Barriers to entry
I tried to download a programme for the BBC’s iPlayer tonight. Below were the hurdles I had to jump over to get to where I wanted:
- You’re not using Internet Explorer. That’s the only browser we support. [Dan switches to IE]
- You need to install iPlayer. [Dan installs iPlayer]
- You need to register for iPlayer [Dan registers]
- You need to install a security update for Windows Media Player. [Dan downloads]
- A license [sic] is required to play the selected video content. Are you sure you want to open the web page to obtain the license [sic]? [Dan hits Yes]
Not the best user experience to get someone to use your product. I then had to download the 578Mb programme itself (titled Beautiful Young Minds). I’m 7% in so far, at which point I realised it was sucking the life out of any meagre bandwidth I might have wanted to use to, say, post about the ordeal I’d just gone through to register.
It’s hardly Joost now, is it? The content may be better, but the UE sucks.
Update: iPlayer uses a P2P thingamyjig called Kontiki which hoards your bandwidth and gives your CPU an unnecessary workout (courtesy of a process called Kservice.exe). And this is when iPlayer’s completely shut down. Dreadful, BBC.
Comments
Leave a Reply