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ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ iPlayer round up

• By Paul Crichton
• 30 Mar 07, 08:15 PM

I got my first glimpse of the iPlayer yesterday, the media system that will deliver the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½â€™s catch-up TV service.

Programmes aired during the last seven days will be available for download. Once you pick a programme to watch it will be stored in your library. The programme can remain in your library for up to thirty days. Once you start to watch it, the show will remain available for viewing for seven days, after which it will expire.

I saw a few screenshots demonstrating some of the steps involved in downloading programmes. I’m generally a functionality-over-aesthetics kinda guy, but I was smitten by the look of it. It really seems like it is going to be a sexy beast. The other thing that struck me about the design was that it is fairly minimalist. That is always a good thing, but considering the complexity involved with providing a platform to download hundreds of programmes from, keeping it simple is quite an achievement. So hats off to the design team for that.

Usability testing has informed much of this design, with believe it or not, testing and reporting taking place on a weekly basis. That is a prodigious commitment to user research and then acting on the findings, but the screenshots suggest it was worthwhile.

An intense round of testing is scheduled for next week, with the iPlayer being given a thorough workout on all the major brands and versions of the most popular screen readers in the market place.

The screenshots also showed that the accessibility features associated with each programme, be it closed captioning, audio description or signing were all prominent as well. We'll post more about these features soon.

It would have been hard finding a more intense work place this side of a Nike sweat shop yesterday than the Broadcasting Centre. There are around two weeks to go until the ‘code freeze’ – which is the cut-off point for development. From that point on, all changes will be restricted to de-bugging the existing code to make sure it works correctly before launch.

A wider trial involving limited numbers of the public is scheduled for May. The iPlayer service will then be rolled out to the public at large in June.

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