ITPodcast
“I co-founded and produce a podcast with three first-year ITP students. “Stories from the floor” was our mantra when we started this project. ”
The Idea
It's common to take part in an icebreaker exercise when starting a new job, school, or program. However, Alex Fast and I quickly realized that it's hard to know someone from their ten second icebreaker description. This is where we conceived the idea of producing a podcast which allowed us to interview as many people as we could and share it with other students at ITP so they could learn about each other.
The Process
The Prototype
Most podcast websites are not visually appealing typically. I can see a good reason for this considering the audio itself is a first-class object, which listeners find via iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud etc. However, I wanted to explore different designs and usability if branded podcasts were destinations for listeners.
For the ITPodcast, I ultimately prototyped the version below. The landing page is a p5.js canvas element which visualizes the FFT waveform of the podcast's 30-second intro. By user-testing various designs, I discovered people responded better to versions that visually displayed the voices heard in the podcast. Also, I knew I wanted to keep the episodes central to the navigation, which is why I landed on utilizing the fullscreen as you scrolled through.
