Discover how broadcasters can use no-code DaaS tools to design custom UIs, enhancing viewer engagement and reducing costs.
Summary
- The shift to an app-centric model in broadcasting has made the UI increasingly critical, requiring broadcasters to focus on both design and functionality to capture viewer attention.
- No-code tools, such as Design-as-a-Service (DaaS), empower broadcasters and operators to create and manage their own UI without needing specialized coding knowledge, streamlining the process and reducing costs.
- DaaS allows broadcasters to regain control over their visual identity, enabling them to quickly respond to viewer demands, seasonal changes, and new content drops while maximizing monetization opportunities.
- When choosing a DaaS solution, broadcasters should look for features like a dedicated sandbox for testing, WYSIWYG design capabilities, deep-level customization, ecosystem integration, customer-centric services, and whitelabeling options to create unique interfaces.
The importance of the UI
One of the key battlegrounds when it comes to competing for viewer attention is the UI, the user interface. As the industry has moved towards an app-centric model so the UI of the individual apps concerned has become ever more important. Broadcasters and operators have always paid careful attention to design and branding, now they have to take that aesthetic to the construction of the UI and how it looks and how it functions.
This is a challenging task. The tools available to broadcasters and operators when it comes to building their own interfaces have historically been complex and labyrinthine, with steep learning curves. However, it does not have to be that way. A new generation of no code tools allows broadcasters and operators to build and design their platforms with no specialist knowledge required; just a clear vision of what they want to offer their customers.
Design-as-a-Service
The concept of DaaS, Design-as-a-Service, exemplifies this approach and is at the heart of a new generation of platforms set to revolutionize the industry by eliminating the need for outsourcing UI work. It enables broadcasters, content creators, and streaming providers to design, launch, and manage TV apps seamlessly, all without coding expertise. This gives broadcasters and operators unprecedented control over the UI, allowing for a shorter workflow, with fewer stakeholders involved in the process and enabling an accelerated responsive and agile development process as a result.
This brings a number of key benefits. The headline feature is that by bringing previously outsourced work in-house it reduces platform TCO, creating a far more cost-effective workflow. The increased responsiveness meanwhile enables the UI to match the increasingly demanding viewer expectations, as well as to reflect new content drops, adapt the UI quickly to seasonal changes such as Christmas schedules, and more, to maximize monetization opportunities.
The no code revolution
The industry has changed remarkably over the recent decades, but in many ways the arrival of DaaS is taking it back to its roots. Broadcasters were always traditionally in charge of their own visual identity ‘from glass to glass’, and the sole controllers of the image from the moment it entered the camera lens to the moment it appeared on the TV screen in the viewers’ homes. The arrival of streaming led them to relinquish that control and place important parts of that workflow elsewhere. Partly this was due to a wider movement to outsourcing key processes prevalent in the mid 2010s, but also because the expertise in streaming was typically found outside of their own companies.
DaaS allows them to cost-effectively bring that expertise in-house again and leverage their own unique experience in what their viewers want alongside their carefully constructed brand identity to tell a compelling visual story.
Not all DaaS are created equal
While the concept of DaaS is a compelling one, it has to be pointed out that not all DaaS services are the same. At Viaccess-Orca, we have developed a no code DaaS component that is fully integrated with our TVApps solution which fits securely and seamlessly into the overall application and the ecosystem as a whole.
The solution’s development has given us a good indication of what broadcasters and operators should ideally look for when choosing their own solution to build their own UIs.
- A dedicated sandbox. This enables designers to really push their designs and see what works and what doesn’t with full confidence that what they see on screen will be replicated upon release in the real world.
- WYSIWYG design. App functionality that enables designers to intuitively alter on-screen elements in a genuine no-code environment
- Deep-level customization tools. Designers need to be able to really dig down into the UI design. Genuine customization is about more than just being able to change background colors.
- Ecosystem integration. This allows for a data-driven design to be enabled, using real world feedback and viewer data from elsewhere in an End-to-End ecosystem to build a UI that resonates with the end users. It also provides the ability to offer additional features within the UI such as NVPR services, advanced personalization, and more.
- Customer-centric software services. Media companies need to be able to design interfaces that prioritize the end user experience while also offering efficient revenue-generating features.
- Whitelabelling. Broadcasters and operators want to create a product that is individual to them. As a result, the more control they have over the final look of their UI, the better.
Taking back control
The first WYSIWYG web design packages gave tools to visually-oriented artists instead of code-centric developers and helped drive a new, visually rich experience and interactions on the internet. With DaaS tools we could see the start of a similar revolution in the power and impact of television UI, not to mention the creation of stylish interfaces that truly engage viewers from the very first moment they turn on their television set.
The UI is a critical part of a broadcaster’s identity. It is the main component of their output where they can interact directly with their customers, the ultimate shop window for their entire range of content, and where their customers will choose their programming. It is the jumping off point for all their monetization efforts and the place where they can grant their viewers the degree of personalization and agency that is becoming essential to the modern broadcast experience. And now they can have control over it again.
