Overview

This is my take on an application for iPhone and iPod Touch available on the iTunes app store. The current application functions well but has a terrible user interface. This is my proposed redesign of the application.

Background

RTÉ is Ireland’s National Broadcaster, similar to the BBC, and have recently launched a selection of iPhone apps.
RTÉ has individual applications for some stations, 2fm & Radio 1, but also have one ‘radio sales’ application which contains the four radio stations plus some of their 6 DAB stations, 2XM, Choice, Junior, Gold, Pulse, Radio1 Extra.

The RTÉ Radio Sales application allows the user to listen to RTÉ’s Radio stations, read up-to-date
national and international news from RTÉ and also view sales and sponsorship opportunities for specific radio shows.

Current Application UI issues

I began my re-design by critiquing the current application, here are my issues with it:

1. Regardless of what station you were previously listening to, when you close and re-open the application the application always begins playing Radio 1.
2. The interface the user must navigate through are essentially lists.
3. There are four buttons along the bottom of the application, some of the lists are positioned very close to these buttons and so it is possible for the user when wanting to select an item from a list to instead tap one of the bottom four buttons instead.
4. The sales side of the application is, as with the rest of the application, a list of information, displaying prices, ad frequency, etc. and does not order the sales titles based on the stations or time of day.
5. The interface uses standard interface elements such as the iPhone volume slider.
6. The application has a novelty ad shaker, whereby the user can shake their iPhone and hear a random ad which has aired on RTÉ Radio.
7. The application does not display the radio frequency when the station broadcasts on, so I cannot easily find the station at home using my stereo system.

With these in mind I set about thinking how I would redesign the application, what is absolutely necessary and how to structure content in the best possible way for the user.

1. The application should be familiar for the user.
2. The application should remember the last station listened to and autoplay this station when loaded.
3. The nonsense “shake an ad” function should be removed, the app sells the airtime for adverts, not the companies who produced the ad’s.

Re-designing the App

The Loading screen shows when the application is first launched.

The radio part of the application

The Radio screen to the far right shows the main interface when the application has loaded.
As the core of the application is the radio, selecting a station and adjusting the volume should be a central aspect of the user interface.
With these ideas in mind I began sketching ideas. A functionalist UI design along the lines of Dieter Rams T3 Pocket Radio or iPod Click wheel is the central element, something which most individuals would have familiarity with.

The RTÉ logo is displayed along the top in white on black, and is static throughout all screens.

Below the logo are two buttons; News (which displays the headlines from RTE news website) and Sales (which displays the sponsorship options for radio shows).

Beneath this is the ‘screen’ area which displays the station name, the currently playing program and below this is a horizontally scrolling description of the program. Also displayed on this screen is a play/pause icon which the user can tap to play or pause the radio stream, and an email icon which the user can tap to email the currently playing station.

Below the screen area is an iPod style click wheel which controls the radio station selection and volume.

The Volume screen shows the volume meter which appears around the control wheel when the user rubs their finger around the touch wheel.
The volume meter would scale up from beneath the touch wheel and display the volume increasing or decreasing.

If the user taps the center ‘frequency’ button the station selection panel scales up from beneath the wheel as shown in the Frequency screen. The user can rub their finger around the touch wheel which rotates a red arrow point over the static dial to tune to a station (indicated by a red dot), also as the user is doing this the tuning frequency in the frequency button would update. The user can confirm their selection by again pressing the frequency button, which would cause the station selection panel to scale down beneath the touch wheel and the station to begin playing.

As in the original application the user is also able to email into the currently playing show.
The user can email the show by tapping the email icon on the ‘screen’ area as shown in the Radio screen. The ‘screen’ area will then expand downward as the show information slides upwards to reveal an email form, and the keyboard will also slide up from the bottom of the application in unison as shown in the Email screen.

The news part of the application

The News screen displays the news part of the application which can be accessed by tapping the ‘News’ button.
This will reveal the news headlines, ordered by date published, which will push down the radio portion of the application.
The radio interface will never be fully out of view as it is convenient for the user to be able to quickly switch back to it or email the station as RTÉ radio shows engage and interact with viewers regularly, or to adjust the station selection or software volume control.
The user can close the news headlines by tapping either the ‘news’ button or the radio ‘screen’ area.

When the user taps a news headline the news article loads and slides in from the right as shown in the Article screen.
From the article screen the user can scroll down through the news article by rubbing their finger up or down the article text area.
The user can share the article through email, twitter or facebook, as shown in the Share screen, by tapping the share icon on the right of the article headline.
The user can also return back to the news headlines by taping the back arrow on the left of the article title.

The sales part of the application

The sales part of the application can be accessed by tapping the ‘Sales’ button, as shown in the Sales screen.
This will reveal the each show grouped by station, which you can sponsor or promote your business on.
As with the news portion of the app, tapping the ‘Sales’ button will push down the radio portion of the application.
The user can close the sales information by tapping either the ‘sales’ button or the radio ‘screen’ area.

As in the news portion of the app, when the user taps a sales title the sales article loads and slides in from the right as shown in the Sales Infoscreen.
From the article screen the user can scroll down through the news article by rubbing their finger up or down the article text area.
The user can contact the sales team, as shown in the Contact screen, through a phone call or email by tapping the contact icon on the right of the article headline.
The user can also return back to the sales titles by taping the back arrow on the left of the sales article title.