The History of Aotearoa New Zealand Podcast (HANZ)

My roles: Product Designer, UI Designer
Task
Build a branded application with unique features to create an exciting learning experience.
About
The History of Aotearoa New Zealand is an educational podcast that tells the story of the islands in a chronological and narrative way.
Discovery
Goal: learn about business goals, product value, user outcome, and output.
HANZ's mission is to spread knowledge about New Zealand. Competing with multiple streaming platforms where the podcast is published would be financially and logically pointless.

My goal was to discover how to make the branded application unique, providing additional value to loyal podcast listeners.
Good design is emotional design. Users associate either good or bad feelings with a brand, and user experience has become part of a brand's image in the Digital Age — it’s a promise about a product.

Thus, the three pillars of product design are focused on brand awareness:
Value
Make studying history more engaging
Outcome
Enhance brand support
Output
Mobile podcast application with unique features
Research
Goal: explore the market, understand target users and their pains, uncover design opportunities.
Persona Building
The application serves a diverse user base, but I focused on analysing the two groups that make up the majority of our listeners when creating user personas.
User Interviews
Interviews are conducted to gather qualitative data and uncover potential solutions. Since our product revolves around player functionality, I spoke with people who use music streaming and podcast apps regularly.

Here are some of the questions I asked and the survey participants' responses:
Any particular habits you've developed as a music or podcast app user?
Occasionally, I forget to finish an episode and jump to the next one. Not a habit I’m proud of.
Fan of skipping. I randomly click on whatever is on the 'Home' page and go from there. If I change my mind, I might check the 'Queue'.
I often leave my phone unlocked on the bus, hoping curious minds might see a cool song or episode and think, 'Oh, this guy has good taste!'.
What are your learning habits? More of a listener or a reader?
I'm definitely more of a listener. I need to replay certain parts of information to ensure it's drilled into the core of my memory.
I need to write down and highlight the information or place a bookmark in a book.
Can I do both? Combining them works best in the long run.
What are your pet peeves when using a podcast app?
I find it annoying when I click on an episode to read more about it, but it starts playing immediately instead
Mark as listened! I've covered tons of episodes already, but that doesn't mean I won't revisit them in the future.
I want to be informed of what I’ve chosen to be informed of. Not what the app algorithm calculated I might be fond of.
Competitive Analysis
Given that streaming platforms are a source of income and not viewed as competitors, I analysed their user flows and design decisions for insights. Interviewees pointed out that their choice of application largely depended on the search and recommendation algorithms.
To maintain user familiarity while enhancing the podcast platform's experience, I aimed to retain core functionality while incorporating distinctive visual style and branded features.
User Experience Design
Goal: build a clear structure, design useful and delightful experience to interact with.
Ideation
Starting with the core player functionality, survey responses, and brand objectives, I developed a concept that evolved into a design solution.
Having a pool of ideas is excellent, but they need to be converted into outputs. The key features forming the unique proposition include:
Chapter navigation
Bookmark creation
Te Reo Māori dictionary
Progress tracking
Information Architecture
Naturally, the primary action of a podcast application is 'Play', so I structured the interface around ensuring constant access to this button.
First Iteration & Usability Testing
When testing the first iteration, users commented that it seemed overloaded with information and the structure was somewhat complicated.

Below are sections from the initial iteration with my heuristic markups:
The initial registration feature can be skipped. As the brand grows and introduces special educational content like a white-labelled Te Reo Māori dictionary, removing this option could enhance customer value and distinguish the app from streaming platforms
User Interface Design
Goal: create an aesthetic look to communicate brand values, reinforce users’ trust, and build a UI kit.
Users associate beautiful interfaces with usability — UI is inseparable from UX. I developed a visual style and integrated micro-interactions to enhance the familiar flow.

HANZ Prototypes

See micro-interactions and animations developed for this project on my Dribbble.
View prototypes
The Māori imagery serves an educational purpose, sourced from the collection of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki.

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v.magnusgraphics@gmail.com