Why this app exists
Jaybird did user research in 2015 to find out what they could improve on their buds. This research concluded that people had different sound preferences and would love to be able to customize the sound of their earbuds. In essence, the idea was an equalizer profile that gets stored on the earbuds. It matched nicely with the business goal to create a competitive advantage over other earbud makers. At the time, this kind of app didn’t exist in the form that Jaybird intended. I joined the team to help with the design of the app.
We launched the first version successfully in 2016. The app had a 4.8-star rating on the Play Store and a 4.6-star rating on the App Store. Positive Amazon reviews mentioned the app 2nd or 3rd most frequently as the main thing they liked about the product. Currently, the app is installed by over 2 million users and has an average rating of 4.4-stars with about 200.000 monthly active users.
Fast forward to 2019, when Jaybird went through a rebrand.
Type of company
Wireless Bluetooth Sports Earbuds
Role
Product designer
Period
2015 — 2021
Location
Remote
The rebrand project
The rebrand allowed us the opportunity to rethink the app. We wanted to understand what we could improve.
We had a high–level idea of where we wanted to go, but we didn't want to neglect our current users. We talked to customer support to find the current pain points. For additional insights we looked at the app session data and app reviews.
Key insights
Preset changes
1.1 million
Equalizer edits
129k
How to guide visits
90k
Shop Jaybird taps
8k
The vision and goals
Vision
To setup, support, customize and enrich products with a touch of delight. The app’s sole purpose is to do those four things and do them well. It should not get into the way of the user and his buds.
Goals
Create a clear design philosophy
Simplify navigation
Make support more accessible
Enable deep customisation
Implement new branding
Improve and simplify onboarding
Create dark mode theme
Increase shop engagement by 10%
Design process
We started exploring competitor apps like Jabra and Bose for inspiration on the overall user experience and look and feel.
From there, we started working on some ideas. We mainly focussed on the onboarding and dashboard experience. We created a high-level flow and rearranged the information architecture. After that, we created a simple prototype that we user-tested.
Once we felt confident with the general direction, we went straight into high-fidelity mockups.
Small collection of explorative work
Initial results
A more helpful onboarding process
When the initial scan can’t find the ear buds we now show a prominent “Get help” button. That made it possible to show product-specific guides to better aid with connecting. We also introduced “Watch video instructions” for a more in depth guide
All you need on a single dashboard
The buds are front and centre. The presets everyone loves are now more connected to the buds. The second most important settings are directly below it. All the tertiary settings and options are again a level lower
Still familiar
We kept all the features everyone loved in a familair fashion, we just updated it with the new brand
Shop from the dashboard & profile
We moved the ‘Shop Jaybird’ to the dashboard. To be more thoughtful we show you can shop accessories for the buds you own. In addition for extra marketing efforts we created ‘Jaybird stories’ with latest offers, updates and news around the brand
The launch…
A major f*ck up
I will let a couple of reviews do the talking.
why did you make an update that is 10x more difficult than before? this update has more steps to take, very disappointing.
Jaybird user — App store
The app user interface is not good at all. I'm going to uninstall this app. Will not buy another Jaybird
product in the future.
Jaybird user — App store
Ugh, I HATE this new look. Why would I want to swipe endlessly to find my presets? What
was wrong with the flat panel look? As usual, a developer decides to fix what wasn't broken,
and now the app isn't as good.
Jaybird user — App store
The app user interface is not good at all. I'm going to uninstall this app. Will not buy another Jaybird
product in the future.
Jaybird user — App store
The fix
We quickly identified the problem by gathering data from reviews and talking to customer support. In the redesign we had a swipe gesture on the dashboard to switch between presets. When we looked at the data, it looked like the majority switched between four presets. That was a big mistake. Another problem was that people couldn't find the "Discover" screen easily.
With the problems clearly identified, I quickly created three different prototypes and ran an online user test on userlytics.com to see which one would fit best.
Option 3 was the overwhelming winner
From the ten respondents, it was clear that option three was the big winner. It won because of the straightforward simplicity. I quickly created a brief for the engineer. Then we got this sentiment turned around in about a week. The response, to this day, is pretty overwhelming.
I really like the app does a great job of letting me access so many different options on my headphones. When I first got them I thought they were ok and then discovered this app and now I'm loving my jaybirds.
Jaybird user — Play store
Love my Jaybird and love the app!!!
Jaybird user — App store
I have had many headphone apps before and this one easily competes. The simplicity is nice and it gives u full control over your jaybirds.
Jaybird user — App store
Really like the different settings, easy to use, clear and the the variety of equaliser settings is a
great touch.
Jaybird user — App store
Current state
Unfortunately, Jaybird is discontinued. Since the last app update, there have been a lot of connectivity issues. As far as I know that is not being worked on. The engineering team is allocated to other projects.
I don't have access to the data anymore and therefore I can not quantify the redesign in numbers. All I can go by is the current reviews which seem to be on the positive side as far as the app is concerned. The connectivity issue is a very negative experience which outweighs the positives.
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