BBC

In The Mix

Optimising the user experience for BBC Sounds

Platform Development

Replacing iPlayer Radio, BBC Sounds is the new home of audio at the corporation. Bringing together live radio, podcasts and music content, this impressive platform aims to better serve younger audiences – the previous app was used by only 3% of people under the age of 35 each week – and provide a more appealing and joined-up experience.

One of the most important features on BBC Sounds is ‘mixes’ – curated playlists which build around diverse themes and leverage a wealth of talent. Working with both the comms and product teams, our role was to research comprehension of the offer, to explore barriers/drivers to use, how best to develop the editorial and recommendations for marketing and messaging. Time to tune in…

Project Design

+ Speed was of the essence on this project - the stakeholder teams were moving at pace and in no mood to slow down! - as was fostering collaborative working practices

+ We designed a relatively streamlined workshop approach, working with participants who exhibited varying levels of enthusiasm for streaming services

+ We enabled the BBC team to contribute to these sessions, and factored in time between each of them to modify stimulus and evolve the messaging and content

+ Next to the workshops, we also staged individual depth+surf sessions, allowing for more granular exploration of the user experience, with participants ‘thinking out loud’ as they performed the tasks

Advancing The Functionality, Driving Appeal

Our strategic recommendations covered improving visual and textual signposting, pinpointing the mix themes that resonated most strongly, advancing the functionality, driving appeal and comprehension, and how best to deploy both BBC talent and BBC branding.

With our work making a direct impact on the finished product and on how it was promoted, online and offline, BBC Sounds has gone on to gain numerous plaudits at launch and since.

  • Narrated Galleries

    We love films, but narrated galleries – fusing showreels of still images and audio of participant commentary – creates outputs that allow for high levels of reflection and audience empathy. Ideal for user experience work, in other words

  • Crowd Communities

    We’ve a wealth of experience at setting up and managing communities for clients, with learnings on how best to engage audiences and a full box of tricks for maximising what we get out of the work – including geo tagging, streaming in social media data and a mobile optimised platform

  • Pinterest

    We’ve used Pinterest to really good effect on a number of projects recently, helping us to explore differences and commonalities among different typologies in areas such as fashion and style, home, holidays and entertainment. Engagement levels with participants always rank high, and clients love the vividness and clarity of the findings.

  • Citizen Journalism

    Citizen journalism works on the principle of making reporters of our participants, briefing them to capture what’s happening in the lives of their friends and family via video dispatches and blogging. It gets us places where we can’t otherwise get. It bypasses the bias of having a researcher in attendance. People are often more accurate reporters on those around them than on themselves, so that’s another bias circumnavigated.

  • Network Audits

    If you want to really understand how people interact with those around them, it’s logical to research interconnected groups of friends, family and work colleagues. First developed as part of our award winning word of mouth research for Guardian News & Media, and since then refined and reconfigured across a range of global projects, our network audit approach helps us understand who’s influencing who as authentically as possible.