INTERACTION DESIGN PRINCIPLES FOR INTERACTIVE ...

CNN Crossfire, broadcast in front of a life audience, is a now-cancelled debate
show that examines the political and social issues impacting the United States. In May
2004, CNN launched Crossfire Interactive, a 6-week synch-to-broadcast initiative (see
Figure 3.13). Viewers were able to interact with the show hosts by visiting the CNN Web
site during the broadcast. The iTV application featured trivia and background facts, such
as additional information on the topics being discussed and the people discussing them.
More importantly, viewers were able to declare political affiliations, so that opinion poll
results, which were tabulated in real-time, were reported along partisan lines. This tactic
is particularly well suited for a political debate show, and tapped into an important
feature of the show while convening an audience.
3.9 DRAMAS
Dramas as a genre have not been widely developed for iTV programming.
RespondTV’s Rebecca Stefanac notes that “Dramas are probably the least friendly type
of program for iTV. People really just want to submit to the narrative and don’t generally
want a lot of background or commentary” (quoted in Pignetti & Capria, 2001). However,
few programs possess more long-term loyal viewing communities than dramatic series,
and effective iTV programming can allow dramatic programs to extend the broadcast
beyond the hour of showing each week.
A notable application in this genre is C.S.I. Interactive, developed by H Design
for the Microsoft iTV platform. H Design had the unique opportunity to conceptualize the
feature set and framework for the iTV component and to write, produce, and design
original interactive content for the entire first season. According to Curran, “Much of the
content in the application is presented to the viewer in a carefully choreographed manner
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