uCast Internship
Project scope
uCast is a platform that helps podcasters monetize their podcasts by connecting them with paying ad campaigns. During my time at uCast as a UX design intern, I created user flows and high-fidelity wireframes to meet the following requirements:
1. Provide advertisers with the ability to search for podcasts that meet their desired criteria.
2. Develop a “checkout” process for advertisers to present a podcast with a deal for a paid ad campaign.
3. Enable advertisers to manage and track the status of their past and current ad campaigns from start to finish with the option to renew.
User Flow
To determine how a user would navigate through the proposed actions, the team created a user flow to map out the screens for the high-fidelity wireframes. Using feedback and empathy mapping exercises, as well as competitive research results, we determined what would be necessary on the advertiser home page and created a user flow for what would be the most essential features of the site: finding podcasts that would be good candidates for ad campaigns, making a deal, and following the progress of the deal until completion.
Since there were two profile types (advertiser and podcaster), we separated the needs of the two user personas and created two different platforms. Since the advertisers would need more functionality than the podcasters, we developed the advertisers’ platform first.
Wireframing and Prototyping
Once the team determined the user flow for the advertiser experience, we created wireframes. We went through several design iterations discussing, brainstorming, and testing our designs along the way to make sure they had the content and functionality the advertisers would need and want. My role, in this phase, was to take the wireframes, once they had been approved, and create beautiful, high fidelity screens that would then be tested by our panel of designers and developers and go through a few versions and visual changes until we were sure the customers would find them easy to use, intuitive, and visually appealing.
Advertiser Checkout
The first element I designed was the global navigation bar that would be standardized throughout the site as the users’ main point of reference for the information architecture. The uCast logo is prominently displayed on the left, and links are provided on the right for all main areas of the website.
This first screen of this flow allows the advertiser to input search criteria for the ad campaign they would like to run. They enter information such as a campaign name, budget (with a sliding scale designed for aesthetics and ease of use), campaign dates, goals, and other search criteria.
Once the campaign criteria search has been submitted, the user is brought to a page that displays the three best matching podcasts with their stats displayed in vertical columns, as well as more options available below.
If the user wishes to view a more detailed list of the campaign stats, they can press the “View Analytics” button, which will direct them to this page. Here they can view a more detailed description of the podcast along with their listenership stats.
When the user begins the checkout process, they are brought to this form where they can select their desired duration of the campaign in episodes as well as dates and other information they would like the podcaster to have.
The Order Summary page displays the advertiser’s submitted information that will be sent to the podcaster. Once payment has gone through and the podcaster has accepted the deal, they will receive a confirmation email and may then view their progress in the the Campaign Progress flow.
Campaign Progress Flow
The following screens show the Campaign Progress flow after a podcast has accepted an advertiser’s ad campaign. This page lets the advertiser know that their deal has been accepted by the podcaster. I designed a new horizontal progress tracking bar for this flow that displays the current stage of the campaign, to keep the customer informed of what is going on and what to expect with their campaign at all times. This screen also shows the summary of the campaign and is the first page that allows the advertiser to directly message the podcaster about the campaign.
When the podcaster has recorded and submited the ad, the advertiser is notified and they will see this screen when navigating to their “Campaigns” page. Here they can listen to the ad and either approve or give the podcaster some revisions. From here, the podcaster either has the go-ahead to start the campaign or they can record the ad with revisions and message the advertiser until they come up with something that the advertiser approves.
The advertiser is then notified when the first episode with their ad has streamed. They are able to listen to the ad as it ran in the episode and they are shown an episode timeline that shows exactly how many ads have aired and how many are left before the final episode. They are also notified at this stage that the podcaster has recieved the first deposit of 50% of the cost of the campaign. They may report issues or message the podcaster throughout the campaign.
When the final episode of the campaign has been streamed, the advertiser is notified that the campaign is complete. This page shows both the campaign progress and episode progress trackers as complete and also informs the advertiser that the podcaster has been paid in full. From this page, they have options to review the podcaster and also to renew the campaign.
Conclusion
I am very grateful for my opportunity to work with uCast and am excited to see the company grow and do amazing things. It was inspiring to work in a team setting where everyone was so creative and excited about the future of their company. I was glad to have been able to work on the research and brainstorming side to determine what features we wanted and how we wanted to organize the site, as well as creating the high fidelity screens from the wireframes. This experience gave me exposure to multiple steps of the design process and the ultimate reward was seeing what we were able to accomplish in just a few short weeks.