Introduction
Introduction
Audium was designed to make listening and discovery feel effortless. Most podcast apps are packed with features, but that often makes them noisy and overwhelming. I wanted to create something quieter, focused on listening first, with every interaction feeling natural and minimal.
The design started with a question: What do people really do when they open a podcast app? They either want to continue what they were listening to, find something new, or revisit saved shows. Everything else was built around these core intents.
The Home screen brings what matters most upfront, a “Continue Listening” row, trending shows, and simple recommendations.
Audium was designed to make listening and discovery feel effortless. Most podcast apps are packed with features, but that often makes them noisy and overwhelming. I wanted to create something quieter, focused on listening first, with every interaction feeling natural and minimal.
The design started with a question: What do people really do when they open a podcast app? They either want to continue what they were listening to, find something new, or revisit saved shows. Everything else was built around these core intents.
The Home screen brings what matters most upfront, a “Continue Listening” row, trending shows, and simple recommendations.
For the Library, I paid special attention to the “empty” moments, when users have no favorites or no latest episodes yet. Instead of showing a blank page, I used warm, friendly illustrations and a short message to keep the experience human and encouraging. Once the library fills up, users can easily filter between Favorites, Latest, Saved, and Shows.
For the Library, I paid special attention to the “empty” moments, when users have no favorites or no latest episodes yet. Instead of showing a blank page, I used warm, friendly illustrations and a short message to keep the experience human and encouraging. Once the library fills up, users can easily filter between Favorites, Latest, Saved, and Shows.
The Search page uses soft color tiles for categories, making discovery feel visual and approachable.
The Search page uses soft color tiles for categories, making discovery feel visual and approachable.
The Player screen keeps the artwork front and center, with an optional transcript below so users can read along or refer back.
The Player screen keeps the artwork front and center, with an optional transcript below so users can read along or refer back.
The outcome
The outcome
The final design found a nice balance between clarity and character. When I tested the clickable prototype with a few users, most described the app as “peaceful” and “easy to use,” which was exactly what I hoped for. Watching them interact with the prototype gave me a lot of insight into small usability details, like making the “Continue Listening” section more visible and simplifying how users save new shows.
The calm color palette, clean typography, and open layout helped keep the focus on the podcasts themselves, not the interface. From discovering a show to saving or playing it, users could get things done in just two quick taps, which made the experience feel light and effortless.
The empty states turned out to be a subtle but important part of the design too, instead of a blank page, users saw warm, friendly messages that nudged them to start exploring. Overall, this project reminded me how small design choices can make an app feel genuinely human, calm, and enjoyable to use.
The final design found a nice balance between clarity and character. When I tested the clickable prototype with a few users, most described the app as “peaceful” and “easy to use,” which was exactly what I hoped for. Watching them interact with the prototype gave me a lot of insight into small usability details, like making the “Continue Listening” section more visible and simplifying how users save new shows.
The calm color palette, clean typography, and open layout helped keep the focus on the podcasts themselves, not the interface. From discovering a show to saving or playing it, users could get things done in just two quick taps, which made the experience feel light and effortless.
The empty states turned out to be a subtle but important part of the design too, instead of a blank page, users saw warm, friendly messages that nudged them to start exploring. Overall, this project reminded me how small design choices can make an app feel genuinely human, calm, and enjoyable to use.
Got something exciting in mind?
Got something exciting in mind?
Got something exciting in mind?