The Telegraph's podcast embed prototype

Challenge

The Telegraph's product team was disappointed with the look of podcast pages and sought to improve the design and user experience.

The goal was to continue using the template and podcast service, but to take advantage of all the available features on the page and of the third party's APIs.

Solution

After researching the page template and API documentation, I worked with designers to create concepts that were technically feasible.

I created a custom HTML embed with in-house styles that matched the page surroundings better. The podcast artwork was featured more prominently and was also used as a blurred background image.

I also created a dashboard tool that contained all existing podcast series. The editors were able to choose the series they wanted to embed, either as a single episode or a whole playlist, and then copy the embed HTML code directly to the clipboard.

The feedback from editors and department heads was positive, and the prototype was finished within a week.