Anyone that’s seen a 1 year old with a remote, a toddler navigating a pc, or grown adults going head to head on a Wii can tell you that user interface (”IU”: the way people interact with tv, the web, and any other content) needs a new approach.

In a surprising conversation that could have been just another rant on interactive TV, David Merkoski of Frog Design discussed how they’ve aimed to reconcile old style TV navigation with a more intuitive, social networking approach,the “supermodal Zoomable User Interface” (ZUI).

The interface was built on a few assumptions:

• Tragically equipped audience, Kids are growing up with internet as the primary source –control

• However, while people want tv that’s easier to control as they do online, you can’t just take the online interface (navigation) and put that on tv. It wouldn’t feel right for consumers.

Frog Design believes that the largest difference between tv and online viewership is that online content is organized by interests and this is where tv is headed. With this in mind, Frog Design has developed the Open TV Mondrian system which allows users to:

• Navigate through program lists with visuals of the content(show)
• Remote will have 4 ranges to give you access to channels left- right-up-down
• View a Picture in Picture of other programs you can watch, your library of movies.
• Pick a scene from the show you are watching like a dvd where you can get into a specific chapter This allows you to have chapters of like content.
• Show menu can be categorized, Cooking, Sports, Comedy, Kids
• Find shows/content through Search tool

Ie. If you are watching a Coldplay video you will see other content recommends alongside your screen view that may have all the appearances on late night etc.

So is this real? Is it more talk from a technology provider? According to Frog, it’s not far off and will be available soon. How does it effect traditional media and advertisers? Though this is clearly a huge question mark, it’s clear that a “google” world of keyword like advertising or targeted commercials is not far off.

Closing thoughts: Much like all new technology, new TV interfaces have richer functionality but will take time before it hits the levels of audience penetration that matter to those of us in advertising in the near term. Stay tuned to see if how this new interface may change the “face” of TV. In the mean time the call to arms for creatives, media and production people, get used to a more complicated world. Multiple messages, segmented creative and complex production components are coming our way.