iHeartRadio for Web
Despite the popularity of smartphones, desktop apps remain the foundation for most any music service, and that's especially true for iHeartRadio. Desktop apps showcase the full range of product features, and allow users more control at every step. As the iHeartRadio app offering grew over the years, the old iHeart.com design started to show its age, becoming difficult to navigate in comparison to the mobile versions. To fix the problem, a striking web redesign — taking cues from mobile successes — helped strip out clutter, introduce a clear flow and better promote key features, all in a responsive layout.
When redesigning the web app, the team's main goals were to make it simple, compelling and reactive. The homepage received a sleek revamp, tailoring recommendations based on users' listening habits and introducing a clear banner for current events and promotions. Navigation tools, such as Search and Listen History, become overlays for users' current locations, removing the time and commitment of navigating to a new page.
Stations, artists and users were given their own individual, canonical pages to capture all that makes them unique. This was a welcome upgrade for users who like to follow their favorite artists. Each artist page offers a wealth of listening opportunities, news, photos and discography details. This page setup showed a vast improvement over previous versions, in which local stations pushed users to outside websites, artist information could only be found when that artist was playing and user pages were treated as settings screens.
Following suit with mobile player upgrades, the web redesign introduced a full-screen option, satisfying a common user request that the team hadn't previously considered widespread. Increasingly, users had started displaying their music apps as art during parties, connecting their computers to TVs and keeping live and artist stations on display. With the new web functionality, even in full-screen mode, the interface allowed for searching and basic controls, all while letting partygoers see that their music was being provided by iHeartRadio.
As a final part of the revamp, the My Stations and Listen History features became omnipresent, allowing users quick access to what they love and what they've heard. Thanks to the redesign, users were given a seamless listening experience to enjoy throughout their day — from waking up to the iHeartRadio alarm to linking their phone to a car radio during the commute to listening in a browser tab during work. No matter the time or place, users' favorite stations now follow them, making listening more fuss-free than ever.