Overview

O'Reilly Media, Inc. is a learning company that delivers technical and professional development through its online platform. Alongside books and courses, O’Reilly offers audiobooks to support subscribers who prefer learning through listening or want the flexibility to learn on the go. Initially, the mobile app used a stopgap solution—streaming audio through the video player in audio-only mode. To better serve audiobook listeners and improve performance, we reimagined the audiobook experience from the ground up with a mobile-first approach explicitly tailored for audio learning.

Roles and responsibilities

I served as one of two product designers on the native mobile app team and co-led the end-to-end design of the audiobook player experience. We kicked off with research, analyzing best practices across existing audiobook players and clearly defining the problem we aimed to solve. I mapped user flows to visualize key journeys, explored and iterated on design solutions, and gathered stakeholder feedback throughout. We conducted usability testing to validate our designs and refine the experience, then handed off to engineering seamlessly. Post-launch, we tracked performance and user feedback to ensure the experience aligned with listener needs in real-world use.

Scope and constraints

The product requirements document intentionally kept the scope for this net-new experience relatively light to enable a quick release. The roadmap included plans for a fast-follow mini-player and a few dedicated sprints for future upgrades. With scope creep always a risk, we designed our ideal end-to-end experience and strategically pared it down to a focused MVP that aligned with our timeline. We had eight weeks total from discovery through design and into dev handoff, so clarity and prioritization were key to delivering a solid foundation for the audiobook experience.