BBC Sounds
Playback
The Sounds playback page aims to give users more control over their listening experience. It ensures that users can fulfil basic playback needs, have easy access to tailored content, and it is accessible anywhere on all devices. The playback page is the main destination for all live, on-demand, and short-form audio content.
Responsibilities
Supply wireframes, final designs, and prototypes for the Herospace layout, play queue, action buttons, and signed-out/degradation states that were instrumental in the evolution of the Sounds playback page.
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Contribute to the development of the listening experience by providing exploratory designs and prototypes for the core playback controls and Herospace in various multidisciplinary design sprints.
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Collaborate with product, engineers, and testers at hackdays, allowing us to rapidly create, test, and deliver features such as Mini Schedule and Dynamic Trails.
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Creation of various design patterns for the iPlayer Radio playback page (precursor to the Sounds playback page) such as onward journeys, continuous/autoplay functionality, and sign-in/warning modals, enabling the Sounds team to test hypotheses about what may or may not keep users in the playback environment.
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Explore visual enhancements to iPlayer Radio’s Herospace, play controls, and tracklist in order to modernise the playback experience and validate the approach before applying to BBC Sounds.
Play queue prototype (Proto.io).
Discover
Whether curating content via MySounds or browsing by mood, category, or format, Sounds Discover allows users to find relevant BBC audio content quickly. The primary aim of the Discover team is to tackle recurring feedback from users about barriers to discovery (e.g., inability to scan, lack of personalisation, and limited social network capabilities).
Responsibilities
User Interface, component, and layout designs for the Listen, Category, and List pages, as well as high-fidelity prototypes to test ideas with users and facilitate stakeholder buy-in.
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Various business as usual (BAU) design activities covering iPlayer Radio, BBC Music, and BBC Sounds, which are aimed at consolidating the BBC audio discovery experience. I created several features to ensure that individual BBC audio products merged smoothly with BBC Sounds, including fallback states, decommission/archive banners, filtering components, and share tools.
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Define the future approach of frequently requested items such Featured Content, Discover by Mood and Discover by Format.
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Create mock-ups and paper prototypes of Featured and Discover components in order to scrutinise the viability of these design patterns and investigate whether they would help drive consumption of BBC audio content.
Category filter prototype (Proto.io).
BBC Sounds Design System
The BBC Sounds design system is a set of reusable tools, guidelines, and design patterns that allow designers and developers to create new features quickly and enhance current functionality. The creation of style guides, UI assets, and component/Sketch libraries ensures that a consistent experience is maintained across a diverse range of viewports and platforms.
Responsibilities
Collaborate with engineering and product teams to establish a Sounds Component Library. From simple buttons to intricate carousels, all components had to follow Atomic Design principles. This ensured that the elements on the BBC Sounds page had a cohesive look, feel, and functionality across all platforms.
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Produce style guides and documentation for all components, templates, and assets created for BBC Sounds, ensuring teams working across different platforms and workstreams remain aligned when delivering Sounds elements. Among the guides I created were directions on the use of Share tools, button/CTA alignment, and episode page usage.
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Consolidate the main Sounds Sketch Library to ensure its suitability for the app and responsive web, while also future-proofing it for smart TV utilisation. The main library file was hugely important in ensuring that repetition and inconsistencies were eliminated when assets were delivered by the various cross-platform teams.
Design Research
Design research is a fundamental part of the BBC UX process, and the Sounds design team was tasked with assisting the lead researcher in various projects aimed at gathering data to help inform the Sounds audio strategy. The key objectives were to ensure that BBC Sounds was completely focused on audience needs, to challenge our assumptions about our users, and to test new features.
Responsibilities
Full lab testing (facilitation and observation) and qualitative data collection in collaboration with the research team for major updates to the Sounds product. Some of the major research projects that enabled me to gather the insights needed to solve major design problems were Categories, Playback Experience, Play Queue, and Onward Journey.
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Conduct guerrilla research using paper prototypes and clickable wireframes, as well as assisting the Experimentation & Optimisation team with multivariate testing for minor updates and fixes. Share Tools, Autoplay, category filters, and promo hover states all required quick testing and evaluation, enabling us to fix recurring user problems rapidly and tackle common user requests.
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Participate in collecting qualitative audience data for the Sounds User Panels and Sounds Mental Model research projects. Rather than focusing on a finished digital product or prototype, these face-to-face question and answer sessions helped to build a picture of who the users were, what their expectations were from BBC Sounds, and how BBC Sounds fitted into their daily lives.
Category research prototype(Proto.io).