A Usability Study And Application On Electronic Program Guide Of Digital Television

With the arrival of the era of global TV digitalization, China is now promoting digital television popularization and application. Digital television interactivity gives it many functions, Electronic program guide (EPG) is one of the basic operations of digital television .It is the best friendly user interface and digital television is the most direct embodiment of value-added services. Product function is no longer a most important factor to attract customers. The most important factor is the users'experiences. China promotes digital TV lack of user experience in the whole process. Digital TV usability and the user experience have just started. This paper selects the digital TV important interactive applications - electronic program guide for usability research.This paper proposed "user-centered design (UCD)" digital TV guide usability research. Firstly adopts "questionnaire"digital television to users having user experience, Finding problems and satisfaction of users in the use process. Based on this, Establish EPG for our research object, then usability assessment on EPG, We mainly adopt "the usability testing method". From the user's process finding EPG problems. At the same time, we also get users to new functions and the expectation of EPG that improve customer satisfaction and improvement Suggestions. Finally, through improved EPG usability testing and expert evaluation to verify the usability improvement.This study results show that the usability and UCD method in digital TV guide availably. According to the user's suggestion, then use MacromediaFlash8 as design tools, design a new prototype, recruiting the users for usability testing on EPG prototype. According to the usability problems found in prototype, the prototype was improved. Research results show that users have a strong demand on designing the new function demand and satisfaction.