UX Designer | Dog Lover | Marvel Fan
Overview
With podcasts constantly being added and moving to other products like Spotify and Audible, I was looking for ways to increase customer retention by exploring ways the Apple Podcast App could be improved. I also explored additional features that could add value to the user's podcast listening experience.
Exploration
What users want
User Interviews - Pain Points
The biggest pain points for users were frustration in navigating the app, finding their favorite and most listened to podcasts, invalid recommendations and not being able to create a playlist.
User Interviews - New Features
When users were asked how they remembered information they heard in podcasts for later, it was complicated and involved multiple steps (or relying on memory). When asked if they would value an easy way inside the app to save information, it was a resounding yes!
App Store Reviews
I read hundreds of app reviews of the Apple Podcasts app which supported my user interview findings about both the pain points. A feature request for bookmarking and audio clips was asked for repeatedly.
Competitive Analysis
Audible recently added bookmarks and audio clips as a feature and Spotify has a playlist option.
METHODS USED: USER INTERVIEWS, APP REVIEWS, AFFINITY MAP, COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
Opportunities
Empathizing
Narrowing it down
With the goal of adding value to the users' listening experience and also keeping an edge on the competition, three main user stories emerged: remembering and sharing information, creating a playlist, and easily navigating.
Problem Statement
As an avid Podcast listener, I struggle to find and organize my podcasts and to remember information I want to refer to later because I am busy and on-the-go.
Ideation
Brainstormed with a team opportunities and possible solutions to add more value for the users to the app.
METHODS USED: EMPATHY MAP, USER STORIES, PROBLEM STATEMENT, IDEATION
Defining Possibilities
Problem Solving
Possible Solutions
Two possible solutions emerged out of discovery.
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Keep the current navigation as is and add in three features that relate to remembering information: bookmarks, audio clips. and saving products from ads/podcasts to shop.
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Reorganize the overall structure of the navigation and add playlists as a new feature.
MVP
It was tough to come up with a Minimum Viable Product since the goal was customer retention and I wanted to improve the app per the users' frustrations but also add in additional features wanted.
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The MVP ended up being a reduced down version of both possible solutions
Pen & Paper
Printed out the Podcast app screens and wrote notes on each and then created user flows on notecards to organize my ideas.
METHODS USED: MVP, USER FLOWS
Redesign
MVP: Move Recently Played to Top of Listen Now Screen, Add a Playlist, Bookmark, and Audio Clip Feature.
All of these changes or additions to the Apple Podcast App did not require a ton of redesign. For example, adding playlists, bookmarks, and audio clips all utilized similar screens that already existed in the Library. I felt including all of these in the redesign would help with customer retention and make Apple Podcasts gain an edge on the competition.
Improvements
Update Navigation - Listen Now
Moved Recently Played to the top of the Listen Screen and changed the name to Continue Listening. Changed the name of the Up Next section to New Episodes.
Add Playlist Feature
Added a Playlist icon to each Podcast Card (both small and medium)
BEFORE
AFTER
BEFORE
AFTER
New Audio Controls & Navigation
Add record audio clip and bookmark to the bottom navigation. Next and Back buttons were added to move or skip through multiple bookmarks
Adding Bookmarks
Added a bookmark icon to the bottom navigation. Added a bookmark to the slider to show the user the status of the bookmark. Next and Back buttons were added to move through multiple bookmarks.
Adding Audio Clips
Either Siri or pushing the record audio icon gives the user an option to record a specific amount of time.
Audio Clip Library & Sharing Clips
Audio Clips and Bookmarks added to the library. Option to view and listen to audio clips and share your audio clips.
START RECORDING DRAWER
SHARE AUDIO CLIP
BEFORE
AFTER
Usability Tests
What isn't working
Performed Usability Tests on users that were Apple Podcasts listeners. During usability tests, users were not able to easily identify what the icons were on the playing screen so I added labels under the icons.
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Users also tried to click on the bookmark and audio clip icon to view the bookmarks and audio clips, so I fixed that.
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I also did not use the correct audio cues for users to use the Siri functionality. Changed the cues to what the majority of the users said to use Siri.
Conclusion
I believe I successfully added value to the user with my redesign and feature additions to the Apple Podcast App. The users were excited about the option to remember information in podcasts for later in the user interviews and really excited during the usability tests when they got to experience the solution.
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Future Iterations
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Add a driving screen is simple and has large icons. Redesign the navigation per the pain points and work with a developer on recommendations that are more accurate
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Learnings
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I should have asked users in the definition phase which audio cues they would use for my feature additions to be able to use Siri. I wish I would have done more usability testing on non-Apple Podcast users. I also could have focused on one feature and really explored it more fully.