Apple Podcasts
Making Apple live up to its own iOS principles.
ROLE
Information architecture, Atomic design, UI design
TYPE
Self-initiated
DESIGN TOOLS
Figjam, Figma, Heuristic evaluations
SPRINT
3 days
The Apple Podcasts app is what I have used since day 1.
Why? It has always been on my phone and I never considered looking further.
The issue ? For a long time I thought I only liked 2 shows, when in fact, I never managed to find anything relevant on this app.
So I took it upon myself to redesign this app.
Deconstruct to reconstruct
To grasp Apple Podcasts' design, I deconstructed its entire user interface, listing features, content and navigation while assessing usability against its iOS principles. Regrettably, I found that Apple Podcasts falls short of its own standards, along with breaching usability heuristics.
What makes it so difficult?
Discovering new shows and episodes feels untrustworthy, recommended content is irrelevant, specific information is hidden (sleep timer, episode notes), shortcuts are more than limited, navigation requires unnecessary effort, does not promote memorability, nor learnability…
All in all, the information architecture feels very disorganized and inconsistent at first glance.
Aesthetic integrity
In addition to Apple’s sleek and confident design, I wanted to add a human and aspirational touch, to better match with Apple’s first principle:
Aesthetic Integrity, seeking immersive visual designs.
