Speechify, an innovative text-to-speech app, allows users to customize their reading experience effortlessly by importing content and choosing their preferred voice and settings. This results in achieving reading goals more efficiently and effectively than ever before.
In 2019, I discovered Speechify and came across a tweet by the CEO, who was searching for a UX designer to enhance the user interface of their product. Seeing this as a chance to hone my skills in interaction design and contribute to a product I was profoundly passionate about, I decided to make it my next case study.
Following an analysis of user interactions and the collection of quantitative research, it became evident that the product falls short in meeting users' needs, particularly when they start listening to the reading content.
Have you ever encountered an audiobook and found the voice to be monotonous? This was precisely the issue users were encountering, but with more than just voice-related concerns.
On a positive note, Speechify offers users the ability to make these adjustments, if the user can locate them....
I hypothesize if we changed the layout of the setup buttons to be more accessible it would take less time for the user to change settings and more time listening.
Upon establishing contact with Speechify's founder, I gained insights into the target user demographic, subsequently allowing me to gather additional data from reviews. Following a series of user interviews and observations of app usage, I accumulated several recurring findings:
1) Users would like to change voices to fit the content they are reading.
2) Users would like to read along with the voice to improve reading skills.
1) Users became frustrated when changing voices & speed because of flow set up.
2) Users had a hard time finding text change and were not aware of it.
Upon empathizing with Speechify users, I started contemplating whether we possessed sufficient resources to enable users to exert complete control over their reading experience. This prompted me to initiate a competitive analysis to examine how other companies implement accessible features.
Upon observing how competitors were addressing this issue, I started to contemplate how Speechify's users might engage with a comparable interface. As it turned out, I had provided users with an excessive level of control, causing them to feel overwhelmed by the abundance of settings and leading to a situation akin to Hick's Law, which ultimately steered me in the wrong direction.
Despite initially heading in the wrong direction, I managed to gather valuable insights that eventually steered me in the right path. Through testing, I identified crucial resources like Voice, Speed, Font (size & style), and dark/light mode, which subsequently inspired me to sketch out methods for granting users control over these four features exclusively.
While grappling with finding the optimal solution, I revisited my recent user testing notes and had an epiphany that the solution had already been conceived. The primary issue was an excess of control. The streamlined process of making changes with quick access at the bottom had proven successful.
This led me to contemplate whether we could integrate these features beneath the play button, akin to a navigation bar. After obtaining insights from a developer, I received the green light to proceed with developing this concept.
I began experimenting with various interactions to determine the most suitable one. This proved challenging as I had to balance creating engaging interactions with providing clear feedback to the user.
The design on the left might offer a quicker scaling experience but lacked typeface changes (important for reading along), and the "Done" button provided delayed feedback. On the other hand, the design on the right, which users are more familiar with for exiting, displayed text size changes more immediately, providing better user feedback.
Below you can see how the new layout and flow works. After testing with 5 new volunteers I was able to reach my goals based on observation and review.
Check out the interactive prototype!
