Improving BBC Sounds audio playback experience
BBC Sounds mobile app allows you to access all your favourite BBC audio content – programmes, podcasts, radio stations and music all in one place.
The challenge
Past projects and research feedback had identified mounting issues with our audio playback experience.
We had many ideas for new features. But we were running out of space on small devices, and it was at risk of becoming a bloated design. We needed to review this part of the experience and future proof it for further growth.
Impact
Implemented design changes that reduced user complaints and increased product usage metrics.
Delivered north star concepts that informed the product roadmap.
Set UX principles that informed and sped up future design work.
My role
Lead Product Designer
Worked within a multi-disciplinary product team. Owning the design vision, guiding execution and managing a small design team.
End-to-end process
I led research analysis and ideation. Executed design improvements through experimentation. Informed the future roadmap by creating north star concepts and running concept testing.
Fixing user experience issues
A series of experiments to quickly address feedback from users and meet industry standard expectations.
Improving the usability of ‘connect to device’ button
Added the ability for users to change playback speed.
Testing icon comprehension and refreshing the icon set
Increasing shares by adding ‘share’ & testing feature placement
North star concepts
Diverging on ideas to come up with north star concept designs.
Creating working prototypes to gain insights through concept testing.
UX principle guidelines
Creating some guiding principles to future proof any new feature additions. Based on existing knowledge of human interaction design and existing behaviour.
