RTE Player Redesign: Blog One

Learning Outcomes for Blog

In Team Saturn’s experience as users, we had all found difficulties with the RTE Player App. But as designers, we craved the challenge of figuring out a better solution to deliver a better product and experience.

(Fig.1) Breakdown of Key Findings and Methods used (1)

Analysis of Product

A brainstorm session with dot voting aligned our chosen app decision. Our initial approach found us interrogating the RTE Player app from a variety of angles to gain a solid understanding of the product. We used Nielson’s 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design to analyse and structure our initial assumptions about the app. Particularly coming from a team made up entirely of designers, we needed to speak with real users to see if they felt similarly to us about the experience, a central aspect of User Centred Design.

Qualitative Findings

Through observational studies, reviews and interviews, we heard and spoke from users directly. Hearing their honest opinions was sobering: the scale of the potential redesign that was necessary became clear. Users described frustration navigating, finding content, a lack of personalisation, empty/glitchy help sections and frequent advertisements (after long discussions on solutions to this specific advert problem, we decided reducing the number of ads was outside of our control and there were more pressing, fixable issues to work on).

Extensive competitor analysis gave us a detailed picture of the market standard for video streaming apps, and RTE Player fell short. The best apps consistently showcased easily accessible, personalised content for a user to access, like Netflix which topped our surveys as the favourite. Looking at indirect competitors informed our understanding of apps that were successfully integrating social interactivity in particular, and helped with idea generation.

(Fig.2) Breakdown of Key Findings and Methods used

Quantitative Findings

Our Survey and RTE Digital Audience Report informed the picture on who the user base was (15–34yr olds). The seasonality of usage indicated the need for the redesign: in the Spring of 2020, Normal People brought huge traffic to the app (3.3 million streams), but a missed opportunity to keep audiences engaged after the credits rolled. Lots of people had tried the app, but we found it difficult to find ‘regular’ users. This was a shortcoming of our project, and ideally we would have more testing/interviews with regular users, but they were difficult to source.

Our findings were brought to life in the form of Derick, our final chosen persona (further supported with empathy maps). This was a result of our design thinking led approach, building empathy and helping us to define. We checked in with Derick throughout the process, making sure we were still designing a product that would address his needs. Isolation and loneliness as themes emerged and needed to be addressed. Case studies on mobile users habits indicated mobile streaming is typically an individual activity, often viewed alone in bedrooms. Jaesin did extensive research into parent mode, and although we targeted a younger demographic, this work informed our extreme user.

(Fig.3/4) Problem Statement, Empathy Mapping and How Might We Statements

Once our research had been condensed into a problem statement and jobs to be done, we felt we had an informed direction to move the project forward. Our project goals further synthesised this into a working strategy.

We had considering tackling particular sections of the app, improving on the already existing features. But the span and depth of issues was clear, especially because of the need for a streamlined navigation structure. Saturn had five members, so we were confident taking on a full redesign.

The following images are a summary of the research tasks completed. Further details and extra boards can be found on our Mural board.

(Fig.5) Nielson Norman- Modes of Design Thinking https://www.nngroup.com/articles/design-thinking/

Scenarios

(Fig.6) Customer Journey As Is

(Fig.7) Individual Journey Map

(Fig.8) Empathetic Journey Mapping

(Fig.9) Scenario/ as storyboard (increase empathy and relatability)

App Walkthrough As is (Full Task Analysis in Blog Three)

(Fig.10) App Walkthrough

Personas

(Fig.11) Group and Individual Personas

Empathy Maps

(Fig.12) Revised Empathy Map for chosen persona Derek/initial empathy brainstorm

Observational Studies

(Fig.13) Example of Observational Study Transcript

Interviews

(Fig.14) Example of User Interview Transcripts

Competitor Analysis

(Fig.15) Sample of Competitor Analysis

(Fig.16) Full Competitor Analysis Here and Here

(Fig.17) Ratings and Review Analysis from Play and Apple Stores

(Fig.18) Ratings and Review Analysis from Play and Apple Stores

(Fig.19) Summary of Online Review Insights

Heuristics

(Fig.20) Heuristic Evaluation- note the depth of ‘fail’ sections

Project Goals

(Fig.21) Project Goals

How Might We Statements/Stakeholder Priority

(Fig.22) How Might We Iteration/Stakeholder Mapping

Jobs To Be Done

(Fig.23) Revised Jobs To Be Done Statements

Survey Results

(Fig.24) Secondary research/Survey Results

(Fig.25) Summary of Survey Results

(Fig.26) Group Key Findings

References

Nielsen, J. (1994, April 24). 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design. Retrieved from NN/g Nielsen Norman Group: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/

Monthly Digital Audience Reports 2020

Doorley, S., Holcomb, S., Klebahn, P., Segovia, K. & Utley, J. (2018). D.SCHOOL BOOTLEG DECK. Retrieved from Institute of Design at Stanford University, January 23, 2021:

Muller, H., Gove, J. L., Webb, J.S, & Cheang A. (2015) Understanding and Comparing Smartphone and Tablet Use: Insights from a Large-Scale Diary Study.

Retrieved January 23, 2021, from

Understanding and Comparing Smartphone and Tablet Use | Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the…

Normal People smashes Love/Hate's record on RTÉ Player