BBC Sounds 12+

Really poor design

I’ve given this app some time to bed in and still find it infuriating. The design is based upon podcast use rather than a radio station which is its foundation. Therefore to listen as you would to a radio and use it to catch up on programmes you’ve missed or see new content coming up is designed as a secondary poor relative in the structure of the app. You have to hit about 6 buttons to get to where you were last time you listened on catchup to get back to the schedule to see other possible programmes. Moving from radio 4 to 5 is about 20 moves as you have to find small buttons for schedules and then wade through numerous screens to get where you could once get to in 2 clicks. The developer needs to try an navigate using one hand with a child on his hip and attempt to go from radio 4 morning news (preferably when the god bothering bit is on, to add a bit of urgency and irritation to the nix) to radio 5 ((preferably during nick Campbell inane dog rambles) to 4 extra look for comedy ie hancock and then back to radio 4 again . Once they get that in an intuitive easy system with minimum moves and large easy to find buttons which ensures the app doesn’t hang downloading erroneous content it will be an improvement. Ps I get my podcasts on the podcast app not through sounds as it’s a cleaner less complicated system and I don’t want my radio app cluttered up with more annoying cul-de-sacs of nonsense.

Developer Response ,

Thanks for your review. Navigating between different live stations is done quickly via the “dial” at the top of the Listen page. Moving between schedules can be achieved via the All Stations page, and you can access the schedule for the station you are listening to by tapping the logo on the full player page. Your catchup listening can be seen in the Continue Listening section, and more episodes from a programme can be found via episode detail pages. Hope this is helpful!

Sounds

I very much appreciate Sounds as I love the radio, and being able to catch up with or listen again to programmes, like Saturday Review, Start the Week, Medical and Science programmes, Analysis, The Briefing Room, The Moral Maze, Hard Talk and the Why Factor plus others on the World Service. I also like the podcast versions with extras at the end.

What I don’t like as an older person with somewhat impaired eyesight is not being able to escape from a page I am on to go back to the main schedules. For example the icons at the bottom of the favourites page which I sometimes accidentally find myself on, are tiny and I don’t know what they are for. Tapping them takes me somewhere else I don’t want to be and don’t know how to get back from. i often can’t see, or can’t find, an arrow to taken me away from the page and back to what I want. This is on a full size modern iPad which normally I can see without difficulty even with my visual problems.

So that is why I have given a four rather than a five star review. Great service but often frustrating for older people with less than perfect eyesight..

So much potential

I’m glad the app exists but it could be so much better. Simple fixes: - why does it buffer such a small amount of content? I will be within signal, listening to a program that has 40min content already live, which I’ve rewound to listen from the start on a phone that could happily buffer the entire program and a connection that load the program in a few seconds. Yet I find I have a few minutes content before it cuts out. - Please immediately fix the error that makes it regularly/ daily forget where it is in a program when it changes internet connection or just feels like it, - finally, linked to the above, when you suddenly find you’re not listening to the program you were following but the one after because the app has got confused about time, why does it often take more than 30 minutes to upload the program I was previously listening to? Surely no human interaction is involved? Just make it available when the program finishes? Are you adding any value or trying to be annoying ? Generally, if this was a commercial app no one would buy it. Also, surely you would welcome some actual user feedback on your programmes? I can’t be the only person who doesn’t want to write a formal letter to R4 Feedback to mention that I think Count Arthur Strong is about as funny as norovirus? I don’t have to be a minority but other channels welcome feedback. Anyway, keep up the good work.