Electronic program guide interface

Background

My client, called Inview, is an advanced specialist in digital TV software solutions. Inview approached me to create a revolutionary design for a future electronic program guide (epg). The digital software platform would be the first in it's class for broadcasting program information and web applications to the free to air terrestrial market. The brief was to design and animate the guide to present to a board of investors. The guide was to have a modern futuristic feel, revolutionising the epg world.

The Solution

After researching design considerations for TV apps, and sitting in on user testing sessions set up by Inview, I was raring to get started on concepts for the guide. Not rushing in, I created initial wireframes and story boards for the client which led to a concept that was functional, yet still had the functionality and suggested aesthetics to looked ahead of it’s time. The Solution I developed was a sophisticated design, overlaying the live tv channel allowing the user to catch the background program whilst accessing the guide. The interface design has a clean and intuitive interface feel, kept simple for ease of use yet looks modern and slick. The interactivity of the guide was enhanced by buttons and components having an organic animation when a user highlighted areas of the epg with their remote control. I presented a walkthrough of the animated epg using Adobe Flash software, placing touch points to progress to seperate sections of the guide. I also designed web application concepts to demonstrate the power of the new epg software and entice future advertisers. The project also involved creating a online website help portal for users to search faq's and ask any questions via main and live support.

The Result

The project was a success with Inview gaining the nessasary investment to progress with the future epg guide which is now integrated into set-top boxes and distributed across Europe and the far east.