TV viewing has changed substantially in recent years and
the indications are that it will change even more
dramatically over the next few. The domestic TV
experience no longer consists of family co-viewing of a
single screen in a fixed location in the shared space of the
living room, but is transitioning to new platforms and in
new locations. There are two major factors contributing to
this change. The first is the move to IP delivery systems
and on-demand streaming services; the second is the use of
many other hardware platforms for content consumption,
particularly tablets and smartphones. As a result of this, the
way we choose what we watch has changed, and there are
many more choices regarding where, when and on what
device we watch TV and video content. This has opened
the door to the possibility of more niche-focused mobile
video applications targeted at specific viewers and at
specific markets or content types. Children are growing up
with these mobile devices and technologies, adopting them
seamlessly and accepting them as an integral part of their
everyday lives. The concept of a tablet application
specifically for children to choose and watch video and TV
shows would likely find a broad and accepting market,
especially if parental control and content filtering
capabilities were appropriately integrated. This paper
describes a series of user studies carried out to inform and
evaluate the design of a companion second screen video
application for access to a curated video on demand (VOD)
library of children’s video content.