Overcast Redesign

UI/UX Case Study

Overview

Role: UX/UI designer

Scope: Self-guided Project

Duration: 2 weeks

Tools: Figma, Adobe Illustrator

This project is a case study on Overcast, a podcast streaming service that allows users to play podcasts that are publicly listed on Apple Podcasts. Over the course of 2 weeks, I conducted competitor analysis against 4 main competitors, defined the user flow, created paper & digital wireframes, conducted usability testing, and created a high-fidelity prototype. This case study identifies areas for improvement in the app’s functionality and usability.

Background

Overcast is a podcast streaming service that allows users to play podcasts that are publicly listed on Apple Podcasts. The app has unique product offerings including Smart Speed which shortens silences in episodes and Voice Boost which enhances the audio quality of an episode. It also allows users to share a clip of a podcast, the whole podcast or location from where the podcast was paused. Users can also finely adjust playback speed up to 3x speed. The app is managed and maintained by 1 individual and offers robust functionality for a quality podcasting listening experience.

Purpose

The purpose of this case study is to analyze competitors to see if there are any areas for improvements in the functionality and usability of Overcast's podcast streaming app.

Research & Ideation

Competitive Analysis

I performed a competitive analysis on 4 main competitors: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio and Audible. All competitors either focus solely on streaming podcasts or offer a podcast streaming section within their app.

While Overcast does recommend podcasts to its users, Recommended Podcasts are found on the discovery page rather than the top page. To meet the standards of competitors, Recommended Podcasts will be accessible from the top page in the design presented in this case study.

Additionally, while Overcast does provide the opportunity for users to create playlists for episodes, based on results from the usability study (see Usability section below) and due to the fact that 50% of competitors analyzed offer favorited/ saved podcasts, a Favorites section has been added to the redesign.

It is worth noting that 4 out of 4 competitors offered podcast review and rating sections, however, Overcast is developed by 1 individual and on their company website it explicitly states users should review podcasts on Apple podcasts and podcasters should direct users to Apple podcasts to leave a review. This is because of content moderation, which would be difficult to conduct by 1 individual. For this reason, a review system or any kind of discussion feature is not proposed as a solution in this case study.

User Flow

Based on competitive analysis, there were three main areas of improvement:

Adding a favorites/ save user flow
Adding recommended podcasts
Improving the experience on the podcast episode list page

Below is a user flow for the main areas of focus: how a user moves through the app when they favorite/ save an episode, and what potential decisions they may make before finally playing and listening to a podcast, including an option to maneuver through recommended podcasts.

Wireframes

The following digital wireframes are based on ideation through paper wireframes and include new episodes and recommended podcasts (under the fold) on the Home page, episode filters on the Podcast Episode List page, and a Favorites section. Finally there are some updates to the UI on the Episode Playback screen.

Research & Ideation

Usability

The usability test aimed to discover how easily users could find and access the Favorites list as well as episode filters.

Task 1:

Find Favorites in the library page

Findings:

60% of participants found it hard or medium difficulty to find the Favorites section because the icon was difficult to understand.

60% of respondents said they were more likely to Favorite a podcast than create a playlist or not take action.

Since respondents had difficulty finding the favorites library, the icon was updated from a heart to a ribbon, which is currently being used to save or favorite podcast episodes in both Apple podcasts and Audible. Favorites have also been moved to the navbar for easier access, while still accessible from the Library page.

Before

After

Favorites icon updated from heart to flag

Favorites icon updated from heart to flag

Favorites added to navbar

Task 2:

Find the Unplayed filter

Findings:

80% of respondents were able to find the Unplayed filter with relative ease. No immediate changes to design were made based on findings.

Design

Based on competitive analysis of 4 major competitors, Apple podcasts, Audible, Spotify, and iHeart Radio, as well as the usability study on the low-fidelity prototype, the following designs were produced. This design includes additional functionality while preserving existing functionality. It also maintains brand colors and themes while creating more whitespace within the app, a modern upgrade to typography, and upgrade to iconography. Please note, all Before images below are of the current screens in the app.

Recommended Podcasts

4 out 4 competitors displayed a section for popular or recommended podcasts on the podcast Home page. Overcast has a recommended podcasts section, however, it is located on the Add Podcast page. This has been moved to the Home screen in the high-fidelity design and prototype to promote engagement in the app.

Before

After

Recommended podcasts accessible by clicking 'plus' icon

Recommended podcasts found under 'Add Podcast' page

'New Episodes' and 'Recommended Podcasts' added to Home page so that users can easily discover new content

Episode Filters

100% of competitors offer sorting of podcasts episodes and only Spotify offers filters for unplayed, downloaded, and all. Apple Podcasts offers sections for saved, downloaded, all podcasts, and newest episodes from the Library page but not the Podcast Episode page. Though Overcast does have filters, it is limited in its filtering options (only Unplayed and All) not giving the user much control over searching through podcast content. Users can also sort by descending or ascending on an additional settings page, but, to give the user more control, sort has moved to the Podcast Episode List page and additional filters such as length, started and favorited are available in the redesign.

Before

After

Limited to only 2 filter options: Unplayed and All

Sort accessible from Settings

Settings indicated by gear icon in podcast description section

More filter options including: All, Unplayed, Started, Length and Favorited

Sort functionality added and represented with a sort icon

Improving Display of Played Episodes

In addition to filters and sort on the Podcast Episode List page, all podcast streaming apps indicated when a podcast had been played. Overcast also indicates this by graying out the content, however, there seems to be no rule in the app about when content gets grayed out because at times, even unplayed content will be grayed out, appearing to have been played. It will also highlight episodes that have been started but not completed as well as some of the most recent unplayed episodes. This makes it difficult to discern which podcasts have not been played yet. To make it more clear to users, only episodes labeled as played will be grayed out; users can then choose to set an episode as played for episodes with time remaining, etc.

Before

After

New episodes and started episodes (indicated by keyword left) stand out

New episodes and played grayed out

Only Played episodes grayed out; users can search for Unplayed or Started by using filters

Favorited Podcasts

Finally, findings showed that 2 out of 4 competitors allowed users to save podcasts to a list such as Saved or Library. Though Overcast allows users to save podcasts to a playlist, which the user needs to create, the results from the usability study with users found that 60% users prefer to favorite or save a podcast while others prefer to create a playlist. Having both options would appear to increase usability of all users.

Before

Playlists displayed on the Home screen

Playlists created by first clicking the icon and then choosing from create options at bottom of screen.

After

Library page, which is a collection of the user's curated content, created to organize content and keep with UX standards of other competing applications.

Favorites as well as playlists are accessible from Library page.

Episodes can be favorited from the Podcast Episode List page by clicking on the ribbon icon.

Favorited podcasts will be flagged with the ribbon icon and can be filtered with in the Podcast Episode List page by clicking the Favorited filter.

Design

Final Solution

After researching competitors, reviewing user reviews of Overcast's app, and conducting usability studies, the final design and solution aims to increase functionality and usability by:

Moving Recommended Podcasts to the Home page and including New Episodes on the Home page
Including additional filters to Podcast Episode List page and upgrading the filter component to a familiar pillbox style component
Clearly indicating when a podcast episode has been played
Creating a user flow for favoriting/ saving a podcast episode

Key Frames

Next Steps

The Overcast app has many other user flows, including creating a login account, browsing podcasts, and additional app and podcast settings to name a few. Some of the immediate areas to review next are:

Include edit actions into the Favorites screen workflow
Integrate options for adding a podcast episode to a queue
Review the Discover/ Search page

Final Solution