Carol Bradsen, NPR One app project for Digital Crafts, Sept 2022.
What to do with this app?
NPR.Org website looks great on a phone.
NPR app, not NPR One has some great search features. And more people use the other app.
An overall reboot of a single app that combines all these options could be done. There’s no need to re-invent the wheel. What is confusing is why all these differences. NPR needs to clarify the purpose of this app. Users were confused. What is possible here? Is this a news app, a podcast app, can I find music here?
NPR has a clear goal to meet listeners where they already are. NPR podcasts are on Spotify, Apple, and many, many other podcast platforms. Tiny Desk Concert videos are on YouTube. What is the purpose of this app? News? Even the news podcasts can be accessed from other platforms.
One user deleted the NPR ONE app years ago and never returned. He found an app from his local state public radio that met all his needs for listening to the state public radio station. Upon returning to this app, he saw that listening to the state radio was now an option. But he wondered what this app was for. News? Podcasts? Music? Others wondered that too.
I can’t decide NPR’s priorities for their resources. I do know that they want to reach younger and more diverse audiences. Their podcasts and Tiny Desk are already doing that. If NPR did decide to improve the NPR ONE app. It makes sense to include the younger and more diverse audiences in their main focus for the redesign.
This app might draw users in for the podcasts: all the NPR shows in one place. Cool. And a way to listen to Tiny Desk concerts and new music. Neat. Then they realize that NPR news is a great unbiased news source. Maybe they get a coffee subscription. Or give a micro donation of a $1 or $5 to a podcast they like. Then maybe they attend a local Tiny Desk live concert, or a traveling recording of their favorite podcast. NPR merch is handed out. They start listening to morning edition while they get ready in the morning. The voices become familiar, personable. They feel connected. And their life is expanded because of NPR. NPR is better because of them. Let’s make NPR One: The One place for all things NPR.
It almost seems like NPR has given up on this app. They’ve really built out the content on their website. I wonder if they think they don’t really need an app with all the other ways people can connect to NPR. Social media, other app platforms: Apple, Google, TuneIn, their local radio. And then there’s the NPR business issue of not taking money and attention way from local stations.
more personal. Use their name on the front page.
built for user engagement. Let them choose, like, send, save, share easily.
Create a better, more intuitive, and faster user experience. If it is connected to NPR, this is the ONE place to find it.
Use all the options: ‘tap,’ ‘swipe,’ ‘drag,’ ‘pinch,’ ‘hold,’ Use horizontal and vertical swiping, stack photos.
Showcase Storytelling at its best: by listening. Maybe have a fire pic, and listen to a story before bed…use the Sleep Timer. Maybe have it post new every night, or live … people could gather on their app, press something to show they are there, and see that others are too.
An App is a chance to engage younger more diverse audience members: and even experiment with a different vibe to rebrand NPR with the younger more diverse audience.