Complex product, clear value proposition: communicating Australia’s new Total TV reporting standard.
Our approach to client relations is defined by fruitful, mutually beneficial collaboration and never has that been truer than in creating the website for Australia’s new all-screen, cross-platform planning and reporting database, VOZ: an industry-wide gamechanger.
We worked side-by-side with key personnel from OzTAM, creating a shared vision that was then progressed enthusiastically, benefiting from a spirit of openness, honesty, and creativity. The result of our shared focus was a powerful and impressive piece of work of which all involved are justifiably proud.
Here’s how we made a complex product become understandable and accessible through a compelling online solution.
Unveiling a new solution to a complex problem
Since the advent of digital media, particularly online streaming services, getting a clear picture of overall broadcast viewing levels has been one of the industry’s greatest challenges. In the past, this process was relatively straightforward: Nielsen ratings measured viewing to linear free-to-air and subscription television on in-home TV sets. Over recent years however, tracking broadcast viewing across an endless array of platforms and mediums has been highly challenging. Virtual Australia, or ‘VOZ’ is the solution, bringing viewing on multiple screens together in a single, detailed database.
Okay let’s hit pause to understand the enormity of this development
VOZ was developed to compile ‘Total TV’ ratings from standard televisions, connected TVs, desktop/laptop computers, tablets and smartphones – allowing Australian broadcast television content to be measured and evaluated more clearly than ever before.
Presenting that product to the public in a way that captures its forward-thinking spirit without oversimplifying or overcomplicating is the kind of challenge that BJM not only embraces but thrives on.
With industry expectations for VOZ sky-high, it was equally important that the online solutions we created reached similar heights. It’s in situations like this that we are all thankful that our embedded culture of trusting our tried-and-true practices, procedures and protocols is hardwired in our development DNA.
Our task was to convey a complex, evolving technology that communicates intricate sets of information to multiple audiences in the simplest, most logical and most effective possible fashion. As with other projects, we also embraced the challenge of maintaining and enhancing brand look and feel so it felt at home within VOZ’s new public-facing online home.
Presenting multiple pathways through clear visual representations
The complexity and flexibility of VOZ needed to be communicated in a way that both general and sophisticated users could easily comprehend. This could only be achieved through a deep consideration of information architecture. From the moment someone arrived on the landing page, they needed to be able to clearly see:
Rather than crowd the site with numbers and jargon, we distilled multifaceted information with clarity, using a combination of visual representations and concise copy.
An interactive flow chart and a series of labelled icons allow the user to understand the various sources from which VOZ is constructed (inputs), as well as the various ways in which that information can be expressed (outputs, dimensions). The establishment of two distinct user groups (broadcaster and media agencies) allows the user to quickly understand how they will engage with the site and the database as a whole.
As soon as the user has been given a clear vision of VOZ’s potential, they are offered use cases that demonstrate how VOZ is used in practice. From an information architecture perspective, this is a key destination to which users are steered.
Essentially, we created a dynamic, easy-to-navigate, choose-your-own area of interest adventure-style website.
Adaptive Advantage, BJM Digital’s signature design methodology has never been more relevant than when designing for VOZ. Businesses are always changing and pivoting as they progress along their respective goal paths, but in the case of our client, their product, VOZ, will continually evolve. We ensured the site has room to grow as the VOZ rollout advances, ensuring the content illuminates trends and supports enhancements with clearly presented, easily accessible weekly top line data reports, and publication of insights.
While a project may come with a completion date, our investment in client success doesn’t. We will continue to support our client as the media industry benefits from this exciting development.