ListenUp - Making Audiobook Discovery More Personal
An AI listening companion designed to help users find what to listen to with less effort.
Role: UX Lead ⚬ Domain: Audiobooks ⚬ Platform: Mobile App ⚬ Focus: AI, Personalization, Accessibility, Listening Experience
Context
Helping listeners spend less time browsing and more time listening.
ListenUp is an audiobook platform that brings stories, knowledge, and entertainment into an easy-to-use digital listening experience. It enables listeners to discover audiobooks across genres, build personal libraries, and enjoy content wherever they are.
The platform serves a diverse range of listeners with different preferences, routines, and accessibility needs - from frequent audiobook listeners to older and low-vision users who may benefit from a simpler, more inclusive experience.
With a growing content library, listeners can spend significant time deciding what to listen to, managing saved books, and returning to unfinished titles. ListenUp explored how AI could make these moments more intuitive and personalized, helping listeners spend less time searching and more time listening.
Challenge
When discovery becomes a chore, listening takes a back seat.
With thousands of titles to choose from, listeners often spend time browsing, comparing, and saving books without knowing what best fits their interests or the moment. Generic recommendations and reminders can add to the noise rather than helping listeners make a confident choice.
For older and low-vision listeners, navigating a content-heavy experience can introduce additional friction, making discovery and continued listening even less effortless.
Objective
Create a more effortless and personalized way to discover and enjoy audiobooks.
The experience aimed to reduce the effort involved in finding what to listen to, while making recommendations more relevant to each listener’s preferences, habits, and context. It also explored how AI could provide timely assistance without adding complexity, while keeping the experience accessible to a wider range of listeners.
This would help users
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Discover faster - Find relevant audiobooks with less browsing.
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Listen more personally - Get recommendations based on preferences and listening habits.
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Stay engaged - Easily return to saved and unfinished audiobooks.
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Listen more independently - Navigate a simpler, more accessible experience.
Strategy
Make listening more effortless, personal, and accessible.
The strategy focused on reducing the effort between wanting to listen and finding the right story. By combining AI-powered personalization with contextual assistance, the experience would help users discover relevant content, manage their listening journey, and return to books at the right moment. Accessibility was considered throughout to ensure the experience remained simple, intuitive, and inclusive for a wider range of listeners.
Approach
Understanding where AI could genuinely reduce friction in the listening journey.
The approach focused on identifying where intelligent assistance could genuinely reduce friction - not simply adding AI as another feature. I looked at the complete listening journey, from discovering and evaluating a title to saving, resuming, and returning to content, while considering different listening behaviors and accessibility needs.
Research and behavioral insights helped identify the moments where users needed more guidance and where automation could remove unnecessary effort. These opportunities were translated into and prioritized as AI-assisted experiences, then explored through iterative wireframes and prototypes.
Throughout the process, I balanced user needs, accessibility, business value, and the appropriate role of AI to create an experience that felt helpful rather than intrusive.
Impact
Making audiobook discovery more effortless, personal, and trustworthy.
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Faster discovery - Help users find relevant audiobooks with fewer browsing steps.
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More relevant recommendations - Give users a clear reason behind every suggestion, making AI recommendations feel purposeful rather than random.
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Greater user control - Keep the listener as the decision-maker by asking for approval before AI takes action.
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Stronger engagement - Make it easier to save, resume, and return to content that matches individual listening habits.
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More inclusive listening - Create a simpler and more accessible experience for a wider range of listeners, including older and low-vision users.