Brave Playlist
A Great Feature That's Hard to Find
Brave is a lesser-used browser that has specialized on privacy - blocking things like Google Tag Manager by default. However, what even most Brave users don’t know is that the iOS version has a playlist feature that stores media locally, and allows those playlists to be played in the background. A reason most users don’t know about it is that it’s not easy to discover during the course of use.
How can we help users discover the Brave Playlist feature during casual use?
For this project, I interviewed a broad spectrum of users, from retired to age 10. This feature in the Brave browser can be helpful for anyone. However, a limitation that took me by surprise is that it's only available in the iOS version of the app, so it would be restricted to iOS users.
This was a one-person project, so except for user participation, everything was all done by me.
This project, while it did take an overall look at Brave, especially compared to other browsers, focused specifically on the Playlist feature. Since the Playlist feature exists only on iOS, this project is restricted to iPhone users.
I began with a heuristic evaluation of the Brave mobile browser, and it did remarkably well. The only notable shortcomings were in the areas of taking advantage of consistency and recognition rather than leaning on user recall. Both of those deficiencies had to do with the Playlist feature, which almost seemed like an afterthought rather than an integral part of the design.
The competitive analysis revealed that while Brave promotes itself as being privacy-first, it didn’t have too many features unique to itself. The quality of the privacy features in comparison with other browsers was not evaluated. The primary feature that was unique to Brave was the Playlist, and therefore deserved extra attention.
During the usability testing, most users reported an overall positive experience with the app. The essential features one expects to have in a mobile browser were all present.
A snag that users always hit was discovering the playlist feature. While Brave did clearly put some effort into making the feature discoverable, most users overlooked those helps. As users explored the newly downloaded app, various modals and popups explained features. There were some modals regarding the playlist, but were quickly dismissed by users who were tired of reading instructions.
Clearly, a better way to discover the Playlist is needed.
The user interviews, which typically took place after usability testing, were quite positive about the app overall. Several users never really made it to the Playlist feature, and were therefore unable to comment on that.
However, most users expressed an interest in using the app going forward, partly due to the privacy features, but mostly because of the blocking of ads on media sites.
Based on what happened in the previous steps, I decided to create a "Feature Analysis" document in Figma, just to make sure I had the Playlist functionality all straight in my own head.
I created a persona, Angela, to represent the overall viewpoints expressed by the users. Among other things, Angela doesn’t want to read instructions before using an app - she wants to discover features while using the app.
She also wants to be able to build video playlists for her kids that can be played offline in the car.
The solution for this problem does not need to be extensive changes - rather minor changes to the interface are adequate.
These three suggestions are aimed at resolving the problems with consistency and recognition rather than recall, from the initial heuristic evaluation.
The Brave iOS app is already a solid browser, but the Playlist feature is hidden behind inconsistent icons and unintuitive design. By making minor modifications, the Playlist can become much more accessible to users.
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