Uppleva home screen
Much has been written already about the launch of IKEA's Uppleva TV furniture units, but few reviewers seem to have interacted with them.
About 10 of them were publicly shown—in a world premiere—at the IKEA PS show in the Lambrate area of the Milan Design Week event, in different colors, sizes, and furniture combinations. The event ended yesterday and the IKEA Uppleva website is expected to go online soon.
This post concentrates on the interface design—an area which has not been covered so far.
On Putting People First (the Experientia blog that I manage), you can also read more on the user research that went into the design.
The demo units in Milan were running a very advanced prototype software, but the interaction and product design provided an integrated and simple user experience, with only minor problems.
When comparing the Uppleva (which means "experience") with the Apple TV, Dave Smith says that IKEA has now set out a benchmark by "interpreting Steve Jobs' vision of an integrated television."
Simplicity first
The Uppleva home screen has only 8 items—picture, sound, PAP, options, media, smart TV, lock and setup—and direct access to most of the areas is available via the remote control.
Icons are simple and clean: off-white on a blue background.
This theme comes through in all the screens, with the TV (or video) image being turned into a subdued blue-and-white background presence on the internal screens, as can be glimpsed on the screenshots here:
Uppleva options screen
Uppleva setup screen
(Aside from the IKEA-supplied home screen shot, all other photos were taken by me, and this is the reason for the perspective and color distortions.)
The blue background makes it difficult to change the color and contrast settings, as you have to switch between settings and live image to see the effect, but other than that provides a calming and quiet visual experience, very different from the one that sometimes pervades in these types of interfaces.
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