If only it had... some implicit personalization

There are two types of personalization:

1.) Explicit - a person sets some preference or takes some action to make the system more useful to them.
2.) Implicit - the "system" makes some inferences about the person using it based on usage / behavior.

I was thinking about this last night when we got home and turned on the TV, there are probably only a handful of channels or even shows that my wife and I watch. I started wondering why the cable box doesn't know us by now? I understand Tivo will suggest shows based on things you've watched in the past, however, what I'm thinking about it is slightly different. Of the 500 or so channels available, we probably only watch 10 or 15 of them, at most, in the course of a month. Weather Channel, Smooth Jazz on Music Choice, Fox Soccer Channel, etc. There is a great likelihood that when the TV is on in our house, it is probably one of the those channels.

Over time, the system should just learn this about us.

What I'm thinking is that when you turn on the TV and hit "Guide", it should just come up with your "Most Viewed Channels" and give a quick and easy way to switch to "All Channels". Perhaps some other option to set either "Most..." or "All..." as the default. That would be a nice mixture of both explicit & implicit personalization.

This isn't rocket science; this would be a simple brute force algorithm based on usage patterns. You could take it even further, of course, it could be based on day of the week, time of day, etc. During the day, it is very common for one of us to leave it on a music channel for an extended period of time when we're at home. Sunday night is almost always one of the movie channels. So why do we have to sort through the long list of available options.

I get that you can set "Favorites" these days on most cable boxes, however, that is 3 clicks just to set a favorite and then another 3 clicks to get to your list of favorites. It's useful, but still places the burden on the person.

There are probably more than 500 channels available on most cable / satellite systems these days, instead of just adding more content all the time, why not help people quickly find content that they'll probably enjoy?

What do you think?

Comments

[Jim Dudley]

Hey Jon! I totally think this is a great idea. Why not take it even farther, and have it automatically record (if you have a DVR) your "most watched" shows if you're not currently tuned to that station, or if the TV is not on? (you're away from home, etc). Then when you turn the TV on, it could ask you "You missed XXX show(s), would you like to watch it now?"
There is the issue of different people in the same household watching the same TV. (so just put a fingerprint sensor on the remote....... :)

[Jon Strande]

Jim, Hey there! Thank you so much!

Love the ideas! Great! I hadn't thought of the automatic recording, seems simple enough. The fingerprint idea is brilliant! I had thought about the multiple people in the house, however, requiring people to identify themselves would defeat the purpose, the fingerprint sensor is a brilliant way to solve that.

[Christopher Grove]

The automatic record idea is a great idea for the channels, because that would mean that the adverts get recorded as well. Then maybe some people wouldn't zap through them and may watch them...
I think the reason the cable companies (or the satelite TV or internet service providers who give TV as well over here in France) don't do it, is that they're still in the mass market model. When I turn on the tv and check out the guide, there's a list of the most watched shows to choose from before I can look at the rest of what's on. Myself, I usually don't like the mass market stuff (no matter what the media) so I avoid that option, but the fact that they do that shows that they don't want to go any further than that. I can't understand why... Then again, it's also a very French thing (album adverts on TV that tell me about the latest album by "your favourite artist"... NOT for me at all, etc).
Do you think the mass marketing strategies and tactics are still used simply out of laziness, or is there some other reason (lack of marketing talent...)?

[Josh Neumann]

Definitely like the idea of automatic recording, I also have about 2 or 3 channels I watch regularly (Discovery and History) and I generally only watch at certain hours each night. If it automatically recorded the earlier shows, I could have my choice. Keep the ideas flowing!

[Nick Trendov]

Using Persona for IMPLICIT PERSONALIZATION

Persona provide implicit personalization and a simple tool to give you what you want.

Consider your behaviours of interaction and navigation in an environment and compare them with other behaviours that you exhibit in that same environment. This gives you two Persona masks. Now create to navigation maps for each and maybe an EASY BUTTON that you click to take you along one path of the other.

Why is this implicit?

Once it is set up you benefit the same way as getting on an elevator, no explicit climbing of stairs.

Now if you want to avoid any work at all have someone research behaviours to other people that have the same objectives in environments that interest you. Then access the same Persona EASY BUTTON available to them.

Will this fit you perfectly? Maybe but certainly a lot better than waiting around for someone to create your custom implicit behaviour solution.

Some other tools are at www.scenario2.com and look for the Story Lens.

I also found a scientist who gets it in Catalania, search for this pape-- Using Persona Descriptions as a Communication Tool in Interdisciplinary System Design

She also has a simple concept of creating data driven persona (implicit personalization) by rules rather than formulae.

Hope this helps.
Nick

[Eric V]

I would imagine that the cable/satellite companies do not implement this for several reason. The major reason is that your average consumer does not demand these types of features. Give it time, we will get there. After all, we got DVR service from Comcast and DirectTV. Oh, and when you get this service, it will cost you an extra $5/month for each TV.