TASK ONE: Reimagine Apple’s native podcast app (because it’s garbage)
(See original screens and re-written screens above)
The changes I’ve made to the microcopy intend to:
Reduce repetition and build a stronger connection between feeds and buttons
Move towards a more user-focused and failsafe design
Add value to content creators by encouraging listener support
For the ‘Library Landing’ screen, I wanted to follow through on the section’s title. The current screen has a button that leads you to the full list of shows you subscribe to—your library—while the main focus of the screen is the feed of recently updated shows. My copy inverts this by making ‘Recent Updates’ the top button and a customizable ‘All Shows’ feed the main focus. The second button, ‘Bookmarks,’ allow users to create a separate ‘bookmark feed’ so users can save their spot in past episodes when they’re catching up or re-listening even if they listen to the same show’s most recent episode.
The second (‘Currently Listening’) and third (‘Action Drawer Overlay’) screens are related: the ellipsis below the volume scrubber in the Currently Listening screen is a more-actions button that leads to the Action Drawer Overlay. ‘Up Next’ is changed in the second to ‘Show Feed’ so the user can scroll forwards and backwards chronologically through releases just in case they, say, fall asleep during a listen and need to quickly revert back in the feed. In the action drawer, ‘Bookmark’ is added to populate the ‘Bookmarks’ feed added to the first screen. I’ve replaced the repetitious ‘Share’ button in the action drawer and repurposed the space as a ‘Support Creator’ button to allow content creators to funnel listeners to their Patreon or website. Finally, the ‘Play Next’ button will open a modifiable action drawer that populates the queue one episode at a time, so the user can easily create a playlist for themselves.
TASK TWO, PART ONE: Describe a major feature of Apple’s podcast app and write a set of instructions for its use
The ‘Queue’ feature for the native Apple app can be a hassle. The queue itself isn’t easy to find and will counterintuitively populate entire shows when you choose the ‘Play Next’ option on a specific episode. However, with a little diligence, you can use the queue to make a podcast playlist to last you hours of errands, road-tripping or house-cleaning.
While listening to a show, search for the next episode you want to listen to.
Tap the Ellipsis button to the right of the episode title to open a menu. Depending on how you get there, you may need to press ‘Details’ to get to the page with the elusive Ellipsis button.
Choose ‘Play Next’ from the menu.
Go back to the ‘Currently Playing’ screen by tapping the Play bar towards the bottom of the screen with the current episode’s title and Play/Pause button.
Scroll up to reveal the ‘Up Next’ feed. That’s the queue we’re looking for. Notice that when you chose to ‘Play Next,’ it may have populated several months’ worth of episodes from the podcast’s feed.
If you don’t wish to listen to episodes of the same podcast in reverse chronological order for the next 72 hours, you can find more episodes from other podcasts and choose to ‘Play Next’ from the Ellipsis-button menu.
To modify the playing order, go back to the queue and drag episodes up and down the list by holding down the three horizontal lines to the right of the episode titles.
TASK TWO, PART TWO: Define the app’s user base and why they use the app.
The Apple Podcast app has a user base as wide and varied as the shows that can be found there. Users turn to podcasts for escapist storytelling, alternative news sources, cooking advice, history lessons, political discourse or true-crime intrigue. Their motivations can range from distraction to education, time-wasting to personal fulfillment. The connecting thread for all podcast-listeners, though, is an appreciation for familiarity and the satisfaction of a particular curiosity.
When you’ve invested days or weeks-worth of hours to the same voices—describing the power struggles of ancient Persia or bumbling through an episodic D&D campaign—you grow an affection for the creators, their laughs, their cadence, their favorite words or way of describing things. It becomes a source of comfort, a place to escape to turn your brain off after a long day of work or turn your brain on for an otherwise un-stimulating walk to the grocery store. The native Apple Podcast app allows users to search for the stories or the news that might spark these connections and provides a relatively simple platform to maintain them.
