CONTEXT
Our team was given the task to incorporate and redesign features for Audible such as bookmarking, indexing the bookmarks, improving navigation, and accessing the author's and your own personalized commentary. In short, make Audible have more book-like features and more user friendly. Through primary and secondary research, we had to figure out who our targeted user group is and how we can incorporate book-like features in our redesign of audible.
MY ROLE
As the facilitator of this project, I set up a timeline of deadlines that we had to meet and encouraged transparency with the other teammates so that we could keep up with the deadlines. Since we were tight on schedule, I delegated the job for prototyping and wire framing for the app, and the job for prototyping our voice command solutions. I learned how to take the lead and also allow space for my teammates to input their ideas and come up with a solution that we all agreed on.
Our group brainstormed various options in which we voted on. The diagram helped us order the features we would like and the steps it would take to complete those features.
An outline of our problem space, who our users were, and what we would include in our documentation. I also took notes on our features and the pros and cons to the other group's presentation for future improvements.
One of our solutions was to introduce an interface made safe for driving. A problem we found was that users don't know that a driving feature existed, so to remedy that, there will be a mandatory notification that pops up so our users at least see it once.
Ellie Wojtowics, Tasha Lim, John Nall (left to right)
OUTCOME
The goal of this redesign was to improve the functionality of of the of the app while maintaining the brand and features audible cares about in order to maintain the familiarity between our users and the application. Our research focused on figuring out the purpose of the current features and how to translate actions preformed with an analog book (ie, highlighting, making a note) into sensory commands for Audible.
​
Our final features includes the Clip Feature which is translated as the "highlighter." A highlighter has a definite beginning and end and has the function of setting aside a piece of information, and therefore our clip feature will take a chunk of the audio and store it in the clip library so that the user can listen to it in the future. We also wanted to index the saved content using tags so that the user can find their content easier. Our final feature was the commentary feature, which translates to making a note in a tangible book.
It is easy to get lost in creating a good design, but we want to make sure it is the "right" design for our users. We decided that majority of users use audible when they are commuting and therefore wanted to address safe practices. We decided since commuters have to user their eyes to watch the road and at least one hand to steer their vehicle, the safest way to interact with Audible is though tactile queues. Taps and swipes would translate to the particular feature the user wants to preform.
​
Ultimately, we redesigned the button-free mode, by adding the option of creating commentaries. Commentaries are made by holding down on the screen, recording the user's commentary, and releasing. Creating a clip is accessed by double tapping on the screen. Double tapping would automatically capture 30 seconds of the clip -- 15 seconds before the tap and 15 seconds after the tap. This is because when the user decides they want to save a clip, they may have already passed over what they wanted to save, so we automatically help our users capture a range. Apart from these two updates, all other taps and swipe commands stayed the same: swipe left to go back 30 seconds, right to go forward 30 seconds, and tap to play and pause.
​
FEEDBACK & FUTURE ITERATIONS
One of the feedbacks we received during our presentation was that my team tried to create many solutions (we also pitched a voice command mode), which can end up being distracting. We were advised to focus on making one solution really good rather than having many okay solutions. As UX designers, we are often faced with complex problems with many layers. Finding a solution that will solve everything is really hard, therefore it's important to focus on smaller chunks of the problem.
​
For future iterations, I would focus more on specifically how a person can customize the button free mode because I believe that if many of our users are using Audible during their commutes, interacting with this product should not jeopardize their safety or the safety of the people around them.