THE PROMPT

Audible is a service through Amazon which gives its users access to audio books that cover various genres. Providing applications that allow people to access this content on devices like smart phones, tablets, MP3 players, and computers. In 2017, Audible delivered 2.6 billion hours of programming to its customers which was 40% higher than the previous year. In addition, one user averages 2 hours per day listening to Audible audio. 

With this rising success, there are still some key challenges to be addressed. These vary from highlighting text and accessing it later, whether the user has access to the text version, functionality of a hands-free navigational system, and more. For this project, we were to analyze these challenges, do primary and secondary research, test prototypes and come up with a final design that helps Audible explore new opportunities which enhance theirs users and future users experience. To make this project more fun, this had to be in 24 hours. 

THE USER

Our team first wanted to understand how customers currently use Audible and why. From primary research, we understood three key things. Like mentioned previously, users spend an average of 2hrs on audible a day, they consume more audio than physical books, and they listen to this audio while doing another activity. These activities vary from walking, exercising, cooking, driving, and relaxing. 

Breaking down the problem

To see where the pain points are, the choose to use affinity mapping to search for problem areas in the user's journey. Dedicating 15 minutes to this exercise, we placed these ideas in four stages:

 Highlighting, Indexing, Finding, and Defining.

These four stages are unique to the services provided by Audible. Through affinity mapping, we were able to identify pain points the user might face. This was based off assumption and our research. Most of these ideas landed in the Highlighting stage and we voted to focus on this area of Audible. 

The Focus

Focusing on highlighting, we wanted to explore concerns we had about this function. We separated these concerns into three categories of communication , hands free, and visual. This was done after mapping out our ideas and grouping them in different sections. From there, we generalized this info and came up with three questions: 

When does the user have access to the button free feature?

how does highlight stop and start?

how does the user know they are in the process of highlighting? 

USER TESTING/PROTOTYPE

For our user testing, we had 3 college students which consisted of two males, one female, and one international student. We used the current interface, a paper prototype and a series of tasks for them to complete in order to gain insights. 

There was a lot to be said from our participants, but three things seemed to be the common theme. One of these insights were that the button free feature is on a different page. This requires the user to spend more time on the interface. Also, they could not understand what the "Clip" Icon meant which lead to a confusion of its purpose. Finally, they also weren't sure when they were highlighting. 

The New Design

From the research and usability test, the new design should focus on three key areas:

Directions

Placement of the Highlighting Button

Sound of Highlighting  

HIGHLIGHT BUTTON

The highlight feature now has a button that user interacts with. When the user wants to highlight, the icon turns to a neon yellow and goes back when they want to stop the process. Currently, Audible has a time-lapse that shows where you while listening the audio. To help with the visual of highlighting, the bar turns to the same neon yellow as the button .

We want make these same functions available on the main screen so they don't have to leave the main interface. In addition, these instructions will be open up when the user first uses the app, and can be accessed when the user press the new information button.

Hands Free Function

The current hands free function requires the user to go through several steps. From the usability test, the participants found this frustrating. 

To make this experience easier, we want to take these same functions and make them available on the main screen.  Users would no longer have to leave the main interface. They would be able to interact the screen by using the same swipe functions: 

Left to Rewind 30 seconds

Right to Fast Forward 30 seconds

Swipe Vertically to Add Clips

In addition, instructions for these function appear once the user first uses the app, and it can be accessed when the user clicks the new information button. 

Sound of Highlighting 

To add to highlighting feature, adding a sound to this function will help with making the app hands free. Due to time constraints, we could only test two types of metronomes at two different speeds. The participants found the slower speed was noticeable enough to know the feature started while not being overwhelming. 

What I learned

This project challenged my team and I to work with urgency and the importance of attention to detail. With only 24hrs, we had to understand the program, come up with research driven designs, lead user ability testing, create the final design, prepare slides to present our process and have attention to detail through out the project. It taught the importance of getting straight to the point and staying on task. Maybe even more importantly, the ability to walk away and rest. The project kept the group focused on following our design process and working together to find the core of the problem. This led to us seeking new opportunities for Audible. I have grown to be even more patient with others while also keeping the group focused during a high stress project.