Apple Podcast App — A Review
Usability and Accessibility Thoughts
As the past few months have seen pandemic-related restrictions being lifted here in my area of Michigan, I’ve found myself back in the car quite a bit, whether it be for the long drive to work, or downtown to teach my class at CCS. While the bumper-to-bumper traffic and high gas prices are certainly some major annoyances associated with this, one silver lining has been the return of regular Podcast listening again. As I’ve gotten back into the groove, I’ve noticed both some things I love about the app’s design and some things that I find somewhat curious or annoying. Let’s chat about it.
From a usability standpoint, the app’s primary pages are designed as one would expect them to be, with primary navigation at the bottom of the screen to help the user switch between primary functions quite easily, as one would expect. This is a consistent detail that’s found on many apps and has become the expected place to place primary navigational elements. Those four primary elements are “Listen Now”, “Browse”, “Library” and “Search”, which seem to have varying levels of value, depending on how one might use the app. The “Listen Now” page, for me, is nearly useless, as it relies heavily on recommendations, based on your user habits, and the “Up Next” feature which seems designed to override your preference of what to listen to next, taking away a good deal of user freedom. I suppose one could argue that this page is designed to balance the needs of both experienced users who have a well-established model of use, and novice users who have yet to establish patterns, but it ends up being a page that never gets utilized for me.
The next page, “Browse”, is another one that I almost never use. This page curates popular shows, based on noteworthiness, number of listens, or topics that may be of interest, but this page often fails to ever present anything interesting that seems worth exploring.
Both “Library” and “Search” are commonly used functions that serve a very straightforward, intuitive purpose for the user. “Library” is simply a collection of all Podcasts that I “follow”, which used to be called “subscribe”. I find it a little odd that they’ve changed the vernacular, but it isn’t a hill to die on. “Search” is a function I use a lot, as I find myself often searching by topics like “UX Research” or “LEGO” as examples. This expected manner of filtered recommendation is much more desirable, as it relies on my inputs to curate a list of shows and episodes that may be of interest.
One surprise and delight feature that I truly appreciate is the “Shared With You” feature that iOS has implemented in the Podcast app, among others. This streamlines the process of copying and pasting an episode that has been shared with the user, instead of presenting it intuitively within the app on the “Listen Now” screen, which in some ways, redeems this primary page for me as a useful one.
One drawback however that frustrates me is how the app handles podcasts that you’re not following but listening to. The above use case of a “shared” episode is a good example — a friend sends you one on a topic you enjoy, which you begin listening to. You get halfway through the episode and pause it or close the app to turn attention elsewhere. Later, when the app is opened, your listening progress has vanished. For whatever reason, Apple has designed the app so that it does not always reliably save listening progress on podcasts that you’re not subscribed to, so if you want to go back and finish the episode, you must manually find it again, scrub the slider to find roughly where you left off, and continue listening. This seems easy enough to fix, but it’s been this way for years. If there’s a way to avoid this, it’s not intuitive within the app, short of following the entire podcast or “saving” the episode, both of which require extra effort that seems unnecessary. That said, as expected, the Apple Podcasts app is a very well-designed product that I’ve enjoyed using across its many iterations and continue to use almost daily.
Accessibility
Because the app exists within the iOS ecosystem, the app does a very nice job of adhering to basic accessibility principles. Font sizes and x-heights are adequate, navigational elements are clear and intuitive, and the app is designed with high contrast elements to aid in clear use. It also uses very little color, opting for an almost monochromatic approach, save for a hook color here and there to indicate click-ability. Buttons are well-padded and adequate for touch input, and there’s clear space used to separate clickable elements. Because it must adhere to its robust Human Interface Guidelines, it’s no surprise that it is a well-designed experience in this regard.
While, as a “super” user some of the main navigational elements annoy me, Apple has done well to strike a balance to attract and delight a wide range of users, and that’s a testament to their ethos around human-centered design.
