Case Study: Castaway

The Problem:

Podcasts are seeing an enormous increase in popularity. In 2017, at least 112 million Americans have listened to podcasts. Even though podcasts have increased in popularity, there is still a lot to be desired out of a podcasting app. Users who listen to podcasts don’t have the benefits of personalizing their listening experience with bookmarks, personal recommendations and playlists.

The Challenge:

Design a podcasting mobile app that is highly personal, highly interactive and has the ability to bring even more utility to the user.

Defining the Key Pain Points

Although podcasts are becoming more popular, there are still a lot of people who haven’t bought into the idea of podcasts. We wanted to discover why so we decided to come up with a list of assumptions. Together we came up with a couple of pain points. They were:

1. It is hard to find podcasts that you are invested in and want to listen to.

2. Podcasts aren’t very personal. You can’t take notes/capture information easily. You also can’t share this information. Book readers can do this pretty easily.

3. It’s hard to share podcasts episodes with friends. We assumed this was a feature people wanted since lots of people liked to share books with friends.

4. Podcasts are a great way to pass time on commutes, but it’s hard to play new episodes.

5. It takes a lot of time to find a new podcast. Because of this, users are turned off by the experience.

User Research

With those assumptions in mind, we set out to discover the real pain points users had. We also wanted to see how people were consuming audio content, if they were consuming audio content at all. If they weren’t, we wanted to see what was stopping them.

We also wanted to talk to people who were big podcast fans. What made them listen to podcasts? What experiences were they enjoying? What experiences did they feel were missing? We set out to discover these answers.

Our Findings

As a group we conducted several interviews then came together to find commonalities amongst our research. As a group we discussed, then wrote down what common points there were.

1. People listen to podcasts to educate and entertain themselves during a long commute or at work.
2. People had a hard time saving an audio clip and getting back to that information. We discovered this was a sought out feature. People liked the ability to be able to share what they were learning or were inspired by on social media.
3. People have a hard time using the rewind feature, especially while driving. The scrubber wasn’t easy to use and was difficult to skip to different parts of a podcast. Also, people who used Audible loved the car mode feature and wanted that feature to be included in a podcast app.
4. People had a hard time finding new recommendations of new podcasts to listen to. We discovered this was a big pain point from people who didn’t listen to podcasts. They didn’t know where to start. There were so many podcast out there. How did they know what was good?
5. People who enjoyed podcasts had a hard time sharing podcast episodes with friends. They wanted to be able to share what they just listened to. Multiple users expressed this as a key feature that was missing.
6. Audible fans who hadn’t made the jump to podcasts really liked the ability to dive deep into the books they were reading and would love to discover podcasts interviews from the author or people discussing a particular book. They would love the ability to sync their audible purchases and find podcasts that would let them do this.

These discoveries were incredibly insightful. They confirmed some of our assumptions, but also challenged many others. I originally assumed that people wanted more original content, like a Netflix model. These would be shows that were fiction based and felt like old time radio shows. This model was recently successful in the popular podcast Homecoming. However, I tested this theory out and found this wasn’t something people were interested in. Scratch that idea.

Now that our data was collected we wanted to empathize with our user. We wanted to have a clear idea in mind who are users were and what pain points they were experiencing.

Persona

Creating a Persona really helped us put a face to all our research. As a group, we were able to get on the same page and really see who were designing for. One thing that came up in our interviews a lot were Audiobook listeners who would like to get into podcasts, but didn’t know where to start.

In order to empathize with that experience, we decided to create a persona who was an Audiobook listener who was looking to discover more podcasts in order to learn more about digital marketing, a career she was looking to advance more into.

Empathy Map

With a persona in mind, I wanted to continue to empathize with Alice Washington. Beyond knowing her frustrations, I wanted to understand where she was coming from. I wanted to know what she was thinking and how she was feeling. Creating a Empathy Map went beyond the persona and really helped me discover more. It helped me empathize and understand our users more.

Jobs To Be Done

Now that I have a clearer understanding of who Alice is and what frustrations she was experiencing when trying to discover podcasts, I wanted to understand what job she was hiring a podcast to do. Understanding this would help us build a clear user story map and give us insight on which features should be built in the first release and which ones shouldn’t. Here’s the jobs Alice was hiring podcasts to do.

1. When I’m driving in my car to work, I want to do be able to pass time easily, so I don’t feel stressed when driving.
2. When I’m looking for a new podcast, I want to be able to find interesting content, so my drive is entertaining.
3. When talking to a co-worker or friend, I want to be able to recommend interesting content in our field, so that I look well informed and like an expert.
4. When talking to a friend, I want to be able to share something interesting I’m listening to, so that I can have someone to talk about it when a new episode comes out.

User Story Map

Now that we were beginning to understand Alice and what jobs she was hiring a podcast to do, we began to build out our product. Having our users at the center of everything drove the decisions we made in determining which features that needed to be designed.

After we discussed the goals, narrative and tasks a user would take through our app, we looked at our time constraints and our research and the re-ordered everything. We discussed which features were essential is our initial release and which features would be moved below our MVP line.

We challenged this a couple of times and finally came up with what we felt was a nice consolidated list. We arrived at this decision by empathizing with our users. We looked at our Persona, Empathy Map and Jobs To Be Done to make sure the features we were building out were validated by our research.

Ideate: Sketching and Wireframes

Now that we had discovered which features would be included in our first release, it was time to start getting our ideas out there. We wanted to come up with as many creative solutions as possible. The best way to get these ideas out is sketching.

Each group member made their own sketches. We then came together to see options each person had come up with. We discussed which layouts would work best.

One item we debated was the homescreen. Originally, I wanted the homescreen to be a list of shows you were subscribed to. As we thought about the experience through Alice’s eyes, we decided this wasn’t the right way to go. We opted to go to a more Netflix approach, with rows of shows that were curated based off your personal tastes. We felt this gave someone coming from Audiobooks into Podcasts a more delightful experience.

Once we discussed and discovered which designs would create the best experience, we began to create some low fidelity wireframes to show the flow of the whole app.

Testing

Once we designed the wireframes, we wanted to validate our designs. Were our solutions truly overcoming design problems? I hooked up the wireframes in Invision and our team did some usability testing. Here a list of the things we tested during our Usability Testing

1. See if the user can find a Podcast to listen to
2. See if the user can share a podcast with a friend
3. See if the user can create a playlist
4. See if the user can find a Comedy Podcast
5. Get the user’s thoughts on the Onboarding Process. Is this process too long?
6. Ask users where they would go to see their subscribed podcasts
7. Ask users where to go to see your favorited podcasts
8. Ask users how to read new messages from their friends

The Results

While results varied, our three main takeaways from testing our wireframes were:

1. The Onboarding Process wasn’t too long and seemed to make sense.
2. Sharing a Podcast with a friend wasn’t that obvious. The icon being used wasn’t very clear.
3. Creating a playlist wasn’t very clear either.

Defining Our Brand

Before we started designing a more high fidelity design, we wanted to clearly define our brand. We wanted to ensure our design decisions were on brand and created a story. One thing we discovered during our research process was lots of people listened to audiobooks or podcasts to escape from reality and be wrapped up in a story. When we were discusses names, one of our group members suggested the name Castaway. I loved it. I thought this name played off of the podcast brand while building on the idea of escaping to a desert island while listening to podcasts.

Once I heard the name, I instantly began to think of logo concepts. I really wanted to use a life saver and incorporate it with the podcast icon. Here is my logo process.

Here are some logo concepts I did. I eventually landed on one I really liked.

Color and Type

To build on the story of retreating to a desert island, I wanted to use colors that represented this. I also wanted to use these colors to create a gradient that felt like a sunset on a desert island.

Since our podcasting app was launching in iOS, we followed the typography section in the Human Interface Guidelines. We used visual hierarchy principles by using different weights and sizes to emphasize important information.

Now that we decided on colors and type, we started designing a High Fidelity Prototype. We wanted to test our designs and make sure they were solving problems. We also wanted to make sure and the designs were intuitive and simple.

The Welcome Screen

Anytime someone downloads a new app there is a small window of time to convince the user to use the app. We wanted to quickly establish what set our app apart amongst the variety of podcast apps out there. Our Welcome screen scrolled through three of our biggest features that set our app apart.

One of the pain points non podcast listeners were experiencing was it takes a lot of time to find a podcast to listen to and they didn’t know where to start. Because of this, it turned users off from the experience all together. Our goal was to solve for this by generating custom recommendations based off their likes. In order to get this information, we would ask for it during the onboarding process.

We also found there were a lot of people who were Audiobook listeners who were looking to get into podcasts, but didn’t know where to start. We wanted to give users the ability to sync their audible purchases and get recommendations of their listening history.

The Home Screen

Once they’ve set their taste preferences, the home screen shows which podcasts they’ve favorited and a list of recommended shows. We wanted to give a new user a place to start and find shows since this was a major obstacle that was keeping them from listening to podcasts.

Selecting an Episode

Here was our original design concept for selecting an episode within a podcast.

We conducted some usability testing and found that the buttons were to small and easy to click on. We were also adding tons of cognitive load for our users with lots of potential actions a user could take. We thought about how we could simply the process and present a cleaner design to our users. Here is the solution we came up with.

Listen To Your Podcasts

Once a user finds a podcast they really like, they’re going to want to favorite it or subscribe to it. Favoriting a podcast lets your friends see which podcasts you like. Your subscribed podcasts maybe a lot longer than your favorites and may have a couple of podcasts you are just checking out.

Car Mode

Our User Interviews revealed that people liked to listen to podcasts while commuting to work. We also found out people had a hard time navigating the controls while driving. In order to help user have a better listening experience while driving, we designed a car mode that made the buttons bigger and easier to use. This would also cut down on distracted drivers and accidents on the road.

Sharing Podcasts With Friends

Our research also revealed that being able to share podcasts with friends was important and would create a great experience. A lot of podcasting apps had the ability to share a link through a text message, but we wanted to have in app sharing to make the process easier and more social from within the app.

Get Recommendations From Friends

Our user research also revealed that receiving recommendations from friends was not only important, but this was often how users found new content to listen to. This creates a more personal podcasting experience with the ability to share and get new recommendations from friends.

Final Prototype

Through multiple rounds of usability testing and redesigns, we landed on a final design for our first design round. You can view the prototype here:

Click here to view the project `Castaway`

Takeaways

Our challenge was to create a podcasting app that was more personable and interactive. The popularity of podcasts has risen in just the last couple of years, but the way people listen to these shows was lacking. Talking with users who wanted to listen to podcasts, but didn’t no where to start, helped us define what would make a better podcast listening experience. Through testing and talking with users, we were able to revisit what was working and what wasn’t to deliver a product that created a great user experience.