Method

As things heat up in March Madness and we approach the Final Four games, viewership across channels for games have already exploded as March Madness On Demand continues to provide fans across the US with exceptional anytime, anywhere access to the tournament!

Method is proud to have worked with Turner Sports to create the NCAA March Madness On Demand suite of products for the much loved tournament. Last week, Turner reported the app has set all-time marks across online and mobile platforms by garnering 36.6 million live video streams and more than 10 million hours of live video consumed during the opening week of the NCAA Tournament.

Also, the app ranked #1 as the top sports app in the App Store and Google Play during the first week of the tournament. It was also the #1 free app across all categories in the App Store during the opening weekend of the tournament.

This week, the app continues to generate record-setting video streams and engagement! Across online and mobile (tablets and smart phones) platforms, NCAA March Madness Live has reached 45 million live video streams and more than 12.6 million hours of live video consumed across digital properties over the first two weeks of the tournament.

Read Turner Sports’ Press Release

Read the full NCAA March Madness On Demand case study.

Having partnered with Method to launch ViewChange.org in 2010, Link TV came back to Method earlier this year to design an iPad news app that would allow readers to explore its rich library of international television news, raw videos, and documentaries.

With the Link TV team, Method helped to create the LinkTV World News, an app with an array of tools for news junkies who only want the most informative, relevant, and trustworthy information.

Launched in November 2012, we’re excited to report that in it’s first week, the LinkTV World News app reached #1 in the App Store “News” category! It has been extremely well received by the media, with major news sources and tech blogs raving about the app’s features. “LinkTV World News is basically an alternative video news outlet that can help you find stories you’ll likely miss if you spend most of your time on mainstream news sites and Youtube,” said NBC News.

For a deeper look at how Method designed the LinkTV World News app read the case study.

Download the app for free from the iTunes App Store!

Method loves TV. Having created next-generation product experiences for various clients in the TV space, we’re always excited to think about where television is heading.

Lucky for us, every year we get to meet up with like-minded TV lovers at the annual TV of Tomorrow Show (TVOT), the live events division of [itv] – InteractiveTV Today.

Held at The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts–only a few blocks from Method’s San Francisco office–the conference is a global gathering for executives, technologists and creatives working in the Interactive and Multiplatform Television industry and community.

This year, Method Principal and Managing Director, Jason Meil, moderated a spirited roundtable on interactive TV design. The group discussed a lot of interesting topics, but focused on the increasing importance of creating cohesive experiences across multiple platforms and exploring the inclusion of social in a non-invasive way. The limiting factors around TV interface design were also touched on, as well as the collective acknowledgment that we’re still very much in the early days of both TV UI and second screen design.

The night before Jason’s panel, we wanted to kick off things right by hosting an intimate gathering with our friends and peers to discuss what we believe the future of television to be. It was a fun night for all and the delicious food and wine was only upstaged by the excellent company!

Whatever you’re looking for on the Internet—entertainment, a product to purchase, a connection to a community—in most cases, you’re likely to receive an overwhelming amount of results to choose from. These relevant search results are valuable to you.

Or are they? More and more commentators are wondering if the tools we create to give us more choices—such as search engines—are delivering less variety, ultimately limiting chance discoveries and exposure to new ideas.

On the BBC’s The Culture Show, Aleks Krotoski recently examined the role of serendipity as an online commodity, questioning whether the Internet is as innovative as we think. She points out that computers have the unique ability to make valuable, unseen connections for us. Instead of maximizing that potential, our search filters keep us focused on only the most relevant information.

Alex explains, “We will never have the opportunity to bump into something truly new, because the machines are predicting our futures based on our past preferences, creating an infinite loop of cultural homogenization.”

The concern over the consequences of homogenized choice is not entirely new. David Byrne noted in his book Bicycle Diaries, that in many urban developments gentrification leads to separation, rather than integration, of different social and cultural groups. This separation leads to less collisions between ideas and the stifling of creativity.

David describes, “I think online communities tend to group like with like, which is fine for some tasks, but sometimes inspiration comes from accidental meetings and encounters with people outside one’s own demographic, and is less likely if you only communicate with your ‘friends’…”

Other commentators also question if recommendations based on a combination of one’s preferences, social profile, and history of consumption really offers new opportunities. In an article for Design Week, Steve Price discussed how the role of media retailers is changing in the age of the “Filter Bubble.”

“Google, as amazing as it is, can only answer the questions you ask it,” he states. “It cannot tell you which questions you should be asking. Search results and news feeds are all now influenced by engines that take as a point of entry all that they know about you and spit back the information they think you’ll want. What is on the screen when you open Spotify? Recommendations on new music based on its knowledge of you. What happens if you visit Rough Trade Records? You often leave with albums and music from artists you’ve never heard of, having heard it played in the store, or from talking to one of the employees who clearly live and breathe music.”

When the self-referential nature of media increases the speed of recycling ideas in film, design, music, fashion and global culture as a whole, what will it take to receive truly original recommendations? What can we design into user experiences that will allow for the unexpected?

Imagine the possibilities of using “dumber” algorithms that will allow us to be pleasantly surprised by serendipity wherever we are…and whenever we “don’t” expect it.

If you liked this article we recommend: http://youtu.be/9ZlBUglE6Hc

Another successful New York Method PLAY – this one on wearable technology was so successful that we had dudes sewing! Click here to see more to see tutorial slides on how to make your own soft switch & more pictures.

Get it while you can. A download button to all content has been added, but is only available until May 13th.

The NCAA’s March Madness men’s college basketball tournament kicks-off tonight with 16 games. It’s one of the biggest sporting events of the year, and Method is proud to have collaborated with Turner Sports to deliver an immersive experience for basketball fanatics and the casual follower alike.

We have our own fans in the studio who are pretty stoked about the ability to stay up-to-date on March Madness anywhere they are – on their iPads, iPhones, iPods, and on the web. In fact, they are so excited that they are using all the products at once. Talk about multitasking.

Try out the March Madness On Demand iOS apps and stay updated via MMOD.NCAA.com.

This week we witnessed the lyrebird’s mimicking talents, learned about crow intelligence, and discussed the future of facebook. That, and more links that were sent around the studio this week.

Today, AOL announced its purchase of the Huffington Post. What’s interesting about the deal is that Arianna Huffington not only remains Editor-In-Chief of the Huffington Post, but she also gains control of all of AOL’s properties.

What would we want to see in a film festival about design? Here’s what a few people around our studios had to say…