Enhanced podcast interaction study

Podcasts are mostly played using screen-based devices, but despite this, podcasts do not utilize the opportunity for screen-based interaction. There have been efforts to innovate around playback interfaces through the development of “enhanced podcasts”, but there have not been any formal studies on this approach. We developed a prototype podcast player that uses interactive visual elements to enhance the audience's experience.

In this paper, we describe a formal remote qualitative study that investigated how podcast listeners interacted with our prototype in three different environments. Participants rated chapterisation as the most important feature, followed by links, images and transcripts. The features of our prototype worked best when listening at home, but certain features were valued when used on public transport.

This paper was written by Ulfa Octaviani of QMUL as part of a PhD placement, and Chris Baume of BBC Research & Development.

Photo by Distingué CiDDiQi on Unsplash.

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