4oD on Channel4.com: All New and Now All Yours
I wanted to share how excited we are about the new 4oD service launched today on Channel4.com. I wanted to use this post to selfishly reflect on what is means from my perspective as the product manager for Channel4.com. And introduce you briefly to a few of the new features.
If you want to understand where this new product launch sits within the bigger picture for Channel 4 then look out for a separate post with links to some of the press coverage generated so far, which includes comments from our Head of VOD, Sarah Milton.
For me, with this launch we are not only creating a new home for 4oD on Channel4.com but taking the first few steps in the product’s evolution from an online player to a destination service.
With My 4oD we’ve created a reason for you to sign in each time you visit 4oD and the foundation for
an increasingly personalised 4oD experience. By signing in to use My 4oD you can:
- easily keep track of episodes you’ve recently watched or started watching (My 4oD History)
- create a Playlist of episodes and schedule an evening’s viewing, or simply create a list of shows you don’t want to forget to watch (My 4oD Playlist)- save your favourite shows in a single place and get in-page reminders whenever a new 4oD episodes is available for you to watch (My 4oD Favourite Shows)
Simply browsing the site and clicking on the add to Favourite Shows and Playlist buttons allows you to quickly create and manage your My 4oD experience, helping ensure you never miss a thing.
A large proportion of 4oD users on Channel4.com prefer to ‘go large’ and watch 4oD in full-screen mode, so we decided to create what I believe is a market leading, immersive and elegant full-screen experience.
As you watch, our full screen cross-navigation panel allows you to explore previous series and episodes, discover similar shows that users have been watching as well as the most popular shows in that category being watched right now. Plus you can access and manage My 4oD and even switch the show you’re watching… all without ever having to leave your full-screen view.
We wanted this product redesign to highlight the fact that 4od on Channel4.com is more than just catch-up. So the new 4oD service not only makes it easier for you to plan and watch more of your favourite 4oD shows but also works harder to inspire your discovery of new shows, both current and classic.
We’ve brought over 5000 hours of 4oD programming to your fingertips with a fast and efficient predictive search that gets you straight to play, a redesigned 4oD Homepage showcasing the best of what’s on offer on any given day, and a redesigned 4oD Player page optimised for in-page viewing and the discovery of related episodes and series.
We’ve created a Catch-up homepage dedicated to presenting what’s new to view, by day and by channel, and a Browse All homepage that makes it easier than ever to explore the entire archive.
We also wanted to create a product that features more visible recommendations, refleting not only our take on the must-watch catch-up and archive shows, but also the shows which as 4oD viewers you are mostly watching or have discovered yourselves.
On the new 4oD Homepage, we’ve plugged the Most Popular feature into our analytics engine so you can see the most watched shows over the last 48 hours.
On our redesigned 4oD Player page there are two further viewer-driven recommendations features.
People Also Watched highlights shows watched by 4oD viewers who’ve also watched the show you’re on. I wanted to call the feature “Bruce recommends” after the clever chap who developed the algorithm that powers it, but right now we’ve opted for something more informative [but maybe less fun]. We think this recommendation feature is neat because, by contrast to the Most Popular feature, People Also Watched recognises the % overlap between views of one show and another, as distinct from the sheer volume of views for each. This makes the resulting recommendation a nice companion to those based strictly on popularity.
Alongside People Also Watched, you can quickly flip over and see another analytics powered feature offering you a view of the most popular shows by related category. So fans of a comedy show, by example, can instantly see the most popular comedy shows on 4oD at that particular moment.
And finally of course, you can recommend, with Facebook and Twitter sharing functionality enabling to tell your friends and followers about the shows you love.
Despite the vastness of our unique on demand archive offer, 4oD on Channel4.com still feels to me more like a boutique experience rather than a warehouse, infused with the personality you’ve come to expect from the channel. We offer not just quick routes into the shows you’ve come to watch, but the option of a curated visit. The carousel on our new 4oD Homepage continues to epitomise this, but these days you’ll find the guiding hand of our editorial team in evidence across the whole of 4oD.
So if you don’t know what you’re looking for, allow yourself to be charmed – or challenged - and try something we think is a must-see.
Welcome to 4oD on Channel4.com: all new and now all yours.
Comments
August 31, 2011
I’m very unimpressed with the full-screen display, which seems to have been optimised for everything apart from actually watching the programme. The controls are all permanently visible, including the obtrusive tabs for the fiddling-about menus, which eat into the picture space. The whole point of full-screen viewing is not to be distracted by clutter, so all of these controls should fade out when the mouse and keyboard are idle.
September 1, 2011
hi Roger
The cross-navigation panel in full screen is designed to disappear after 5 seconds of inactivity and only appear if you move your mouse to interact with the screen. If you allow your mouse pointer to rest over the panel either in its expanded or contracted state on the screen it will remain on the screen as this is read as the user interacting with the service. As soon as you move the mouse pointer off the panel e.g. leave it rest on the viewing screen, it will vanish after 5 seconds.
If this is not your experience i would be grateful if you could supply some more details about the environment you are watching the service on e.g. PC, Mac, Browser, version of flash etc so we can investigate further
Kr
Owain
September 10, 2011
Great website, although some of the shows are not of the best quality picturewise, such as NY-LON this was a great series but the quality on your site is poor, surely you can do something about it or let viewers know when it will be on C4 or E4 or More4.
Sorry to be a little criticle but quality series like NY-LON should be in better quality.
Thanks
G.Platt
September 14, 2011
Thanks, Owain.
I had been carefully moving the pointer well away from the panel, into the 5cm-high band of black space below it, at the bottom of the screen. After reading your comment, I tried leaving the pointer in the 5cm-high band of black space at the top of the screen, and lo! the controls do fade out. They also fade out if I leave the pointer in the area where the actual image is, except for what appears to be a 3cm-high band across the bottom of it. So, there’s more than a quarter of my screen (8cm / 30cm = 27%) where an idle mouse still prevents the controls fading out. I’d never have discovered that the behaviour was different in the upper part if you hadn’t mentioned it.
Next thing: The favourites are a good idea, thanks. But several times when I’ve come back to the site, 4od has randomly dropped up to half the programmes from my favourites list. What’s that about?
September 15, 2011
hi roger
i’m glad you’ve managed to get the slide-away working. we’ll take a look at how we can improve the experience based on yours and others comments.
we’ll also try and replicate the issue with your Favourite Shows not being retained which is obviously concerning.
September 15, 2011
hi sean
you’ll find the full screen icon in the bottom corner of the player window which you can use either before or during play. the pop-out player window button is in the same area.
if you’re not seeing these icons when viewing the player page it could be that you’ve resized your browser. try CNTRL + or – to resize which will being the control panel into view.
owain
September 15, 2011
hi Graham
if, once you’ve gone full screen, your mouse pointer is left to rest over the playhead/cross-navigation panel or in the black area at the top of the screen the controls remain active (stay on screen). to make them slide-away after 5 seconds make sure your mouse pointer comes to rest in the video area.
you can reactivate the playhead/cross-navigation by just moving your mouse.
in the meantime, we’ll take a look at making this experience a little more accomodating. we’re aware that it’s very sensitive to users who have a pen rather than a mouse for example.
owain
September 15, 2011
Hello Orowlands,
When you answered my question about quality for the Ny-Lon series I think you answered the question from Roger and not the one I had about video quality, and letting us know when Ny-Lon is on C4,E4 or More4 again.
Thanks
Graham
October 27, 2011
It would make a change if 4od would answer the questions left by the viewers.
Thanks
Graham
February 16, 2012
I absolutely love 4oD.
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