Convergence Broadcast and Telecommunication Services: What are Real Users’ Needs?

The aim of this chapter is to present an example of the user-centered design cycle for the development of innovative convergence services and technology of broadcast and mobile networks. We will describe three main phases that encompass our work. During the first phase, we focused on the validation of the scenarios developed as well as requirements for the services portrayed in the scenarios, taking into consideration cultural differences among countries. Then we studied in-depth requirements for specific services (mobile TV and personalized alerting). Last, we performed a usability test in three countries to test navigational aspects, users’ understanding of icons and menus, and user acceptance of the mock-up. We will explain how combining different methodological approaches (that is, contextual research, experimental studies, and usability tests) have proven to be very useful in gathering and validating user needs, scenarios, and interfaces for these complex services. In general, we would like to highlight that technology developers have to be careful about the amount of information presented, since users are very sensitive to information overload both for mobile TV and for alerting systems. Once again, for mobile services, less is more.