Redefining Podcast Engagement for Listeners and Creators
About 
Podcasting isn’t just about listening—it’s about connection. Yet, most platforms keep listeners passive. Talkpod changes that by making podcasts interactive. With audience questions, polls, snippet sharing, and customizable playlists, we bridge the gap between creators and listeners, fostering true engagement.
The Problem 
Podcasting is still a one-way street. Listeners have few ways to interact, share feedback, or shape discussions. Existing platforms lack meaningful personalization, leaving audiences disconnected.
The Goal 
Talkpod empowers curious listeners who want more than passive consumption:
✔ Engage – Interact with full episodes or specific chapters
✔ Discuss – Share insights, ask questions, and connect with others
✔ Personalize – Save and revisit favorite moments
By making podcasts interactive, Talkpod strengthens connections between listeners and creators.
Core Features
Listen Your Way – Full episodes or chapters tailored to your schedule
Join the Conversation – Engage in discussions tied to podcast content
Share Moments – Clip and share key audio/video snippets
Save & Curate – Build playlists around topics you love
By making podcasts interactive, Talkpod strengthens connections between listeners and creators.
Success Metrics and KPIs 
Short-term:
Grow creator base
Grow user base
Build strong user engagement
Long-term:
Establish a recurring revenue model
Introduce gamification to enhance engagement
Implement fact-check overlays for podcast content
Growth Targets:
100K downloads in 12 months
50K active users in 15 months
Social Interaction Goals:
5% of listeners comment per episode
2% share snippets
2% bookmark episodes
1% use the “until end of chapter” timer
The Research 
To build a strong foundation for our platform, we conducted an in-depth analysis of competitors and similar platforms, evaluating user flows, information architecture, feature sets, and overall UI/UX. This research provided critical insights and served as the basis for a comprehensive competitor analysis.
Two major types of user personas emerged from this research:
✔ Creators – Need better tools to share content
✔ Listeners – Seek deeper engagement and easier content saving
This research shaped our strategy, ensuring Talkpod delivers real value to both groups.
Competitor Analysis 
User Pain Points 
Due our desk research key users pain points and challenges occurred.
Lack of Interaction & Engagement
Fragmented & Inconsistent Experience
One-Way, Passive Consumption
Isolation & Limited Community
Limited Discovery & Personalization
User Survey 
To validate our findings, we surveyed 123 users and 10 podcast creators, exploring listening habits, discovery methods, and feature preferences. For us was important to understand how users engage with podcasts and identify key features they value.
Key Insights
Listening Habits
Users need flexibility: 63% listen daily or several times a week, often across multiple devices (70%)
Content Management & Sharing
Users want control: 99% prioritize playback customization, 66% use playlists, and 63% value snippet-sharing.
Podcast Discovery
Users struggle to find new content: 43% rely on social media, while 20% look for platform recommendations.
Key Feature Preferences
User Interviews 
To deepen our understanding, we conducted 8 user interviews exploring podcast habits, discovery methods, and ideal platform features. This provided critical insights into user behaviors and refined our approach.
Key Takeaways
Listening Habits – Users prefer listening in the evening, while commuting, or during chores/sports.
Discovery Methods – New content is found through algorithm recommendations (apps), search by interests, and friend referrals.
Host Interaction – Some users value public participation, while others prefer anonymity.
Ideal Features – AI-driven personalization, video/audio control, offline listening, and easy content sharing rank highest.
These insights helped refine user personas and prioritize platform features.
User Personas 
From user surveys and interviews, we defined two key personas: Alex, the Podcast Enthusiast, and Vicky, the Commuter. Their unique needs and behaviors shaped our user-focused solutions and feature design.
Brainstorming and Epics 
After analyzing survey and interview insights, we held a brainstorming session to define key focus areas. From this, we developed epics that captured core user needs and priorities. These epics guided the design process by breaking down complex goals into actionable features, ensuring alignment with user pain points and preferences. This structured approach helped prioritize functionalities that directly addressed research findings.
Feature Prioritization 
To ensure a user-focused and streamlined Minimum Viable Product (MVP), we categorized features into four groups: Must, Should, Could, and Won’t. This prioritization framework balances user needs, technical feasibility, and business goals, ensuring maximum value while maintaining a manageable development scope.
Must
● Listening
● Search
● Filter
● Comments
● Polls
● Analytics
● Short clips/snippets
● User profile
● Creator profile
● Upload episode
Should
● Download episodes
● Time stamps/chapters
● Recommendations
● Share
● Speed control
● Playlists
● Timer
● Transcription
● Bookmarks
Could
● Rate recommendations
● Topic-based communities
● Personal profile
● Badges for contribution
Won’t
○ Live discussions
○ Donations and gifts
○ Video
○ Virtual events with creators
○ Episode chat rooms
○ Subtitles
○ Audiobooks
Information Architecture 
Alongside feature prioritization, we optimized the information architecture (IA) to ensure a clear and intuitive product structure. By organizing content and navigation, we streamlined user flows and made key functionalities easily accessible. This refined IA enhanced usability while laying the groundwork for future iterations.
Information Architecture
Prototyping and Testing 
During prototyping and testing, we developed high-fidelity wireframes focused on intuitive user flows, integrating key features identified through research and prioritization. To validate these designs, we conducted 50 unmoderated tests via Maze.co for large-scale feedback and 12 moderated tests for in-depth insights. This approach ensured the prototypes effectively addressed user needs.
From Low-Fi Wireframes
To High-Fi Wireframes with Key Findings & Areas for Improvement
For the Comments – Users valued the feature but suggested improved integration for better discoverability.
For the Bookmarks users expected direct editing from cards and suggested merging bookmark and snippet features.
Timer placement felt unexpected. Users preferred a “Save” button for reassurance.
Users found it difficult to distinguish between “Home” and “You might like” recommendations, highlighting the need for clearer separation. The placement of loading and completion messages for downloads lacked visibility, requiring adjustments for easier access. While users valued the polling feature, they expressed a desire for total vote counts to be displayed more clearly. Additionally, snippet sharing needed a more intuitive name and improved communication regarding file format options.
These insights guided refinements, ensuring features aligned with user expectations.
Grid and Sizing System 
Talkpod uses a 4-point grid system for consistency, scalability, and efficiency across mobile and desktop. The mobile design follows a 3-column layout, emphasizing key elements like podcast thumbnails and actions while maintaining clear spacing. On desktop, the layout divides into a 4-column tab menu on the left and a flexible 10-column main content area for episode lists, filters, or sidebars.
Using 4px increments standardizes spacing, sizing, and alignment, keeping buttons, cards, and margins cohesive. This system makes Talkpod adaptable and easy to navigate, ensuring seamless alignment and an intuitive user experience across devices.
Mood Boards and UI Testing 
The design process began with brainstorming and three distinct mood boards, each exploring different visual styles, color palettes, and aesthetics. This step established a foundation for the app’s look and feel, sparking discussions about the design direction.
For me, establishing a strong hierarchy and consistency was essential, given the app’s diverse content—podcast descriptions and cover designs vary widely, creating an uneven visual load. To counter this, the design needed to be “as minimal as possible”, reducing “visual pollution” and avoiding the distractions of overly decorative elements.
Creating Design System 
After defining the design direction, we developed a comprehensive design system to ensure consistency, usability, and accessibility across the app.
For typography, we selected the highly readable font Inter® that matched the app’s tone, defined a clear hierarchy for headings, body text, and labels, and created reusable text variables for scalability. The color palette was carefully curated, incorporating deep purple and bright orange to reflect the app’s creativity and dynamic communication, while also defining primary and semantic colors for success, error, and warning states. A contrast checker was used to refine color combinations, ensuring compliance with WCAG standards.
Accessibility played a key role in refining interactions. We optimized button sizes in the player to meet touch target guidelines and conducted a blindness test, leading to design improvements. The transcript widget was enhanced by increasing line spacing, adding a row indicator for better navigation, and improving contrast for visibility.
Every decision was shaped by user feedback and accessibility principles, ensuring a cohesive, inclusive, and functional design system.
A/B Testing
Chapter navigation in podcast apps players is uncommon feature, requiring a distinct icon that wouldn’t be confused with “fast forward” or “rewind.” To address this, we conducted A/B testing, but the results were inconclusive, with no clear user preference.
In parallel, we also tested alternative names for the Snippet feature, given its impact on user understanding and engagement.
Ultimately, our team refined chapter navigation for better intuitiveness and retained the Snippet name, as it still aligned with its purpose and user expectations. These decisions balanced user feedback with design intuition for a seamless experience.
