iOS Widgets
I ran a design hack session on widgets, collaborated with PM, CRM and cross functional team of iOS, backend and QA engineers to solve a user problem. Participated in a virtual lab with Apple to set the feature up for success and worked with visual communications on the assets to be featured on the App store. The project spanned from August to September 2020.
Context
Coming with iOS 14, widgets project content from our app onto the Home screen. They come in 3 different sizes: small, medium and large and display distinct pieces of information users would find useful when they open the app. The content is the focus of the widget, they are stateless UI: no scrolling, no videos or animated images.
Final Solution
Widgets are:
• Personal: to allow a deeper connection with a piece of the app.
• Informational: to see a top-level overview of information from a variety of sources on someone’s device, save time on recurrent actions on the app.
• Contextual: to help surface the right information at the right time, magically predicts someone’s needs and next steps.
My team and I were quite excited to tackle widgets as an innovative initiative. I ran a design hack session with other product designers on August 2020 and the team was happy to do some exploratory work. We decided to prioritize widgets in order to meet the Apple deadline early September and have the chance to be featured.
Hypothesis
The widget will help remind users of Blinkist at moments when they have no specific plan or intention to go to our app. The content that we promote via the widget will make them curious and draw them in. The user job being:
“When I’m idly browsing my phone, I want to find something that piques my interest so that I can occupy myself in a productive way”.
Our plan & process
• Develop a personalized "Medium Widget" for the Home screen, featuring the popular "Blinks for You" section, with a target of ~30% click-through rate (CTR) using a specialized algorithm provided by the Business Intelligence team.
Investigation Phase (Initial 2 Days of Sprint):
• Dedicated time to investigate the unique feature requirements and potential solutions.
• Generated a list of critical questions to address during the subsequent technical grooming.
Technical Grooming:
• Conducted a focused technical grooming session to address the predefined questions and define the essential technical components.
Design Feedback and Iterations:
• Presented initial mockups for feedback.
• Key feedback included emphasizing book titles, prioritizing "Category + Time" display, and highlighting the duration of titles for user engagement.
• Incorporated feedback into design iterations, optimizing the user experience.
Design Considerations:
• Key focus on displaying book titles prominently, recognized as a valuable tool for engagement.
• Opted for a "Category + Time" approach over showcasing the author's name for enhanced user value.
• Highlighted the time indicator based on recent positive qualitative and quantitative insights.
• Integrated title durations following successful outcomes from recent quantitative data, aiming to trigger curiosity and interest, especially for new or potential users.
Design Iterations and Feedback:
• Iterated on designs based on feedback, presenting 2 new versions alongside the original.
• The second version with 4 titles was favored, but faced truncation issues.
Consultation with Apple and Design Modification:
• Engaged in a virtual lab session with Apple for design and development insights.
• Apple advised against truncation, suggesting font reduction for optimal visibility.
• Prioritized user value by ensuring clear display of book titles and topics.
Engineer's Solution and Widget Layout Update:
• Engineers resolved truncation problem by modifying the layout.
• Developed a medium widget displaying 2 titles, cover, category, and duration for quick decision-making.
• Bonus large widget version with the same layout allowing users to choose from the widget gallery.
Future Iterations and Feature Scope:
• Considered future iterations for enhanced contextualization using timelines and featuring "Blink of the Day" for free users.
• Documentation created for future reference, and mockups shared with Apple for potential feature on the app store and marketing channels.
Intended impact
• Satisfy and delight Blinkist iOS users by building the first Blinkist <> iOS integration that brings new value to their experience with Blinkist.
• Leverage the widget space to bring a little bit of Blinkist to our users' Home screen, to build our relationship with our users and encourage them to engage with the app more frequently (increasing the % of users who come 5+ times in a month).
Actual impact & results
We got featured on the App store! The data was a bit disappointing though:
• Low adoption (~2% of active iOS 14 users), also relatively low engagement.
The widgets were released September, 29th. A possible iteration of it would be to reuse the current implementation and surface the Recently Started section we've built to test and see how it impacts our KPIs.
App store feature
