NRK TV Random: Discover content spontaneously
Deliverables: Digital screen-based experience
Project Type: Semester module project at AHO
Team: Siddharth Kothiyal
Scope: Interaction Design, Branding
Business goal
NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation) is Norway’s largest state-owned public service media organisation, comparable to the BBC in the UK. They wanted to make content discovery on the NRK TV app more fun, intuitive, and relevant for teenagers and young adults. Despite being a trusted brand, NRK struggled to engage younger audiences who perceived it as too serious and adult-oriented. The challenge was to help young users find content effortlessly, not by overwhelming them with options, but by offering highly personalised ways.
Design Process
01/ Research & Pain Points
I began by understanding how younger audiences decide what to watch across different streaming platforms. Through surveys with 10 participants and interviews with 3 users (aged 17–26), I discovered that:
- The problem wasn’t too much content but too little awareness of what existed.
- Users often defaulted to social media for entertainment because it felt more spontaneous and relatable.
- Some users commented on how they end up discovering streaming content through TikToks and reels.
- NRK was trusted for quality, but it lacked the fresh tone and dynamic feel of youth-focused platforms.
From this, I identified an opportunity to reimagine NRK’s discovery experience by borrowing emotional cues from digital culture — surprise, humour, and play.
02/ Flow Mapping
To reframe the content discovery experience, I mapped how users typically move between social media (for discovery) and streaming platforms (for consumption). Decision fatigue often arises from static interfaces such as TV screen and rigid categories.
Key observations and design directions:
- Streaming platforms rely on predefined genres — predictable and rigid.
- Social media creates engagement by wrapping surprise in short, meme-like formats.
- The target group (18–28) expects instant interaction, quick delight, and shareable moments.
I brainstormed how NRK TV could use its trusted curation in a more dynamic, playful format, bridging the mobile app and the TV screen.
03/ Concept design
Building on the insights, I designed a concept around a new “Random” feature — a playful, low-friction way to discover content through short, auto-generated video prompts.
- The user starts a “chat” with NRK TV by tapping Random.
- NRK responds with a short, humorous video clip linked to full-length content on the app.
- This “surprise chat” introduces users to shows they might never actively search for.
Core idea:
“Let NRK talk to you like a meme.” A fresh, algorithmic layer of humour and curiosity — combining NRK’s credibility with the spontaneity of social media. This approach turned NRK’s library into an interactive playground, where discovery feels more like a conversation than a search.
Video snippets from NRK’s content library are sliced from their original context. These clips are chosen based on their dialogue, emotions, mood, shot or acting moment.
Suppose the snippet has a dialogue, it is stripped down semantically to the literal meaning of the words(detached). Then, it is encoded with tags to be stored in a library of possible responses. These snippet should avoid any spoiler. Should be easily detachable from their original context and attachable to new contexts of user input.
Users are encouraged to input random text or emojis, which is then tagged by the system to hunt for a match in the library of possible responses stored.
The fun lies in the absurd match between user input and snippet response (attached). This communication creates a very personalised form of micro-content like memes/reels controlled by user input. The goal is to bridge them to the source of the content.
04/ User testing and feedback synthesis
To test the concept, I built a mock interaction flow simulating the backend responses manually. Testing with young users helped me observe reactions to the idea of “chatting” with a streaming platform. I found that users found the surprise element refreshing and fun.
- The playful tone encouraged exploration rather than passive browsing.
- However, NRK stakeholders highlighted technical challenges around tagging content and generating contextual responses, which would need automation or editorial curation.
- Based on feedback, I refined the interface tone and adjusted how “random” moments could still stay relevant through lightweight metadata tags (mood, energy, or theme-based rather than strict genre).
05/ Final design
The final prototype introduced NRK Random — a meme-inspired feed within the NRK TV app that reacts to user input. I reshuffled the bottom navigation (Front page, Categories, Search, Direct TV, Profile) to include Random as a distinct feature. Users can type a message or send an emoji to trigger a short, auto-generated response video, creating a playful bridge to full-length content. Key UI elements — the input and response fields — were designed to keep the entry barrier low and make interaction feel effortless. The feature could also appear elsewhere in the app, surfacing spontaneous “Random” moments throughout the viewing journey.
Random intends to reflect a carefree, random and dynamic dialogue with NRK.
Logo id custom letters that give a sense of being fluid and being able to reinvent yourself through streaming.
Implementation & Reflection
Since this was a short academic project, technical implementation wasn’t pursued. However, I discussed scalability with developers, identifying that such a system could be supported by metadata-driven tagging and short-form content generation pipelines. Reflecting on the project:
- The design taught me how product framing and brand tone deeply influence audience engagement.
- I learned to balance playful experimentation with real-world feasibility.