ZEE is one of the biggest creators of vernacular content: Vatsal Chaoji

The science and art of creating digital experiences is known as user experience or UX. UX design enables a simple, engaging, and habit-forming digital experience. According to NelsonHall, the global user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) sector is now worth $5,308 million, with a CAGR of 15.4 per cent, which is predicted to reach $10,956 million by 2022. In comparison to the developed nations, the Indian UX sector is fragmented and fledgling.

As the digital economy of a country with a population of 1.3 billion people begins to take shape, there are a few important themes that are not only making UX/UI relevant, but also defining the industry’s growth trajectory in the next few years.

Recently, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) announced that it is expanding its digital footprint by setting up a technology hub in Bengaluru to drive innovation and exponential growth for its integrated platforms. In a bid to take strategic steps in the digital transformation journey of ZEE 4.0, the innovation centre in Bengaluru will onboard 500-plus experts having strong expertise in the field of design, technology, data and cyber security.

In conversation with Adgully, Vatsal Chaoji, Senior Vice President - Experience Design at ZEEL, talks about the growing importance of user experience design in the Indian entertainment industry. Excerpts:

How do you focus particularly on improving user satisfaction in providing a human-centred experience with your digital product?

Digital products have become part of our lives, especially in the past couple of years. Technology is, now more than ever, capable of delivering a more immersive and personalised experience. People use our products with certain expectations. They either expect us to solve a certain problem or address a need. We look at our users’ deep needs and try to address those while becoming invisible in the process of delivering delightful experiences.

With recommendation engines shepherding people with limited and repeated suggestions, how are you changing roles of user experience with the help of a personalised and engaging app interface?

Recommendation engines, if done right, are specifically designed to deliver personalised content. Experience design is often understood as a synonym to usability, but that is only half the story. Experience design focuses on making sure users are able to do a certain action and then further making sure that the right set of deeper [primal] needs are addressed so that users have a high likelihood of enjoying the product. As a side note, if you are seeing the same product/ content everywhere, you are probably experiencing the mere-exposure effect or the familiarity effect.

Your take on Netflix’s new ‘Play something’ option? Should every OTT platform provide something like that if their audience does not want to choose AI suggestions?

Netflix study shows that on average we spend about 20 minutes deciding what to watch and eventually leave the product. They are trying to address users who end up scrolling through endless options to choose from and yet not being able to find something they are interested in watching. Netflix is trying to address this Paradox of Choice by introducing features like ‘Play Something’. I believe every product today is learning something new about you every second. It is highly likely that users would, in the near future, be presented with just the right option based on their previous choices and preferences. Products that succeed will be able to strike the right balance between recommendations and options.

What are your plans to face challenges in the industry?

ZEE is one of the biggest content creators of the Indian vernacular content space. We have always believed in giving a global platform to people for telling extraordinary stories. This was ZEE’s belief when it started in 1992, and I have no reason to think differently today.

What are the measures you are taking in making strategic investments in crafting a sustainable virtual ecosystem?

We make sure that we make data-driven decisions for delivering great experiences that work for our users. We are also making sure that the systems that we build have room for us to explore and experiment. For this, we have hired industry experts and are building a team with the right mix of fresh and experienced talent. And most importantly, we are building an ecosystem with users being involved at every stage of our journey.

What are the challenges that stand in front of the industry?

There are the usual pitfalls of wrong personalisation, technology, content, poor user experience, innovation, etc. But not meeting the current and new users’ expectations is what I think tops the list.

Media
@adgully

News in the domain of Advertising, Marketing, Media and Business of Entertainment