Sony Connect Video Web Site
| 
|
| 
|
| 
|
| 
|
| 
|
| 
|
| 
|
| 
|
Connect Video
Client: Sony
Connect Video was an online video download store and a logical continuation of the experience gained through SoapCity Download.
This was an early exploration of placing long-play video content for sale on the web. Media was to viewable on the user's computer as well as portable media devices sold by Sony and others.
The service was to have a web site that was a fully functional store and a downloadable client and media manager. The client would allow the user to transfer media to devices, manage purchased media, play purchased media, and buy and explore new media.
Shown here are several look-and-feel web site layouts as well as a group of views of the client program.
The client application, was an interesting departure from existing media applications such as iTunes. Because the online store would not be opening with content from every studio, the difficulty was matching the customer with content they didn't even know they wanted. Consumers are used to sites like Amazon where everything is available from in one place. Having only the content from a couple studios created a challenge.
With hundreds of movies, thousands of TV episodes, and thousands of videos and songs the customer was sure to be interested in something, but traditional display methods can be overwhelming or tedious. The thought was to help users find media they didn't know they wanted through the use of different views of the available content. In keeping with the service name, Connect would show the user connections between content and hopefully guide them to new items through those connections.
Nine separate content views would allow the user to explore and play with existing content. Each view was suited for different levels of targeted behavior.
For example, users who knew exactly what they wanted could use search or explorer views of their content similar to what you would find in iTunes or Windows Media Player.
Users who knew they wanted a comedy could browse categories and see connections between video until they found what they wanted. The Media Shelf view acted like today's iTunes Coverflow, allowing the user to flip through cover art for albums and movies.
If you knew that you had a two hour flight and wanted a romantic, sci-fi, action film, the Entertainment Equalizer allowed the user to adjust sliders to vary time and movie parameters to narrow choices.
Users who just wanted to veg in front of the TV could view TV style listings programmed by Connect staff and other users. After a while users could learn to trust entertainment choices on those channels similiar to how you know the type of programming that will be found on The History Channel or Discover.
A user could open the client and quickly see how much of their media was grouped in different categories through the Associative Maps and make adjustments as needed.
Athough the user could choose to display only content they owned, downloaded, didn't own, etc., they could also explore by treating the entire library of media as a repository of all their available media - whether they own it or not. At the time, this was unusual, but has now become the norm for media apps.
Client: Sony
Connect Video was an online video download store and a logical continuation of the experience gained through SoapCity Download.
This was an early exploration of placing long-play video content for sale on the web. Media was to viewable on the user's computer as well as portable media devices sold by Sony and others.
The service was to have a web site that was a fully functional store and a downloadable client and media manager. The client would allow the user to transfer media to devices, manage purchased media, play purchased media, and buy and explore new media.
Shown here are several look-and-feel web site layouts as well as a group of views of the client program.
The client application, was an interesting departure from existing media applications such as iTunes. Because the online store would not be opening with content from every studio, the difficulty was matching the customer with content they didn't even know they wanted. Consumers are used to sites like Amazon where everything is available from in one place. Having only the content from a couple studios created a challenge.
With hundreds of movies, thousands of TV episodes, and thousands of videos and songs the customer was sure to be interested in something, but traditional display methods can be overwhelming or tedious. The thought was to help users find media they didn't know they wanted through the use of different views of the available content. In keeping with the service name, Connect would show the user connections between content and hopefully guide them to new items through those connections.
Nine separate content views would allow the user to explore and play with existing content. Each view was suited for different levels of targeted behavior.
For example, users who knew exactly what they wanted could use search or explorer views of their content similar to what you would find in iTunes or Windows Media Player.
Users who knew they wanted a comedy could browse categories and see connections between video until they found what they wanted. The Media Shelf view acted like today's iTunes Coverflow, allowing the user to flip through cover art for albums and movies.
If you knew that you had a two hour flight and wanted a romantic, sci-fi, action film, the Entertainment Equalizer allowed the user to adjust sliders to vary time and movie parameters to narrow choices.
Users who just wanted to veg in front of the TV could view TV style listings programmed by Connect staff and other users. After a while users could learn to trust entertainment choices on those channels similiar to how you know the type of programming that will be found on The History Channel or Discover.
A user could open the client and quickly see how much of their media was grouped in different categories through the Associative Maps and make adjustments as needed.
Athough the user could choose to display only content they owned, downloaded, didn't own, etc., they could also explore by treating the entire library of media as a repository of all their available media - whether they own it or not. At the time, this was unusual, but has now become the norm for media apps.