BitTorrent App

When studying the BitTorrent Android App, the team and I realized new users rarely returned to the mobile app. Through conducting user interviews and usability tests, we learned the app lacked clear instructions on how to use the app which we hypothesized led to the drop-off in user retention. This led to my objective as the lead UX designer in creating an exceptional onboarding experience.

I worked on three major enhancements to the training and functionality of the app

1. Onboarding

2. Torrent Searching

3. Music playing

I began by Interviewing new users on the existing UX .

Through conducting user interviews and usability tests, we learned the app lacked clear instructions on how to use the app. This led to coming up with a straightforward onboarding process.

Usability Testing

Users navigated through the current app followed by the new prototype designs I created. Half of the tested users were familiar with torrenting while the other half of the testers were not.

Each user was asked to complete two main tasks on the app:

Task #1: How would you go about downloading the Big Buck Bunny torrent?

Task #2: How would you go about watching the Big Buck Bunny on the app?

Heuristic Evaluation

I also conducted a heuristic evaluation with team members internally to identify whether the user interface design needed any improvements. The findings through the evaluation paired with usability testing led to the UX enhancements I proposed to make with the team.

Summary of Findings

Common trends from testers:

• Onboarding – It was unclear how to download torrents and what file type to download.

• Torrent Search – The search feature was jarring because it took users outside of the app.

• Music Player – Users could not find music controls or easily identify what song was playing.

1. Onboarding

Based on the research, new users have difficulty navigating the app because it lacks clear instructions on the steps to finish downloading a torrent. The proposed solution is to create an unobtrusive onboarding experience with three clear steps placed in the zero state of the app homepage.

Onboarding Solution

By clearly outlining the main steps for app usage, new users are able to easily understand and utilize all the app's features, leading to a great overall first experience.

2. Torrent Search

The search for torrents through the web is a strong feature but easily misunderstood due to the lack of visual cues. Users don’t expect to be taken out of the app and onto a web browser.

Torrent Search Solution

The redesign of the search feature mimics a standard search bar to ease users into the experience of launching their web browsing app.

3. Music Player

The app has a powerful music feature but has unfinished engineering and poor UX, with music controls only found in a hidden queue tab.

Studying Music Apps

By conducting a competitive analysis of other popular music apps, it was evident they all follow the same design pattern of a mini-player and full-screen mode. This discovery lead me to propose similar features for the BitTorrent app to the engineering and product managers.

Music Playing Solution

By making music-playing controls accessible on all app pages, this feature becomes significantly more usable and delightful for users. Our decision to create a mini-player that mirrors the behavior of other popular music apps ensures that users can easily and seamlessly interact with this feature without learning something entirely new.

Success Metrics

In addition to more usability testing with more users, the team can further gauge the success of these designs by monitoring Google Analytics. The success of the onboarding and music player screens can be tracked by the increased average time spent. To gauge the success of torrent searching, we can track for an increase in successful search inquiries through the app.

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