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Description
Our goal is to better understand the process of interacting with a video service, from a macro-temporal, interdisciplinary perspective. We create a description (potentially a hierarchy) of the factors influencing QoE. We also propose a new model describing interdependencies between the factors. One such factor is how much a person is interested in the consumed content. The model would place this factor in relation to other factors and assign it a weight. Apart from the model we also target to create a new standard for QoE evaluation. This translates into appropriate subjective testing procedures allowing to operationalize the identified factors. Importantly, we address the question of how to narrow the gap between lab experiments (high internal validity, low ecological validity) and field studies (high ecological validity, low internal validity)? To achieve the goals we explore a set of subjective testing methods with different degrees of ecological validity. Specifically, we run 15 subjective experiments with 460 participants in total. One of the studies – targeting how QoE evolves over time - is longitudinal and lasts for 30 consecutive months. Such a long study is unprecedented and constitutes an important milestone for the field. Conducting the subjective studies in two countries also offers important advantages in view of validation of proposed measures and methodologies. This project provides a chance to achieve a holistic, well-tested view on the QoE. It also works towards more ecologically valid subjective testing methodologies. Both of those translate into better understanding of human behaviour (and how QoE relates to behaviour). The results do not only carry the potential of commercialisation but, more importantly, offer the prospect of exploiting QoE towards better QoL.