Simone Ferraro

In BBC Sounds, content is currently (spring 2024) organised relying on specific categories such as comedy or drama.

Our users told us they often wanted to find content on a particular relevant topic or related to a specific event in a timely manner. That is unlikely to be feasible with any taxonomy based on any rigid, pre-defined categories.

As such, in order to meet this user need, the curation team had to spin up new aggregations of content in the form of new temporary shows ( i.e. Entertain the Kids), hacking the system and pushing it to extremes it wasn't designed for. This resulted in several issues such as duplication of episodes or an utterly cluttered content structure.

We had to enable our users to experience such shortlived aggregations of content in a seamless way, without impacting the current metadata structure.

The editorial team needed a feature to create and manage aggregations of content which could be truly flexible, scalable and reusable: collections

I led a UX trio of designers sizing and planning the work.
I agreed the specifications with the product, editorial and development teams and designed features and user journeys accordingly.

I managed senior business stakeholders across the units and departments involved in the initiative.

Several challenges associated with implementing this new feature made this project particularly exciting.

• Dealing with the complexity of the organisational structure, keeping constantly aligned users, product and business needs.
• Encouraging the exploration of content designing a seamless onward journey across platforms and devices.
• Providing an effective visual presentation of the new aggregations of content across platforms and devices, making sure it could be beneficial for the user while properly addressing the agreed KPI's
• Navigating through technical constrains taking the best out of it

The first step was to collect the needs from our users, product and editorial teams.

To achieve that, a secondary research activity based on previous research work was carried on to make sure the initiative was fulfilling the main needs we identified previously, such as providing a better discovery of content and giving a sense of of the breadth of content the BBC has to offer.

Interviews and workshop activities with stakeholders were organised in parallel, focussing in particular on product and editorial needs.

The second step was identifying and consolidating the most effective onward journey for collections.

In order to achieve that I had to carefully keep in mind the current Information Architecture of the product across different platforms and devices, making good use of the knowledge of the backend structure of the product I accrued over the years of working in Sounds.

Keeping in mind the branding constraints we had, the team went through several iterations until the perfect visual templates for showcasing collections across different platforms and devices were identified.

The introduction of the collections feature has significantly enhanced the user experience on BBC Sounds.

The following metrics were positively impacted:

• Higher CTR on mobile v web (8.8% v 6.9%)
• Click-through rate (CTR) comparable to others on page (8.7%)
• Higher CTR for light and new users (light 9.9% / new 12.1%)
• U35s more likely to click though to collections page (11.3%)

The ability to create timely and relevant collections has improved content discoverability. Users can easily find content related to current events or trending topics, enhancing their overall experience.

The new feature has streamlined the workflow for the editorial team, allowing them to create and manage aggregations of content more efficiently. This has led to a more dynamic and responsive content strategy, aligning with user needs and preferences.