The more the television and the Internet merge, the greater our expectations become on how and when we watch TV. As we become less and less bound to the time and space constraints found in the traditional viewing experience, the question becomes, "Should we be fettered to our television sets at all?" According to frog and the designers of FLO TV’s new pocket-sized “Personal Television” device, the answer is a definitive, “No.”
The idea of being able to tune into TV shows through a mobile device isn't a new one for FLO TV — they've provided their dedicated broadcasting service to a handful of cell phones over the past couple of years — but Personal Television (PTV) is their first-ever device dedicated solely to watching television. To make this project a reality, executives at FLO TV turned to frog, and what started as a limited engagement turned into a comprehensive job that brought together many of frog's convergent capabilities, from industrial design, digital media design, and technology.
frog's first goal was to create a simple interface that was as easy to use as your home television. TV viewers are such a large and varied audience that FLO TV knew the user interface (UI) and software would be integral to the device. Executives at the company also knew that if they wanted a large adoption rate, the device needed to be straightforward and understandable. After several rounds of user testing, frog designers and technologists were able to come up with a touch screen UI and a front-end software that new users grasped quickly and efficiently. To get from one channel to another, users can either use a guide displayed on the homepage of the device, or they can swipe up and down on the touch screen to get to where they want to go. The strength of PTV is in its simplicity.
As the UI took shape, industrial designers on the team began to understand how users would hold and interact with the device, which ultimately informed the product's shape and size. It is clean, unassuming hardware that focuses on helping the user interact with the touch screen, which measures 3.5 inches diagonally (the entire device measures 4.4 inches by 3 inches by .5 inches and weighs just over 5 ounces).
During each step along the way, the frog team worked closely with their counterparts at FLO TV. Collaboration and coordination became the hallmark of the project with technologists, visual designers, and product design experts oftentimes working together in the same room to better take cues from one another. By encompassing and including product management, server and client-side technology, industrial design, visual design, and user interface design frog was able to develop a product unlike any other on the market. Now, mobile customers have a device that is as simple to use as their TVs at home; they just don't need to be at home to watch TV.
Qualcomm’s entertainment subsidiary, FLO TV, and frog teamed to create FLO TV Personal Television, a handheld device that allows users to watch television shows from stations like ESPN, Comedy Central, and CBS while on the go. Using their comprehensive and convergent capabilities, teams of designers and technologists at frog created the industrial design and the user interface. The frog team also played a critical role in the architecture, integration, and development of the device software.
"FLO TV wanted to strike a balance between a conventional television that non-technical users would be comfortable with and a modern mobile device. To that end, touch and a gestural interface were a good fit."
— Josh Musick, Principal Designer, frog design
