LoveStory is a limited series podcast launching in Spring 2021. They want a eye catching site and social media campaign to kick off their first season.
Define
competitive analyses
Competitive analyses were done on websites for popular podcasts and popular limited series podcasts to identify common trends and content strategies.
No clear content strategy trends emerged from the analyses. Some podcasts have dedicated websites and others do not.
Common data to display for each episode include:
Episode Title / Interviewee Name as Ttile
Photo of interviewee
Interviewee's Position/Title
Episode description
Release date
Episode length
Common features to embedded website players include:
Play button
Download episode button
Share episode button
Reverse 15 sec / Fast Forward 15 sec buttons
Link to hosting platform
Design
hi-fi prototype
The initial design for the website was meant to be minimal and high impact.
*Note: This design has been modified following user feedback from usability tests
usability tests
6 users were asked to perform a series of tasks on the prototype and give insights on the site's design.
Glows
+
Users like the branding's vibrancy and clarity
+
One user like the graphics, said it reminded her of "ben day dots"
Grows
-
Users were confused about what the series was about -"LoveStory" is a big ambiguous
-
Users wanted to know more about the Interviewee's backgrounds (beyond the bio provided) and wanted links to their causes' websites.
-
Users were confused by the episode's naming convention (episodes were titled after the Interviewee's name)
-
All users said the white text on red background hurt their eyes and won't not stay on the site for long
The site's design has not yet been finalized. Release is set for Spring 2021.
Social Media
instagram
The following layouts show the content type and grid options currently under review. Content strategy will be finalized once the site is completed.
layout options
Grid 1
Click through prototype below 👇
Click through prototype below 👇
Grid 2
Grid 3
Click through prototype below 👇
Click through prototype below 👇
Grid 4
Grid 5
Click through prototype below 👇
Remarks
lessons learned
01
Accessibility takes priority. No matter how punchy or attention grabbing a design is, if it hurts the user's eyes, they won't user your site.
02
All details are important. The best strategy to determine the episode title's naming convention seems obvious given user feedback but it adds more to our stakeholder's workload. Which strategy we end up utilizing (the Interviewee's name or a unique title) will ultimately depend more on time and level of effort.
03
Time management is crucial. The project seems relatively straightforward, but there are many interdependencies with other teams (sound engineers, web developers and stakeholders). Every sign off requires a review process (which = time).
04
Project management is crucial. We deviated from our normal sprint structure and started designing the prototype to validate with testing as soon as we could, but ended up making rushed design decisions that we now have to go back and rework.
