Audibooks — Designing an Accessible Audio Streaming Experience.
Problem
Audiobooks and podcasts are the fastest-growing audio segments on mobile. Users who listen to audiobooks don't enjoy the benefits of touching pages, highlighting excerpts, or leaving notes on their favorite pages. They also lose the nostalgic aspects of owning a book and watching it age. This leaves a lot to be desired from the audio experience on mobile.
*This prompt is from Artiom Dashinsky's design challenge book
Goal
Design an audiobook or podcast mobile app that is highly personal, highly interactive, and capable of bringing even more utility to the user than a book ever could.
Constraint: All suggested technologies need to exist, or should realistically exist within the next six months.
Design Process
Empathize
User Interviews - I interviewed users to understand their needs and to know their expectations.
Sample Interview Questions
- Were you an avid book reader before you started listening to audiobooks?
- Why did you make the switch from physical books to audiobooks?
- What times do you usually listen to audiobooks?
- What devices do you usually listen to audiobooks on?
- What about the physical book reading experience do you miss the most?
- How do you listen to your audiobooks, with apps or downloaded onto your device?
Key Insights Derived From Interviews
- Most audiobook listeners loved and some still love reading physical books.
- Most of the users use mobile apps to listen to their audiobooks.
- Most users listen to audiobooks when they are at the workplace, doing household chores, or commuting.
- Most users listen to audiobooks on their phones.
- Users miss the feel of holding a book in their hand. They also miss being able to highlight and take notes.
Define
User Personas - With the data collected from the interviews, I created personas representing the ideal users, their personalities, challenges, and expectations.
Ideate
Brainstorming
Possible Solutions
- Audiobook mobile app
- Tablet with stylus
Deductions
The tablet will only be for listening to audiobooks and the stylus will be used for highlighting and taking notes. This will, however, require a lot of resources and effort, and users will not pay for a tablet that does something a phone or touchscreen laptop can perfectly do.
The mobile app will be just like any audiobook app but with the added features of bookmarking, transcription preview, highlighting, note-writing, and no-distraction mode. The app doesn't require much effort to design and build.
Priority Chart
A mobile app will have high impact and require comparatively minimal effort. This makes it the best option.
A tablet with a stylus will have a high impact but will require maximum effort, which makes it the second-best option.
Design
