Amazon Audible Enhancing Learning and Retention for Listeners on iOS
Overview
Amazon Audible is a leading audiobook platform, but while it offers an immersive listening experience, it lacks tools to help users retain and apply information from non-fiction books.
This project introduces a new note-taking and knowledge retention feature within the Audible app, allowing users to capture, review, and organize key insights seamlessly, without disrupting their listening experience.
Role
Product Designer
Skills
User Research
Competitive Analysis
Wireframing
Prototyping
Usability Testing
UI Design
Know the User
Audiobook listeners want to capture key insights without disrupting their flow. They need an easy way to review, organize, and apply notes for better retention, and they value the ability to share insights to reinforce learning.
The Goals
Users want to capture key insights from audiobooks without interrupting their listening experience. They need a simple way to review, organize, and apply notes for better retention, and they value the ability to share insights to reinforce learning.
Approach
I conducted user research to identify pain points and preferences, followed by a competitive analysis to uncover industry best practices. Using these insights, I developed wireframes and prototypes, then refined them through usability testing, enhancing accessibility and functionality based on user feedback.
Challenge
Users struggle with ineffective note-taking due to multitasking while listening, making it hard to capture key insights
The lack of visual aids like highlighting, annotations, or structured cues further hinders retention
Retention issues stem from passive listening, which makes it easy to forget information
Users face limited sharing features, with no built-in tools to support discussion or collaborative learning
Business Challenge
Enhancing learning features in the Audible app can increase engagement, boost user satisfaction, and improve retention. With growing competition from apps like Blinkist and Speechify, Audible has the chance to differentiate through a more intelligent, learning-focused experience.
Still Listening?
Let’s Design a Smarter Way to Retain.
Understanding How People Engage With Audiobooks
I conducted secondary research to analyze industry trends and behaviors, followed by user interviews and affinity mapping to extract key themes. Additionally, I performed a market analysis of competitor apps to assess existing solutions.
Key Findings
70% of audiobook listeners multitask, making retention difficult.
Combination learners (audio + visual cues) retain information better than audio-only listeners.
Note-taking is nearly impossible in current audiobook apps due to lack of built-in tools.
Social learning plays a significant role, but users struggle to share insights effectively.
User Personas
To understand audiobook listeners' learning habits, I conducted user interviews and identified key personas.
Christopher Williams, a 35-year-old real estate agent, listens to audiobooks during his daily commute to maximize learning time.
However, he struggles to retain key insights and finds it difficult to revisit important concepts.
His pain points include: Users need a way to capture key insights quickly without disrupting their listening experience. They also require an efficient system to organize their notes effectively, ensuring they can easily review important information later.
Additionally, the ability to share insights with colleagues and friends is essential for reinforcing learning and engaging in meaningful discussions.
How Might We
HMW make note-taking easier while multitasking?
HMW provide structured visual reinforcements to improve retention?
HMW enable social sharing to enhance learning through discussions?
Competitive Analysis
I evaluated both direct (Apple Books, Libby, Scribd) and indirect competitors (Blinkist, Headway, Rewise) to uncover feature gaps and positioning opportunities for Audible. By mapping strengths and weaknesses across each product, I identified where Audible could stand out and add the most user value.
Link to sheet.
Findings
Audible can leverage Alexa and voice commands to enable users to highlight passages, add notes, or clip audio hands-free while listening.
Integrating a native note-taking system with folders and organization tools would give users a dedicated space to store and manage their highlights and insights.
Introducing social features would allow users to share notes, exchange book recommendations, and engage with other listeners enhancing the overall reading experience.
Enhancing User Flows for Effortless Note-Taking
The new feature was designed to integrate seamlessly into the Audible app, The design strategy focuses on three key areas to improve the user experience.
First, users can capture notes quickly by using voice commands or a single tap to save important snippets without interrupting their listening experience.
Second, they can review and organize their notes efficiently, as the feature automatically transcribes, highlights, and categorizes the saved content for easy retrieval.
Finally, users have the option to share and collaborate by sending insights to friends or exporting notes to other applications, enabling seamless knowledge-sharing and discussion.
Iterating Based on Real User Feedback
I created high-fidelity prototypes to explore interactions for capturing and reviewing notes, ensuring a clear user flow. These prototypes were tested with real users, allowing me to gather valuable insights. Based on their feedback, I iterated on the design, refining functionality and enhancing the overall user experience to create a seamless and intuitive note-taking solution for audiobook listeners.
Crafting an Engaging & Accessible Note-Taking Experience
The typography and colors were carefully selected to match Amazon brand while maintaining readability and accessibility, making it easier for users to engage with the content. Additionally, the interactive highlighting and tagging feature was introduced to allow users to efficiently organize their notes and quickly retrieve key insights when needed.
The Final Design is A Smarter Way to Take Notes
The redesigned audiobook experience introduces a centralized note-taking UI, making it easier for users to capture, organize, and retrieve key insights.
A central recording button allows for seamless note-taking, while real-time transcription and highlighting help users recall important moments effortlessly.
A tagging system was added to improve the organization of notes, ensuring that users can quickly find relevant information.
Enhanced transcript highlights make referencing key insights intuitive, while social sharing features encourage discussions and collaborative learning. The design follows Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines, ensuring a seamless, user-friendly experience that enhances usability and engagement.
Designing Within Constraints (Consistency & Ecosystem)
When I worked on designing a new feature for an established app, I realized how important it is for everything to feel like it naturally belongs. My goal was to make the feature feel at intuitive within Audible and the larger Amazon ecosystem, from matching the look and feel of the existing UI to making sure it worked the way Audible’s audience expects. This taught me how to bring fresh ideas to life while staying true to an established brand, which is a must-have mindset when designing for real-world products.
Next Steps
If usability tests go well, I’d love to track how this feature performs after launch by seeing whether people spend more time with their Audible library or if retention improves. I’d also explore ways to connect the Collections feature with other parts of the Amazon ecosystem, such as Alexa voice commands or Goodreads, to make it even more useful.