I was Lead Designer at Bullhorn.fm, working to craft a podcast creation and hosting platform as well as an accompanying podcast player. We built one of the first live, interactive podcast players on the market.
In my years at Bullhorn.fm, I led the evolution of the product from a simple podcast player and livestream service to a robust recording tool for podcasters and media companies by bridging the gap between our users and our creators. Not one over the other, but a delicate balance that optimizes for both efficiency and delight.
Timeframe
2021-2023
Role
Lead Product Designer
Platform
iOS, Android
Category
Media & Entertainment
Bullhorn Mobile Experience
Enabling fans to interact with their podcasts
The Bullhorn media player differs from other podcast players by allowing fans to engage with interactive content posted by the host during a live show. Podcasters are able to drop polls, images, videos, and more into their episode timeline in the Bullhorn Creator Studio that their audience is able to answer, view, and comment on in real-time. I worked with the mobile development team to improve the MVP experience and compete with the already saturated market. We completely audited and improved our the core interactive experience.
Unifying the viewing experience
Before jumping into any major designs, we created a flow of every possible screen layout across the different Bullhorn platforms (mobile, web player, and studio). Understanding how our users were going to experience the live feeds from different perspectives was key for creating consistency across the platform and ensuring no experience was better than another.
Mobile Design System
We created the mobile design system to hasten the design and development process for other teams working on the mobile product and establish brand consistency. We worked through many different iterations of elements before settling on the final identity that we were aiming for. The updated design system builds on our existing system which defines basic styles, such spacing, color, and typography. Creating the design system was the first step in creating the most modern interactive podcast player on the market.
Simplifying the browsing experience
Bullhorn optimizes the browsing experience by promoting interactive episodes that are currently live
Designing for listeners
Bullhorn's mobile player primarily exists as a companion player for podcasts created in the Bullhorn studio and utilizing Bullhorn's interactive features. Before beginning the design process, through market research and user interviews we gathered qualitative and quantitative data on what podcast users are looking for in a player. Building a player that bridges the gap between creators and users in real time. Interviews confirmed some of our concepts but also emphasized shortcomings in the kind of interactions user's desired.
For example, while we had expected user's to be more interested in the Call In feature, which allows user's to call into their favorite podcasts, user's actually were more interested in posting questions in a Q&A style where they didn't have to be put on the spot. This revelation and others were key in choosing which interactive features we wanted to develop and include in the final product.
Creating meaningful interactions while listening
Bullhorn utilizes interactive tiles to bring the audience into the podcast experience.
Designing for engagement
Each tile we designed at Bullhorn includes some interactivity and most of all, is designed to achieve a product goal. We first identify the kind of interactions that user's desire with creators, work them into potential features, and categorize them into what product goal they will affect, ideally growth and user retention. As a new product offering, our main objective is getting users on Bullhorn as their preferred podcast player. The success of these features is measured by success metrics such as active weekly users and new app downloads. Since Bullhorn's features are still available to view podcasts streamed on other streaming players, the inability to interact drives user's to use the native Bullhorn player.
Measuring performance and final results
After launching the new mobile player, we waited a few months to collect data and compare with expected results. Over the 2nd quarter of 2022 we saw a 21% increase in app downloads, a large increase of ad impressions for our largest channels, and an increase in the average watch time of an episode. These results stayed consistent for the remainder of the year before decreasing back to an average increase of ~10% in app downloads and a 2.2x increase in average watch time compared to data before the update.
