Apple Podcasts Case Study

New feature design for an app that helps users filter and sort podcast episodes.

Project Type: Concept for UX Design Bootcamp

Role: Solo Product Designer

Deliverables: Research Insights, User Persona, Site Map, Low & High Fidelity Wireframes, Prototype

Tools: Figma, Miro

  • Problem

    Many podcasts on Apple Podcasts have hundreds of episodes available but there is currently no way for users to find specific episodes of podcasts that they’d be more likely to enjoy listening to.

  • Solution

    Design a feature that allows users multiple ways to sort, filter, and review specific episodes of podcasts.

Competitive Research

I conducted competitive research to gain insights into the features and solutions of my competitors. Identifying 5 of my direct competitors was the first step. Then I went through their apps and created a list of design strengths and weaknesses for each competitor. This research helped me come up with some features and design ideas that would help position my product above the competitors.

Competitor Strengths

  • Has rating & review systems.

  • Shows number of reviews & ratings.

  • Can sort reviews multiple ways.

  • Users can thumbs up and thumbs down reviews to help sort reviews.

Competitor Weaknesses

  • Not always clear how to sort reviews.

  • Not always clear how reviews are sorted.

  • Can’t sort items either by ratings/reviews or popularity.

User Interviews

During the ideation phase of the project, I conducted user interviews to build new personas and to inform the design. I prepared an interview script with 13 open-ended questions, focusing on my target audiences’ values and motivations when searching for podcast episodes. I recruited and interviewed 3 users remotely. I referenced the user interview findings throughout the entire design process. Here were some of the main insights I gained from the interviews:

  • Users appreciate having many filtering and sorting options.

  • Users wish they could sort episodes by reviews or popularity.

  • Users appreciate user made lists that are interactive.

  • Users highly rely on interactive reviews.

  • Users easily feel overwhelmed browsing large amounts of content.

Site Map

I created a site map based on the current app site map. I then figured out where to add the features I was planning to design. I used the insights from my competitor research and user interviews to help figure out where to add my features in the most natural and easy way for users.

Wireframes

Using Figma, I created low-fidelity wireframes. I added annotations and arrows to show the interactions and flow between the screens and to highlight the features I had added. I really tried to make my new features fit seamlessly into the already existing designs.

UI Design

Once I finished my wireframes, I moved on to design the final screens in Figma. I designed screens for mobile. My goal was to make sure that any new design elements I created worked seamlessly with the already established UI guidelines of the app

Usability Testing

I created a fully-functional, high-fidelity prototype using Figma. I then recruited 3 usability testing participants and conducted in person tests, where I had participants sit next to me and I watched how they interacted with my prototype. From my usability testing it was clear that there were 3 major issues users were experiencing:

  1. Users really liked the Playlist feature and wanted it to be easier to find.

  2. Users did not realize they could scroll to the side to see more sorting/filtering options.

  3. Users wanted to be able to click on reviews from the episode listing screen.

I then made changes to my designs to address the issues users faced during testing.

Conclusions

  1. This was my first time working on an already existing product and I found that because I did not have to create a brand new product and UI guidelines I was able to focus a lot more on the small details in the features I was adding and I really enjoyed being able to do that.

  2. My biggest challenge with this project was figuring out designing for mobile. This was my first time doing a full UX project from start to finish for mobile only and so there was a lot that I was not super comfortable with. I specifically struggled with prototyping for mobile, but I learned a lot through the prototyping in this project and definitely feel more comfortable prototyping for mobile now.

  3. Something I would’ve done differently with this project is to have created a user flow. If I had more time, I think it would’ve been very helpful for the design and prototyping stages of this project to have done a user flow.