FRAGMENTED BY DESIGN : Affordances, Access and User Experience in Video Streaming Ecosystems

Sammanfattning

Streaming fragmentation has mainly been studied from technical and economic perspectives, while fewer studies have focused on how fragmentation affects the user experience. This study explores how streaming fragmentation manifests through affordance structures across digital streaming platforms and what implications this may have for responsible aggregation design. The study used a Research through Design (RtD) approach, where a provotype was developed and used during user testing sessions to explore tensions related to streaming fragmentation. The collected material from these sessions was analyzed through reflexive thematic analysis (RTA). The results show that fragmentation emerges through disruptions related to discovery, organisation, continuity and conditions of access across platforms, affecting users’ possibilities to navigate, maintain overview and access content. The results further suggest that responsible aggregation design may involve supporting more coherent, transparent and user-centered streaming experiences across platforms.