Apple Podcasts
During the COVID-19 pandemic, I became a regular podcast listener and turned to the default app on my phone, Apple Podcasts. Navigating the app to find the episodes you want was confusing and convoluted. I quickly found that the online community agreed along with even more issues I was not aware of. Thus, this project focuses on addressing the issues mentioned online user base to improve navigation, layout, usability as updating the feature set for "power" users.
Client / Year
Role
Duration
Skills
UX/UI
Mobile
Problem
The amount of monthly podcast consumers grew by 16% from 2019 to 2020, hitting an all-time high of 100 million Americans. (The Infinite Dial 2020).
With an increasing number of Apple users and podcast listeners, it is important to update Apple Podcasts with features and usability to both appease both power users and casual users. Power users need an incentive to return to the native Apple app above all, and casual users need a pleasant listening experience.
Design Process
In order to understand user needs and find actionable insights, I first utilized online user feedback and reviews and conducted user surveys.
From these methods, many users mentioned switching to 3rd party apps as a result of their poor experiences with Apple Podcasts, which informed me to conduct a competitive analysis.
Goals
The goals I started to articulate were:
Improve the experience of finding episodes to play
Better accommodate the needs of "power" users
Implement Apple's Human Interface Guidelines to maintain the look and feel of an iOS app
Current Design
Here were some problem areas of the current iteration of Podcasts.
Online User Feedback
To quickly discover opinions and feedback from users about the app, I looked at online community feedback which immediately gave me insights on their pain points. Here are some statements from
Competitive Analysis
From initial user research, many users expressed frustrations with the native app and switched to third party apps. I conducted a study of Apple Podcasts' competitors: Overcast, Pocketcasts.
Final Design
The redesign of the "Podcasts" app includes the addition of static search bars on all screens and a filter bar to allow users to quickly access and organize a show's library. The "My Episodes" was removed in favor of a standard list organized by chronological release to eliminate randomness. Users can utilize the filter categories to find new, unplayed and downloaded episodes.
It also includes a range of features for power users, such as "Trim Silence" and "Voice Boost" for improving the listening experience. It also addresses a usability issue with the scroll bar, which previously faded after a short time, making it difficult for users to notice and access additional content. The updated app now includes a consistently present scroll bar.
Key Flows
Improved search, filters, organization, and power listening functions.
OPML Library support, allows for users to export and import their subscriptions.
Reflection
Apple's Human Interface Guidelines is a powerful resources for designers.
The Human Interface Guidelines by Apple is a treasure. As an aspiring UI/UX designer, it's exciting to have a resource straight from Apple that provides excellent UI/UX advice, which can be applied not only to Apple apps but all of design. It is unexpectedly approachable and easy to follow. Straightforward and comprehensive but not overly verbose.
Previewing your designs on real devices.
I designed this project on Figma and frequently used their Figma Mirror app on the iPhone, which allows you to preview the designs on an actual phone. While designing on a computer screen, your buttons and text feel well space but previewing on the real device showed many spacing problems which was immensely helpful.
Narrowing the focus and scope of a project.
I realized after I completed this how much work it goes into a full redesign on a project. There are many things that go into this type of app especially with the navigation and how to feature different shows. I feel like the broader, the changes, the less things I am able to accomplish and I would accomplish more with a smaller scope, in shorter bursts.