BBC Sounds In-Car Experiences
BBC Sounds was released in October 2018, as a replacement for iPlayer Radio. We had the task of migrating 6 million daily users from iPR to Sounds, and to do this we first needed to release features that we knew our users loved, one of which was being able to listen to their downloaded and subscribed content in their cars.
I lead the project from start to finish, from research and prototyping to working with developers, usability testing and release in the app stores.
Company
BBC
Role
UX Designer
Platforms
Android Auto and Apple CarPlay
People use Sounds in their cars differently to how they use the mobile app.
Sounds’ predecessor, iPlayer Radio, had been available in-car for a number of years. This meant I had access to an insightful set of data to see how our users were consuming BBC audio content in their cars. By comparing playing time by page on both the Sounds app and iPlayer Radio in-car, I was able to identify that while the largest proportion of listening via the app was live stations, in cars users were listening to content they were already familiar with, from both their downloads and subscriptions.
🔑 Key takeaways
Users listen to live content for considerably longer on the app than they do in car (proportionate to all listening)
Second largest on-demand listening in the app comes from Downloads, and is similarly popular in car
Subscribed content is listened to the most in car
Bookmarks are not used well in either app or car
Mental Models
After conducting research I outlined three different mental models for In-car depending on how much time a user has. All three needed to be catered for but safety was paramount.
Working within the constraints of two SDKs and a shared API
Both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto experiences are limited by SDKs, which have in-built safety features such as the inability to browse while driving, as well as very specific visual constraints.
Android Auto allows five top level pages, whereas CarPlay only allows four. As the Sounds API is shared between all platforms, we needed to have the same architecture for both platforms. This is why both platforms have the same four top level pages.
Building a new
car-specific architecture
I ran a workshop with the whole app team (Product, Dev & UX) to work out the best hierarchy of information for in-car to cater for all three mental models. At the start of the workshop the technical considerations were outlined by a developer with the most domain knowledge, then I presented my research findings, competitor analysis and shared the data analysis so we were all on the same page.
New Architecture
Once the final architecture was decided on, I made a prototype in proto.io to see how it would feel, and to give our developers an idea of how it should look. You can see it here.
1
Quick access to downloads (works offline) and stations
2
My Sounds recognisable section to allow for quick selection
3
Ability to browse content and easy access to one-tap-to-play content
Testing with limited access to cars
Testing the in car experiences proved challenging. The design team were based in London (where fewer people have their own car) and the development team were in Manchester, which meant frequent trips up to test early builds in team members’ cars. We also had access to two car head units in the office so we could test without the car, and Android Auto has a mobile app so we were able to test it on phones.
The final products.
Throughout the build there were a number of compromises that had to be made, for example in Android Auto the audio controls had to be switched around when listening on demand so that it would correctly map to the controls on the car steering wheel. Apple CarPlay didn’t allow for large images, however Android Auto did and we chose to include them as it created a more interesting and engaging experience.
BBC Sounds Apple CarPlay
BBC Sounds Android Auto
Store feedback
The in-car experiences were very well received by our audience. We saw a flood of users moving over to Sounds and deleting iPlayer Radio, citing the new and improved in-car experiences as the reason they did so 🎉
