British EBU Member the BBC has launched a research project to explore the potential of new forms of content and interaction in a multiplatform world, alongside new ways of producing media that will help make content more accessible to all audiences.

The BBC User Experience Research Partnership is a long-term collaboration between BBC Research & Development (BBC R&D) and leading British universities in the fields of User Experience and Human Computer Interaction research.

The technical scope of the partnership covers:

• The User Experience of an IP Broadcasting System: developing user-centred services across multiple platforms to help advance public service broadcasting in the digital age
• Designing for New Interaction: Moving beyond gesture and voice to develop new ways of controlling and displaying digital content for more natural and engaging interfaces
• Sustainable Approaches to User Capability: Allowing the industry to meet the changing needs of older users, young children and people with disabilities in accessing digital media
• New Production Interface Technologies: Using novel interface and interaction technologies in new ways to give production teams the most creative and effective ways to craft new forms of content

Matthew Postgate, Controller of BBC R&D, said: “This is an exciting partnership that allows us to explore how audiences could engage with new types of content in the future, and how we can better make it available to them. By bringing together a world-class team of experts from academia and BBC R&D, we aim to stimulate innovation that not only benefits the BBC and our audiences, but also the wider industry.”

The BBC said the research outcomes “will be shared with the industry to encourage wider audience-focused innovation, help define open standards and support the creative industries to produce engaging content in the future”.

Source: BBC