-> Shipped audio controls UI
7 min read
Role
Product Designer
Timeline
May - Aug '25
Collaborators
Krista
|
Sr. Staff UX Designer
Ingrid
|
Sr. UX Researcher
Aylin
|
Sr. Product Manager
Daniel
|
Product Manager
Skills
Interaction Design
Motion Design
Prototyping
Imagine
You’re cooking in noisy kitchen, hands occupied and eyes on the food.
In the Google app, you voice search:
"How long should I cook ground beef?"
The audio readout starts with long details.
But when you hear the part you do care about, you miss it because of the kitchen noise
In the Google app today:
No pause
No replay
No adjusting speed
You can't listen back or change the speed of your answer
What if
you could control your audio output without taking your full attention?
Introducing
Tap to pause
Tap again to pick up where you left off
Tap to adjust speed
Skip the fluff or slow it down
Why are audio controls important?
The background
Approximately
billion
voice search queries are conducted every day
Users expect voice search to be…
Fast
Convenient
Easy to follow up
(According to 8 rounds of internal user research)
of users in India rely on voice search
as their primary method to find information
Since India drives voice search usage
early Audio Output Controls concepts were tested with Indian users.
Scrubber
Play / Pause
Speaker
Concept testing revealed that users value…
Pause/play
Simple controls
Speed controls
So I started exploring possible solutions…
