1
APP • 2020
Podcast
Scope
Add Podcast section
Onboard people
Keep the experience familiar
Role
Product Design
Hand-off
Testing
Timeline
3 months
Platform
Mobile
Overview
Wynk Music has mainly been a music and caller-tunes app since its inception. With the maturity of our user base and the popularity of podcasts, it was time to bring the content onto the platform. The project involved scaling the app to have different types of content on it. The project expanded our user base and integrate features to suit a wider audience. The new podcast section had to be familiar to an existing base of 60 million users and also appeal to a new potential audience of 10 million more.
Expand the app from just music and caller-tunes to now include podcasts.
Bring in new form of content
Keep the experience familiar but introduce new features catered for podcast listening.
Onboard 60 million people
Learnings from the project
India has over 500 million mobile users. Out of this, a growing user base of 40+ million people listened to podcast in 2018. 60% up from 2017.
176 million listeners by ‘23
The listener base will increase to 176 million by the year 2023 and will double every 3 years.
Most listen on mobile
About 80% of people listen to podcasts on mobile phones.
Capture Tier 2 and 3 cities
The next wave of podcast listeners will come from smaller cities that have no exposure to podcasts.
What’s in it for Wynk?
We had a ‘why’ we need to build this. The next question we had, was how will we benefit from this?
Be able to support queries in the future via backend integration and little client side effort.
Higher Engagement
Help people understand how to use a finance search engine and how it can improve their experience on Fi
Monetisation
Make people use for more complex and personal queries.
Subscription
Our team was limited to 2 engineers and 1 designer to make something scalable and for a million users.
Distribution Channel
2
Gaining Insights
Before we embarked on making the product, we wanted to see the kind of response we get from our user base towards podcasts. Our assumption was that podcasts as a form of content were limited to the English speaking section of urban centres. We tested our podcast content in Mumbai and Delhi for a week to gauge the response.
We ran a quick test to see the response of our user base towards podcast
People were not aware of podcasts on the app. With visibility upfront, we saw a higher CTR (naturally). The people who did consume podcasts showed a higher tendency to listen to them for longer.
Users drifted more towards the shows with clear titles which hinted at the genre. They didn’t want to guess what the show is about.
Clear titles and genres
Listeners consumed podcasts in regional languages and did not stick to English only. Showing there’s demand for vernacular shows.
English was not a requirement
Two Main Goals
At the end, we wish to achieve these two goals to improve our ways of working
Aid discovery
Listeners were experiencing podcast for the first time. We had to bring the most relevant shows for the listeners up front. If people did like what they were listening to or find topics they enjoyed, there was no bringing them back.
Aid discovery
Listeners were experiencing podcast for the first time. We had to bring the most relevant shows for the listeners up front. If people did like what they were listening to or find topics they enjoyed, there was no bringing them back.
3
Building the foundation
Once we had a clear idea of the challenges, our limitations and who we were designing for, we set out to sketch our ideas. The podcast space was mature in the West and had some really polished apps. We looked at a bunch of competitors and saw what they did really well. We tried to intelligently layer the information and present it in the most welcoming manner. The app had to appeal to a first-time audience and also a seasoned one. As a music listening service, we had to keep the experience in line with what we’ve been offering for the last few years. Going pixels-blazing for a new look was not an option.
Layers of the product feature
Awareness
Inform our listeners about the introduction of podcasts as something new on the platform. We also guide them to the right section where they can find the new content.
Onboarding
We tell our listeners what they can find here. We then try to capture the taste of our listeners and their preferences so we can present only the relevant content to help with discovery.
Engagement
Once the listener is active, we give them features to improve their listening experience, history, playback controls, etc.
Absorbption
We let the listener discover more shows that they could like, allow them to manage their shows, provide exclusive content. This lets the users keep coming back to the platform.
Retention Trigger
Update the listeners with any content about their favourite shows, give periodic notification and recommend shows from partners.
Checked out the leading apps in the podcast space and saw what was going great for them.
Trial and error
We then got down to making the various user journeys and striking the right compromise between features and ease of use. It had to be approachable to a first-time user and useful for a seasoned podcast listener too.
We sketched out different ideas and ran quick tests within the team to get quick feedback.
Prototyped and tested with the flows internally with the team to get early feedback.
Learnings from the test
It was great to be able to test the flows with a dozen odd people and iron out issues. Sharing some of the highlights we made.
People didn’t have a clear understanding around terms like a ‘show’, ‘follow’, ‘subscribe’, ‘scrub’, etc.
Podcast Terminology
We had too many categories and sub-categories on offer. User didn’t straight up understand these distinction.
Analysis Paralysis
We limited the CTAs on the show pages and this helped users take the most important actions of either listening or following a podcast
Clear CTAs
We didn’t overload the users with text and kept these behind a click. Users weren’t overwhelmed when they landed on the show pages.
Progressive Disclosure
Iterate. Re-iterate.
Back and forth between quick feedbacks and changes in the design was the cadence we followed for a few days till we reached the appropriate flow. Getting a go-ahead from all the stakeholders, it was time to work on the interface design of the feature.
4
Fleshing it out
With the consensus, we set out to make the interface. We tried to stick to the existing Wynk Music’s design language. We did take the liberty to design new components but kept them rooted in our current design language. We did not want a stark difference between the various sections of the app. We also updated a few components along the way for hygiene.
Onboarding
Informing the user about podcast, taking their language and genre preferences for podcasts
Personalised Homepage
We added quick access to the recently played podcasts, the shows users follow and various categories for podcasts.
A new header
We imagined a new header for the podcast section. We removed clutter and added relevant information and controls upfront.
Quick access to shows
We made it easy for listeners to jump to their recent episodes by adding a 'Continue Listening' section on the show page.
Progressive Disclosure
We hid features like a detailed about section and reminders, intended towards more mature users behind taps. This helped us keep the show page clean.
Refreshed Podcast Player
A new player with relevant controls like time skip, playback speed and timer.
Sleep timer
A handy sleep timer is a standard feature on
every podcast app.
More playback control
User can adjust playback speeds for podcast to improve the listening experience.
Categories of Shows
Introduction of categories to help the users discover new shows in an easier way.
5
Impact
The launch of podcast was a big success on Wynk. Over 12 million users, a significant chunk of our base listens to podcasts. Over the next few weeks, listeners consumed more and more shows. The average podcast listener spent more time on the platform versus a music listener.
38%
Increase in stream-time versus music
74%
User completed the onboarding journey
26%
User followed a show
they liked
52%
User selected 3 or more podcast categories
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Final Words
For a Version 1, we took satisfaction in this result. We had to skip a few essential steps to tackle the problem due to the ongoing pandemic but we tried to make the best we could off the situation. As we move ahead, there are a few other things we wished to do in the next phase of the project.
Vernacular
There was a demand for content in regional languages. Having more content in different language could remove the entry barrier that English poses for so many people.
Richer management features
The next step in the maturity cycle of a listener would be exercising more control over the shows they follow. We want the users to be able to follow, set alerts, bookmark, even take notes, among other things.
Inspect the journeys
Having only conducted tests with a small group of people, we did not have the clearest picture of how well the user journeys were. We'd need time to observe how a user evolves over time while using the app and how the usage pattern changes.
Learnings from the project
The pandemic had just hit us and none of us had any idea how to execute our first large scale project. This was an exercise in collaboration and communication. The 3 months we spent to deliver the project allowed me to experiment with our (non-existent) design process and seek out early feedback. All to make the final product the best it could be.
Test quickly
Figma was a blessing here. We tested multiple flows and screen variations to get as much feedback as possible. This helped our design decisions immensely.
Scaling a product
Different content forms need different interaction patterns. Seeing how we could mould our exisiting designs to meet our new needs.
Metrics and personas
We were not a metrics or research driven team. This project allowed us change that approach it in a new way. This certainly helped us cement our rationale better and see the impact of our work.
