AUDIBLE, an Amazon company
I joined Audible as a Lead UX consultant working with a small team of designers responsible for Audible Channels, a place where you can listen to short-form audio content like news/comedy and original audio series.
Channels launched in March 2016 for Audible members and I was the Senior designer for major releases that introduced Channels as a free benefit for Prime members. With the Prime launch scheduled, the Design team was assigned to improve the Engagement of Channels content on the apps, with goals such as:
1. Increase average listen time in Channels
2. Increase the number of member activations, from the Prime members cohort
Below is the design process that I helped spearhead to launch Channels for Prime.
Finding the Opportunities:
UX is never a silo-ed practice, and at Audible, team collaboration was very strong. Every design sprint began with data collection and parsing the feedback provided by our researchers.
“I am Jenny, I have two kids and I commute to work for about 45 mins each way. I listen to podcasts during my commute and listen to music at work. While cooking, I keep my laptop open, as I check emails or browse shows on Netflix. I am a Prime member and I am on Amazon a lot browsing for items to shop for the house.”
Jenny is more likely to get habituated to Channels if it’s surfaced up for her through Amazon channels and if she is able to sample the quality of the programming.
Using the Jobs To Be Done as a framework, we wrote problem statements, sketch journey maps and write story narratives for users like Jenny to understand the outcome our customers expect when using our products, rather directly jumping into specific solutions.
Following the ideation phase, we divide the work that need to be completed and proceed individually but checking in with each other on a daily basis.
To understand user’s mental models and to identify opportunities, I analyzed the emotions, pain points and the time it takes to complete a task in existing solutions. This helped me to better design a system that will makes the product a worthier alternative for users to switch.
Above example shows one of the analysis that I did to explain our proposal of giving anonymous members a free sample experience, which would help them understand the offering to convert to members sooner.
Above example is a matrix of features that I mapped out across existing services, to help us visualize the competitive spectrum.
Wireframe, Design & Prototype:
Next we sketched low-fi prototypes, using pen, paper and Invision for initial team reviews and buy in and the first round of usability study.
Click to view the full UX documentation for the Prime release
Following that, we created wireframes and document the knowledge we gain at each phase of our research for each feature, which typically help us in design reviews with PMs, Engg and Design leaders.
Once the high level flow is decided, the micro-interactions are designed, to communicate status, give feedback and to add a touch of delight to the user. The FTUE (First time user experience) is also defined at this stage to help onboard users and we document the key UX differentiations that are contextual in nature for the various member-types.
Created high-fi prototypes to facilitate usability lab studies to validate interactions and to observe user behavior.
Along the way, we worked with our Engineering partners to define: Product Rules, error states, empty states and edge cases.
Collaborative Brainstorming:
Following the launch, the design team was tasked to think “big” and put forth ideas that will define the future vision of Channels and I was assigned as a lead to corral an entire department to participate in a series of Design Studios to help them think through ideas from a user perspective. I had approx. 150 people attend in a total of 18 sessions. Participants included Data scientists, Business owners, Content creators, Technologists, Marketing and Designers.
The design studios helped us create a culture of shared ownership around the future product vision. I helped analyze the outcome and used the insights to create a system design with global feature sets that can be integrated in the entire ecosystem (Prime, Echo, Car, Smartphone, TV, Kindle and Fire tablets) for a seamless listening experience.
I also had the opportunity to create an ideation framework called ‘Audible Ideation Sprint’ that helps the design team to understand the human needs and the pain-points before venturing into the design execution phase. The framework was designed in such a way that other departments can utilize to find creative solutions for any given problem. The 5-day ideation sprint would take place before the execution sprint enabling the team to answer the ‘What and the Why’ before getting to the ‘How’.
View the 5-Day Ideation Sprint
