needs Figure 2 25 User Experience 2008 nnGroup Conference Amsterdam 32 Hence usability and user experience concepts are closely related Whilst usability answers the question Can the users accomplish their goals easily the user experience answers the question How delightful was the experience 33 When designing interactions both concepts should be kept in mind in order to meet user s needs and at the same time provide a full and rich experience 2 3 2 User Centered Design User Centered Design UCD is a design methodology for the development of user friendly products Its main goal is to ensure that the final product fulfills users expectations by considering their needs preferences limitations and the overall business goal In other words it carefully balances the needs of users and the needs of the organization 34 This means that it is necessary to understand and to gather feedback from the user from the beginning and during the overall process of a project This way it is possible to create products that are easy to buy to in
129. wledge Since those who programed the system where those who used it their main concern was mainly about functionality rather than an inclusive design With the personal computer massification and spread more people started to have access to computers and to use them in different areas increasing its context of use As a result there was the need to change the way software was designed in order to provide intuitive and easy to learn systems that users with different computer skills could understand and easily use Like it or not people irritable demanding and often distracted people like ourselves and their goals are the point of our systems and we must design for them 23 Given this a new field of research appeared the interaction design in order to help understanding how to diminish the interaction gap between humans and computers In fact interaction design s main concern is to design accessible and inclusive systems and make them understandable and easy to use for the human being The Interaction Design Association IxDA defines interaction design as the subject that defines the structure and behavior of interactive systems Interaction Designers strive to create meaningful relationships between people and the products and services that they use from computers to mobile devices to appliances and beyond 24 Interaction design includes several areas from the traditional design with a strong social and
130. y mam Am amp my device gt Viewoptions Figure 4 27 Mockup of the Asset Explorer screen before user testing Asset Explorer x Locals Assets S pcrserra BS my mam amp my device Am View options Type Figure 4 28 Mockup of the Asset Explorer screen after user testing In the new design trimmed and merged assets are now displayed in the same container as the other assets To distinguish trimmed assets are displayed with a small thumbnail while merged assets are displayed with overlapping thumbnails To merge assets the user has to select two or more assets and click tap the Merge button To preview and trim assets the user has to select at least one asset and click tap the Preview amp Trim button A new dialog appears in which there is the asset selection on the left the player on the center and the trimming table on the right Users are then allowed to preview the assets and to trim them into new and smaller 71 Proposed Solution ones The player has a seek bar in order to help user to navigate easily through the video Trimmed parts are displayed with a different color as shown in Figure 4 29 A mxf Figure 4 29 Mockup of the dialog to preview and trim assets 4 3 Testing As seen in section 2 3 2 a user centered design approach implies feedback gathering from the users in order to get a real perception of how the new solution will likely to be used and w

Tactile Interfaces for Television Post

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