Audible
An audiobook platform new feature
Overview
Audible is an audio reading app that allows its users to have access to podcast, audiobooks, and other educational content. Audible focuses heavily on many genre of books & also making those books as accessible as possible. As part of that focus, I believe implementing a read-along transcript feature would enhance their User Experience.
Role
Product Designer
Skills
Product Design
Research
Duration
July ‘24 - Sept 24’
Challenge
How might we develop a feature that allows users to switch seamlessly between text and audio versions of books to accommodate different reading moods.
Opportunity
Design a feature that enables individuals to read along when listening to content.
A new feature where users while enjoying their audiobooks or podcast, can read along and track where they are as well to get full experience. Users often who heavily use Audio resources use them in many different capacities and my aim is to provide users with another feature to make their use of Audible as top tier as possible.
Competitive Analysis
How do we consider all these audio apps we’re exposed to? What’s best?
First, it was time to research the most popular competitors in the market in the audio content space. We wanted to see what areas could be leverage that others brand we’re focusing heavily on. I found that almost none of them had this aspect of an read-along transcript or text to track reading feature.
User Research
Create a personalized user experience.
Next, After I gathered and analyzed who are competitors are and what they offer. I wanted to focus on what are research goals and objectives were to identify how users were interacting with content on various mediums. This helped develop the framework to what our users needs could be. To determine these finds, I intend to conduct User Interviews through surveys and moderated interviews. The research goals I developed were:
Understand how much knowledge users have about books and how they consume information.
Determine the reasons behind why users utilize audiobook.
Understand what features users use the most and what they look for.
Discover what users like and dislike about the use of audio resources.
User Research
My interviewees stated that personal and spiritual growth was ignited.
To continue the next steps in the discovery phase of my project, I conducted user interviews to get a better understanding of our users behaviors and pain points.
Being in this technology era and society we’re in where personal development is top priority, I assumed that individuals who were involved in higher education or prioritize learning new things desired to be informed about topics that aligned with where they were in life.
To challenge this assumption, I conducted user interviews with a focus group of 5 individuals who often read and consume information in digital capacities. I listened for pain points, motivations, and aimed to understand the thought and very real process of handling certain circumstances.
What did I discover?
The interviews revealed that users want platforms that contain personalized content, cater to time constraints, and provide them with the content needed to grow whether it’s personally or spiritually.
User Research
Who are we designing for? Who’s our audience?
After conducting the user interviews through taking surveys and a series of questions, I had a great vision and idea of who we were designing for. This consisted of the users pain points, frustrations, and goals of the user. Was the solution truly defining the problem? I designed personas that depicted what our users were seeking.
Ideate + Prototyping (Low Fidelity)
How to not disrupt the navigation & familiarity?
At this point, I was ready to start the Design portion with all the insights needed. We started with a great framework of the audible flow and layout of the application. The user flow mapped out the most common pathways of our users.
Based on primary usage of Audible and how the application was presently constructed. I didn’t want to disrupt the navigation and familiarity of the layout for users. I wanted the additional feature to be seamless as possible. This led me to create a simple range of wireframes to start the design element.
Ideate + Prototyping (Mid Fidelity)
Did it affect any functions? Are there any changes needed?
From there, I was ready to start the executing the polishing portion and allow our users to test the app to see if our sketches solved their problem. Was the additional feature needed? Did it make a difference in how they used the application going forward? Did it affect any functionalities?
Based on the key pain points & needs discussed with our users through user interviews. I let participants freely interact with the wireframes prototype and provide feedback for screens to determine changes needed for improved user experience.
Key Insights & Usability Testing (Mid-Fidelity)
Key Insights
Convenience and Build Habits.
Some users enjoyed the usage of audiobooks because it allowed them to do other things while enjoying their favorite books. One word that was consistently used was convenience.
One user has a familiarity with a certain brand which was Kindle, so what would make her switch to a different platform?
Most users see the benefit of using audiobooks because they desire to be consistent in daily routine and forming great habits of reading monthly.
Some users are battling with the dilemma about owning physical books vs audio books.
Usability Testing
The new feature fulfills the gap in the user experience.
Using feedback from usability testing, I identified 3 key areas for improvement:
Navigation
Make it clear to users that this is where a certain icon is, so it’s accessible as needed.
Better Experience
Adding the read along transcript and taking notes feature with audio gave users a better experience than having to continually rewind because of multitasking. Along with this benefit, users just desire that the audio is 1:1 tracked with the transcript as well.
Final Screens Showcase
Read Along Transcript Feature
Create Notes Feature
Welcome Screen
Final Screens
The Final Product
What I Learned
Celebrate Progress. Each step forward is worth celebrating no matter how small.
Inspiration comes and goes. Learn to show up regardless of how inspired you are. Half the battle is won just by showing up.
Ride the highs and low of every project. You’ll be surprised by what you end up creating.
If I Had More Time.
Consider how Dark Mode UI would work, knowing user often switch between light and dark mode.