18 July 2013
BBC launches User Experience Research Partnership
BBC led initiative brings together world-leading research teams for a four year collaboration
The BBC today announced the BBC User Experience Research Partnership, a long-term collaboration project between BBC
Research and Development (BBC R&D) and leading universities in the fields of User Experience and Human Computer
Interaction research.
The academic partners will be The University of Bath, The University of Dundee, UCL (University College London),
Newcastle University, The University of Nottingham and Swansea University, which have all committed to support the
initiative for at least four years.
Through large scale pilots and prototypes, the partnership will explore the potential of new forms of content and
interaction in a multi-platform world, alongside new ways of producing media that will help make content more accessible
to all audiences. The research outcomes will be shared with the industry to encourage wider audience-focused innovation,
help define open standards and support the creative industries in producing engaging content in the future.
The technical scope of the partnership covers:
- The User Experience of an IP Broadcasting System: Developing user-centred services across multiple platforms to help
advance public service broadcasting in the digital age.
- Designing for New Interaction: Moving beyond gesture and voice to develop new ways of controlling and displaying
digital content for more natural and engaging interfaces.
- Sustainable Approaches to User Capability: Allowing the industry to meet the changing needs of older users,
young children and people with disabilities in accessing digital media.
- New Production Interface Technologies: Using novel interface and interaction technologies in new ways to give
production teams the most creative and effective ways to craft new forms of content.
The initiative builds on BBC R&D's strong history of industry and academic collaboration, which includes the Audio Research
Partnership and a strategic partnership with UCL, by establishing another centre of excellence for research into areas of
strategic importance to the BBC and the wider industry.
Matthew Postgate, Controller, BBC R&D, said: 'This is an exciting partnership that allows us to explore how audiences
could engage with new types of content in the future, and how we can better make it available to them. By bringing together
a world class team of experts from academia and BBC R&D, we aim to stimulate innovation that not only benefits the BBC
and our audiences, but also the wider industry.'
Professor Stanton Fraser, The University of Bath, said: 'The University of Bath brings a strong base of interdisciplinary
Human Computer Interaction research to this partnership. We are excited about sharing expertise and university researchers
will be based both at Bath and at MediaCityUK from next month studying new content around children's experience'.
Professor Hanson, The University of Dundee, said: "At the University of Dundee we are thrilled to be involved in this
unique new venture. We see this as a fantastic opportunity to provide innovative digital technologies that not only
excite people, but which also are usable by a diverse population. With much of our work focussed on enhancing usability
for older adults and people who are disabled, we see this new collaboration as an important and powerful means to provide
digital technologies that can meet the diverse needs of the population."
Professor Rogers, UCL, said: 'We are very excited to be part of the BBC UX network and believe our research agenda at
the UCL Interaction Centre will enable new synergistic opportunities, especially exploring the intersection between novel
interfaces and social interactions'.
Professor Olivier, Newcastle University, said: 'This partnership is a genuinely unique opportunity for the UK, in that
it allows us to bring together internationally recognised user experience researchers and the world's leading public
broadcasting organisation. This high level of concentration of expertise is exactly what we need in order to both
understand and have a real impact on the future of broadcast media production and consumption.'
Professor Benford, The University of Nottingham, said: 'This centre provides a unique opportunity to transform how we
experience television in the new world of tablets, phones and online'
Professor Jones, Swansea University, said: 'Designing for person scale is essential in a world of Big Data. We're excited
and delighted by the prospects of working with BBC R&D and the excellent universities in this partnership to help
shape compelling, interactive content experiences that are driven by this human factor'.
For more information please contact:
David Turnbull, Publicist, BBC R&D
david. turnbull@bbc.co.uk
BBC Research & Development
The role of BBC R&D is to provide world-class leading edge technical research and innovation expertise to the BBC, to
enable the corporation to create and deliver innovative high quality content and services, as cost-effectively as
possible to the licence fee paying public. The world class engineers in R&D also advise the BBC on what is coming
in the future - what does it need to be involved in and influencing, what are the likely winning and losing technologies
and what does the BBC need to lead, follow or ignore. The department has always followed a philosophy of collaboration
and openness; it works regularly with other broadcasters, standard's bodies and technology partners.
The University of Bath
The University of Bath is one of the UK's leading universities, ranked in the top ten of all national league tables and
third in the Sunday Times University Guide 2013 with only Cambridge and Oxford above it. Its Mission is to deliver world
class research and teaching, educating its graduates to become future leaders and innovators, and benefiting the wider
population through research, enterprise and influence. Its courses are innovative and interdisciplinary and it has an
outstanding record of graduate employment. Visit the University's website at www.bath.ac.uk
The University of Dundee
The University of Dundee is one of Scotland's leading institutions and one of the world's top 250 universities. Dundee is
internationally
recognised for the quality of its teaching and research, spread across four Colleges - Arts & Social Sciences; Art,
Science & Engineering; Life Sciences; and Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing. The University is a major employer in the
east of Scotland and a hub for investment in biotechnology and the creative industries. Dundee was voted best in the UK for
student experience in the 2012 Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey. See www.dundee.ac.uk for
further details.
UCL (University College London)
Founded in 1826, UCL was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to admit students
regardless of race, class, religion or gender and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine.
We are among the world's top universities, as reflected by our performance in a range of international rankings and tables.
According to the Thomson Scientific Citation Index, UCL is the second most highly cited European university and the 15th
most highly cited in the world. UCL has nearly 27,000 students from 150 countries and more than 9,000 employees, of whom
one third are from outside the UK. The university is based in Bloomsbury in the heart of London, but also has two
international campuses - UCL Australia and UCL Qatar. Our annual income is more than £800 million.
Newcastle University
Newcastle University is a Russell Group University. We rank in the top 20 of UK universities in The Sunday Times 2013
University Guide. Amongst our peers Newcastle is: 5th in the UK for graduates into jobs (HESA 2011-12), 10th in the UK
for student satisfaction, ranked 8th in the UK for Medical research power, in the UK's top 12 for research power in
Science and Engineering. 95% of our students are in a job or further training within six months of graduating. We have
a world-class reputation for research excellence and are spearheading three major societal challenges that have a
significant impact on global society. These themes are: Ageing and Health, Sustainability, and Social Renewal. Newcastle
University is the first UK university to establish a fully owned international branch campus for medicine at its NUMed
Campus in Malaysia which opened in 2011. Our International students put Newcastle University in world's top 12 (ISB 2011).
The University of Nottingham
The University of Nottingham has 42,000 students at award-winning campuses in the United Kingdom, China and Malaysia. It was
'one
of
the first to embrace a truly international approach to higher education', according to the Sunday Times University Guide
2013. It is also one of the most popular universities among graduate employers, one of the world's greenest universities,
and winner of the Times Higher Education Award for 'Outstanding Contribution to Sustainable Development'. It is ranked
in the UK's Top 10 and the World's Top 75 universities by the Shanghai Jiao Tong and the QS World Rankings.
Swansea University
Swansea University is a world-class research-led university located in beautiful parkland with views across Swansea Bay
close to the Gower Peninsula, the UK's first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The University was established in
1920 and currently offers around 350 undergraduate courses and 100 post-graduate courses to 14,500 undergraduate and
postgraduate students. By 2015 the University will have a new Science and Innovation Campus to complement an upgraded
Singleton Park Campus. Visit www.swansea.ac.uk. Swansea University is a registered
charity. No. 1138342.
For media enquiries contact:
Roddy Isles
Head, Press Office
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384910
E-MAIL: r.isles@dundee.ac.uk
MOBILE: 07800 581902 |
