The entertainment industry has been extremely prolific for decades. It is currently estimated to generate around $2 trillion dollars annually! The link between entertainment sectors and technology is hard to debate - after all, most of us use technology on a daily basis with the purpose of finding various forms of entertainment. Whether we want to watch the latest episode of a reality TV show or listen to our favorite album from high school, the options are infinite.
However, it has not always been smooth sailing to have such fast and constant access to forms of entertainment. Remember when we used to have to rent a different DVD for every single new movie that came out? Or maybe you recall asking your cool friend to borrow you his collection of rock CDs for the weekend?
We have come quite a long way even in the past few years, as more and more platforms, apps, and websites allow us to stream media without the need to download the content. And UI UX designers have been contributing with pretty interesting and innovative ideas for their user interfaces.
So let’s dive into the universe of media players and find out how they integrate with the topic of UI UX design.
Media players give the user permission to play videos, music, or sound files. Media players communicate information, display multimedia content, and have the ability to enhance the user experience. Sound can deliver helpful knowledge and can trigger responses and feedback in response to the user's activity or interaction with the elements.
Types of Media Players
As UI UX designers, it is important to be familiar with the types of media players we might come across. There are two main types of media players that we will integrate into a UI UX design.
1. Video Player
As the name suggests, video media players allow you to play videos. During the design process, it is important to know that the play and pause controls are mandatory, so every video player should include them. To enhance the user experience, we can add other controls, such as rewind, speed, and subtitles.
A good example of a successful video player is YouTube's interface. If we play a video on the platform, we will notice that the video player on their app presents a few controls, such as play, pause, speed, lock, subtitles, fullscreen, and even "Stats for Nerds". One of the reasons for YouTube's popularity is that its video player user interface is very intuitive, with icons that are easily recognizable, as well as providing a great variety of helpful controls based on their user needs.
2. Audio Player
The second type of media player revolves around sound. These players are often used to save up space on the user interface, and they can come in a more simple layout or alongside elements such as pictures.
To better understand audio players, we can take a look at one of the most famous music streaming platforms, Spotify. Their audio player presents users with a few controls, such as the play and pause button, save to your library, shuffle, volume, lyrics, and queue, among others. Besides these functions, each song on Spotify showcases the album or single image it is assigned to by the artists. Spotify’s UI UX design virtually provides listeners with any option they would require to stream music and podcasts in an enjoyable manner.
As UI UX designers, there are a few design principles that we should take into account during the design process of media players, no matter what type of websites and apps we are working on.
A good strategy for media players is to keep the focus on the playing content. In the moment the media player is opened the UI is no longer the center of attention. If the users choose to play a video the focus should be solely on the content and not on the UI design.
Another design principle that applies to media players is the importance of speed. Our websites and apps should give users the ability to go backward, forward, skip, or change the speed of the media that is playing.
Offer flexibility for the users – users need to have the ability to change the quality of their video and see which one fits their screen best. Not only that but sometimes users have a lower-quality internet speed. In such cases, it is helpful to have the option of setting the quality of the video so that they do not need to wait for extended periods of time for the content to load.
Media players need to be deductible. A strategy of ensuring that the user understands how the media players work by using explicative language and introducing subtitles.
A means through which we can enhance the user experience is by helping users through suggesting similar content and using CTA phrases and buttons such as “swipe for more” and “play next”.
Expose the video content to its true aspect ratio –Scaling the video correctly should be the UI UX designer's priority in order to deliver an aesthetically pleasing design.
A good piece of advice would be to avoid mixing up audio from different sources – mixing audio and playing background sounds for more elements can become irritating and cause confusion. So, once the user switches the focus from the element the audio should be automatically switched off.
Media players need to be deductible and guide the users through the design. As we have explained before, Spotify has mastered the art of iconography with its streaming platform. Icons such as the heart for favourites, and the rotating arouse for the shuffling option are just a few examples.
We at uinkits understand the importance of great user experiences and creating amazing UI designs. That’s why we’ve developed a Figma UI Kit with design components that include these essential UI elements that enable you to design intuitive and user-friendly interfaces effortlessly.
“You press the button, we do the rest.” – Kodak.
Inspired by this iconic tagline from Kodak, we believe in simplifying the design process for you. Our Figma UI Kit, uinkits, is a complete design system with UI components that allows you, as a UI UX designer, to create your products as quickly as pressing a button.
Our design system includes UI components, icons, variables, cards, buttons and everything you need for your design process. All you have to do is take your UI design component needed, and you’re ready to use it in your designs!
