Noice App | Sylvia Anggreni

As a UX/UI designer for Noice, I get involved in user research, I did qualitative research with user interviews and rapid prototyping to validate our assumptions. I also got to explore and create the design system for the app from the ground up.

Client:

Mahakam Radio Digital

Role: UX and UI Design

Year: 2019

Overview

It's an internet radio mobile app where users able to stream audio content such as radio programs, music playlists, with additional content such as podcasts and on-demand content, along with the ability to interact with the radio host during live broadcasting.

I'm really excited to see how it turns out.

Goal

The key goal of the app is to give users the ability to listen to the radio whenever they want. This includes live shows, music and news/traffic updates. The app also needs to be customised to suit different user needs/preferences. This app is not purely for listening, it will also have additional video content to help enhance the user experience.

UX process

The biggest challenge is changing the user mindset that radio is a boring way to access music and news. This means advertising the fun and social side of the radio which will help the user connect if they choose to. This app is not purely for listening. It will also have additional video content to help enhance the user experience.

I interviewed 5 people over 2 weeks to validate my assumptions. These assumptions are:

People don't listen to the radio anymore. Incorrect. While this assumption is not true, people do listen to less radio than before. Most of them listen to the radio but mostly when they don’t have their music player with them / when they are in the car where the radio is available.
People view radio as a more traditional source of music/news. Correct. Given the creation of streaming app platforms, such as iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Radio has become less useful as it is viewed as inferior and more impersonal to the younger generation.
People find radio has too many ads and irrelevant content. Correct. People don’t like to listen to the radio mostly because it has too many ads and irrelevant content, but they don’t mind listening to advertisements that are relevant to them.
People don’t want to pay for a radio app service. Incorrect.
When people are given the right additional benefits, purchasing a premium package can be attractive. People must see the value of money. People don’t see live broadcasts as important. Incorrect.
People don’t see live broadcasts as important. Incorrect. People like the idea of life and the ability to interact live with other users, some of them are still phoning into the radio to request songs, enter competitions, or simply share stories or their opinions.

Personas

The personas were segmented by behaviour & attitude which resulted in heavy & casual users, age range of 20-40 with female users being the majority of it. Casual/rare users want to listen to recommended music from other people and know the latest trends/news. Most of them jump around a lot of apps and don’t mind listening to ads that are relevant to them. These users typically are not looking to pay for additional services.

However heavy users tend to like customisations and control to filter the app to avoid listening to irrelevant content. These heavy users are happy to pay for premium features that give you an enhancement to the experience of using the app. These users are quite selective, they appreciate a high-quality app that is credible and offers a variety of content & features. While both types of users are vastly different, they are both suitable target markets for Internet radio streaming apps.

Based on the user research, the main pain points around listening to the radio streaming app are :

Irrelevant content / advertisment
Lack of content variations
Lack of personalisations - find the right content to listen to 4. No control to filter the content/shows
Internet connections - No offline content

Interestingly, people still listening to the radio more than once a week, however, the activity is limited given the lack of available platform to listen from. Users also prefer live broadcasting where they can listen to live talk shows, ability to call into the radio and share/hear real people stories. Irrelevant content/ads are the main reasons they don’t listen to the radio as much, but they don’t mind to listen to ads that are relevant to them such as events, music updates, or pop culture.

In order to achieve the aforementioned goals, the app will offer the following features :

Personalise content such as the ability to filter & customise your own personal library also ads.
Download pre-recorded shows/list of the latest music
Varies subscriptions that accommodate both personas
Social features such as the ability to make a request, connect to other users & gamification/competitions
An additional benefit for premium users such as access to listen to premier music releases and pre-event bookings
Variations such as dual audio/video mode for live radio talk shows
Cross-platform functionality