IRIS | Vídeo. NDS Snowflake | More than just an advanced programme guide, NDS Snowflake is really a next generation User Experience and Interface. BBC Builders: Vicky Spengler prototypes the future of TV | Media. The next in our series profiling developer talent at the BBC is Vicky Spengler, lead designer in George Wright's prototyping team at BBC Research & Development. Spengler works with a team of designers, producers and engineers as well as behavioural scientists and accessibility specialists to develop prototypes that explore new ways of presenting BBC content. Rather than translating projects directly into products, the prototypes inform the direction of various BBC projects, and some are results of collaborations with programme makers. Each peoject typically involves three staff for the equivalent of three months' work.
A graduate of photography, film and TV at Napier University, Spengler's specialism in stills photography meant a lot of "experimenting in the dark room with effects the old-school way" before she was able to explore digital media. . • How important was public service principle in your decision to join the BBC? "It was important. . • What are you working on? " TV ontologies, how much do they matter? A news program has opinions, news items (which might contain locations, types of events etc), issues, methods of finding out more. A news story itself might be part of a bigger feature, which has related stories, or they may be stories that are part of a larger story.
A reality TV show has characters, backstories, histories. A soap has a long history, family trees. A comedy show has sketches. A cooking show has recipes, chefs, locations, influences. TV shows often have their own undefined ontology. Currently, TVs largely ignore these ontologies. The web loves ontologies like this and when designing TV show websites, agencies (us included) agonise over these ontologies. Now, on TV (the 10' experience) do these ontologies matter? On the web (the 2' experience) they matter because people interact with the web, they play about, poke about and hunt for stuff. But the 10' experience isn't like that.
So, do these ontologies matter at all then? Our tvs need a fixin' : greg kepler.