ZenoLive

international interactive radiO

Overview

Zeno Radio is a streaming and call-to-listen platform that broadcasts international radio content.  Its primary listening base consists of immigrant communities in the US who want to stay connected with their home countries. 

They are now in the process of launching ZenoLive which is a platform for independent radio hosts to broadcast live content to listeners all over the world. 

Zeno asked our team of 3 to conduct research into the current listener experience in order to design a web responsive interactive media player that would allow listeners to call into live radio shows in real time directly through the web page.  

My ROLE:  Research & Design

DURATION: 3 Weeks

TOOLS UTILIZED:    Sketch   |   INVISION    |  ABSTRACT   |   TRELLO

SCOPE

During the course of this project I:

• conducted user research via 
  • phone interviews
  • online surveys
• conducted analysis & synthesis of research data via
  • affinity mapping
  • persona creation 
• conducted supplemental research via
  • feature & heuristic analysis
  • competitive analysis
• designed wireframes & clickable prototypes in
  • mid-fidelity
  • hi-fidelity 
• conducted multiple rounds of usability testing and iteration
• delivered a research report, spec doc, full set of high-fidelity wireframes and a style guide

Research & Discovery

Conducting research of ZenoLive listeners posed some unique challenges.  Most of the listener base were recent immigrants to the US from countries such as Ghana, Mali & Haiti, so there were linguistic barriers that narrowed the base of potential interviewees.  

We also discovered that most listeners were accessing content through call-to-listen (CTL) channels, meaning the user calls a mobile # in order to hear content via the phone line, limiting access to online profiles or e-mail addresses.  Nevertheless, we were able to interview 10 users including supplementary listeners reached via international contacts within our own networks. 

Some of the key insights from our user interviews were:

• Listeners feel a deep & strong sense of home when listening to content from their countries of origin
• Listeners prefer live shows to pre-recorded content
• Most listen on a daily basis for more than one hour per day
• Many would consider calling into a show if long-distance charges were not a factor
• Listeners would often call or text friends to discuss content they heard over the radio

Overall, our research showed that listeners of international radio programs were extremely loyal & devoted listeners who felt a strong connection to programs from their home countries, and were also looking for additional ways to connect with their favorite programs and with other listeners.    

Personas

We came up with 2 personas that we felt represented users that would be most interested in the ZenoLive platform - Joseph & Ruth.  

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

To get a better idea of how ZenoLive could best serve its listeners, I conducted an analysis of other streaming radio and broadcasting services to see where ZenoLive falls in the overall landscape. 

I found that most current streaming radio services focused primarily on domestic content, and those focused on international content didn’t offer services for broadcasters. 

Conclusion: ZenoLive is in a unique position offering both broadcaster and listener support with a strong focus on international content.

IDEATION & FEATURE DETERMINATION

Having gotten a better sense of ZenoLive’s target audience and place within the competitive landscape, we decided to focus on which features would be most impactful for the listener’s experience. 

First of all, we wanted to focus on interactivity. How we could provide a more direct way for listeners to connect with their favorite shows and with other members of the listening community? 

Secondly, we wanted to focus on providing easy access to general information about shows as well as an intuitive way to access available content - both live and pre-recorded. 

Finally, we wanted to be sure that users had a no-hassle way to connect to outside audio devices. 

DESIGN PHASE

Once we focused in on which features to integrate into the player, we started to consider how it would look.  From the beginning, this was conceived of as a responsive web design, so we had to consider how it would look from the perspective of both the desktop and mobile user. 

We held several rounds of design studio for both mobile and desktop screens in order to come up with a design that could best integrate all the features we had decided to include. 

Once we had come up with a basic framework, we built a series a wireframes in mid-fidelity as well as a clickable prototype in order to conduct initial usability tests. 

Following the input received from the first round of usability tests, we made some modifications to the layout and features and started building a Hi-Fidelity prototype which we then used to conduct a further round of usability tests.

USABILITY TESTING & ITERATION

Two rounds of usability testing were conducted, with 4 to 5 tasks in each round.  The first round was conducted on the mid-fidelity prototype, after which several modifications were made based on user feedback, and another round subsequently conducted on the hi-fidelity prototype.

In the first round, two of the tasks had a 100% success rate, but the other 2 had only 40%-50% success rates.  Based on the test results and user feedback, the following modifications were brought into the hi-fidelity prototype.

• Estimated wait time for call, and listener's place in call queue should be automatically offered in pop-up window
• Show schedule and archived shows info should be accessible via drop-down menu in addition to info icon
• Users wanted an easily identifiable way to connect to external speakers

Following the implementation of these modifications, there was a marked improvement in the success rate of the 2 tasks that users struggled with in the first round of testing.

CONClusions

Given the huge improvement in task success rate after the second iteration and the fact that users had very positive feedback about the overall experience, we were generally happy with the results of the project.  The task flows for core features seemed very easy and intuitive, and the call and chat features bring an added level of interactivity to radio listening. 

If we were to continue this project, I would want to explore further refinement of the call-in feature so that the needs of both the broadcaster and listener can be integrated in a more practical way. 

I would also recommend integrating the ZenoLive native app to be more consistent with the look and feel of the responsive web design, as the current standalone app has a very different look and feature set.