Article Summary
Brave New Interfaces by Timothy Siglin
Article found in the 2005
Streaming Media Industry Sourcebook
Published by
Information Today, Inc. 2005
Timothy Siglin discuses the changes in interface design for streaming media and how the next generation of interfaces will give users new choices in what they watch.
There are basically four characteristics that new streaming media players need to posses.
- Simplicity of Design
- Need to display many disparate types of information simultaneously
- Intuitive Navigation
- The ability to replicate previous events contextually.
Interface designers maybe looking at gaming consoles, like the XBOX, as inspiration. Gamers, like those who use streaming media players, have the need to select variables from several complex menus of settings, environments, etc.
This article focuses on three specific markets – entertainment, corporate and educational. Siglin states that any enhancement to any market will most likely benefit the other two.
Entertainment:
Siglin feels that tomorrow’s entertainment interface will look much more like a digital dashboard or military combat game screen, with 10-15 resizable panels located around the viewing screen to feature graphics, text and pertinent meta-data. In addition, the interface will also offer multiple viewing angles.
On of the biggest increases in the interface design (with relation to entertainment) is the players ability to promote other entertainment related products and services (that may, or may not, relate to the content being played.
Corporate:
Siglin feels that the next generation corporate streaming media players will actually act as a front-end for elaborate content management systems. This means that the next generation capture systems must act as digital asset management systems for all digital assets, or at least link to other asset management systems.
A possible sub-vertical of the corporate market would be the second version of the surveillance systems. Replicating the 4, 8, 16, or 32 window interfaces currently used today.
Education:
Streaming media in an education will go a long way in bringing in outside students in to the classroom. Distance learning is a fast growing segment of the education industry – streaming media (and all the future improvements) will only enhance the education received by the participants.
Siglin feels that the streaming media will be enhanced with several other forms of digital media. For example, while the student watches the professor lecture, flash graphics that appear at specific times may appear to help the students fully understand the concept. Siglin also suggests that the technology would incorporate google searches of suggestions by the professor or look up books on the fly without human intervention.
In conclusion, Siglin clearly states at the end of his article that no interface can replace face-to-face communication. However, streaming media technologies can go a long way in helping a large group of people understand or learn something without the need to bring all those people together.