The document provides a case study on how the ABC mobile team improved their Android app over time based on competitor reviews, user feedback, and app analytics. It shows screenshots and summaries of competitor apps from 2011 and how the ABC Android app improved its ratings from 2.5 stars to 3.1 stars by July 2012 by addressing issues like speed, content freshness, and added features. User feedback was instrumental in identifying areas for improvement.

1. CASE STUDY
Managing customer feedback and aiming for the stars
Manuela Davidson
Mobile Executive Producer, ABC Innovation
e: davidson.manuela@abc.net.au
t: @manueladavo

2. The beginning
 Feb 09:
1st Android enabled device sold in Australia
 Mar 09:
ABC launches mobile suite, including msite, iOS,
BlackBerry, J2ME and Android apps
HTC Dream
 Approach to Android:
“Be first to market, experiment, watch and learn”
 v1.0 was well received despite of limited
functionality (reader only)

3. The growth of Android
April 2009 April 2012
Mobile visits to ABC Online: 253,152 Mobile visits to ABC Online: 6,349,012
1% 0%
4%
11% 3% 11%
iOS iOS
Android Android
28%
58% BlackBerry 84% BlackBerry
Symbian Symbian
Others Others
0%
Source: Webtrends Analytics (monthly reports)

4. ABC Android app in numbers
51.44%
Froyo (2.2) and Gingerbread (2.3)
33.58%
Ice Cream Sandwich (4)
10.97%
Honeycomb (3) 4

5. User feedback
mobilefeedback@your.abc.net.au
- Bug reports
- Enhancement suggestions
- Thank you notes
- Reactions to ABC stories
- UGC; and of course... SPAM!
Hi there,
I use the App all the time since its major revision, and poor old
Google Currents doesn’t get a look in! For your revision list, can
you please investigate including active hyperlinks in the news
stories? There are often references to links, but they are plain
text. It would really improve user experience and help cement
user loyalty. I do understand that it mightn’t be
straightforward, but would appreciate your brief advice on the
feasibility and merit of the suggestion.
Cheers and regards,
Brad
Michael - June 29, 2012 - Version 2.0.2 Works well
Finally an update.. lets just hope it isn't another 3 year wait for the next one. It
would be good to add breaking news notifications, catch up 60 second news
clips like the iOS app and also a user submit imaging feature for those who
capture breaking news on their phones. The square icon also looks a little
messy and too big. 5

6. ABC (Now) July 2012
3.1 stars
What it does:
 News reader
 Live stream of ABC News 24
 Live stream of 28 ABC radio stations
 Share
 Save app on SD card
What users are saying:
 Massive improvement. This app now usable, really
impressed at how quick it now is. Well done
Aunty, great work.
 Finally the highest selling mobile operating system
is getting the attention it deserves from the public
broadcaster. Next some dedicated Android apps for
your other content please.
 First experience of this app and very impressed.
Live News 24 is easy to access and works well even
over 3G.
 iView please ... and current news vodcasts
please... Keep up great work!!
6

7. ABC (then) May 2011
2.5 stars
What it did:
 Basic news reader
What users were saying:
 Useless compared to what iphone users get
 Sadly lacking customization that an app of its kind
should have; very basic.
 Stories out of date. Can't personalized in any way.
Can't share.
 News won't update without restarting phone!
Hoping that an all update will fix that.
 Limited. Can't email or share stories , agree that
more work is required so its not the poor cousin app
of iPhone
7

8. Planning the change:
competitor review – May 2011
8

9. Al Jazeera May 2011
4.5 stars
What it does:
 24/7 news streaming (3G and WiFi)
 Video news bulletins in English
What users are saying:
 Looks like it’s been all fixed up for streaming!
 Needs install to SD card for more stars
 Frequent stream interruption
 UI could be better but app does what it says
 Get the real news you miss on CNN/MSNBC/fox
 How about a text based news feed and decent UI?
 Would benefit from manual stream quality
selection and optional closed-captioning/subtitles
9

10. BBC May 2011
4.5 stars
What it does:
 BBC headlines in a widget
 Headlines and article viewer
What users are saying:
 Uses too much space, always running, drains
battery. Uninstalling.
 Please make SD supported, too big otherwise.
Uninstalled.
 Only good for reading headlines. Articles rarely
ever load. Faster to go on the their mobile website.
 this is a nice app, but I see absolutely no need for
it... I have Pulse and can get BBC news and video
there... sorry, uninstall
10

11. CBS News May 2011
4.0 stars
What it does:
Breaking news, videos and top stories
 on demand video of every CBS News show
 share content via Twitter
 App + widget
What users are saying:
 "sorry, this video cannot be played" on Samsung
Vibrant.
 Needs move app to SD card support.
 Its ok.. better than others, but widget shows same
headlines and is sketchy, app is fair at best
 Apps needs more enhancement, screen is small for
my samsung tablet.
 Everything works except videos. Droid 1.
 needs to be renamed May... Cause it may or may
not work, it still loads news that's two months old...
Two stars because its free
11

12. CNN May 2011
4.0 stars
What it does:
 Latest news
 Live video
 iReport
What users are saying:
 Good news app, but the breaking news alerts come
before the story is available to view. Very annoying
 If it could be moved to SD card would be 5 star
 Seems to force close from time to time. Other then
that, great app. Comes with a widget too
 The alerts are worthless, and they are the only
reason to use the app. They link you to the app front
page, not to a relevant summary.
12

13. Fox News May 2011
4.0 stars
What it does:
Top news stories (articles, videos, slideshows)
 Favourites
 Breaking news notifications – push notification
What users are saying:
 Like everyone else I sure wish it worked ? It's like I
can get all the news from other places that I don't
want
 I see many negative comments but it works great
on my nexus s. a widget and settings like update
intervals would be nice. cnn app does look better.
 Good app, but too often the breaking news alerts
can't be read. The app opens and the breaking news
article isn't there.
 From my favorite news source comes my new
favorite news app. The app has very up to date
news and videos. I love it. Works everytime Droid X
 Disgraceful. Refuses to open, force closes
immediately upon opening and causes lag for a good
minute. Samsung epic
13

14. France 24 May 2011
4.0 stars
What it does:
 breaking news, sport reports, weather updates
 live stream and video on demand
 news offering based on user location (Maps+GPS)
What users are saying:
 Its a wonderful program on Ipod touch but no
video on Motorola global Droid 2. It tries to load the
videos but it can't
 Used to show video, but now only sound. Galaxy S
2.1. Please fix, otherwise great app. Thanks
 Been waiting a year for this app! Please move to sd
card - too big!
 At last on Android!... But Live is not working.
Where are the Breaking news? The popular app2sd
feature is missing too
 LOVE IT SO MUCH. NEWS IN BOTH LANGUAGES:
FRENCH AND ENGLISH.
14

15. Huffington Post May 2011
4.0 stars
What it does:
 Latest news and opinion
 Search, slide show, share
 Works on portrait and landscape
 Caching of data for offline reading
What users are saying:
 HTC EVO, videos don’t play, problem has existed
for almost a year. Huffington techs are a bunch of
lazy aholes. Fix it or go drink bleach.
 The flashing ads are EXTREMELY DISTRACTING. This
used to be a good app before the horrible ads ruined
it
 Freezes & force closes too often. Videos do not
work w/ latest Youtube update. (Moto Droid 2
Global)
 Comments are disorganized and you can't fan or
fave.
15

16. MSNBC May 2011
4.5 stars
What it does:
 Breaking news: articles and video
 Push notifications
 Description communicates bugs and asks for
patience. Video demo on Android Market
What users are saying:
 This is really informative and it works great. I love
the quality of the app-its great overall
 Always bugging me with non important news alert
and now that osama is dead it didnt alert me!
Uninstalling
 Awesome app, especially after I figured out how to
turn off notifications. My only minor grievance is that
it asks me to rate it here.
 Had to delete. Video kept freezing. It takes up to
much space on the phone memory and can't be
moved to the sd card. Bye bye
16

17. NPR May 2011
4.0 stars
What it does:
 Read, listen, or create a playlist of your favourite
NPR stories and share with friends.
 Hear live streams from hundreds of NPR stations:
search by location (GPS) or zip code / call letters
 Listen to podcasts
What users are saying:
 Runs continuously even after force closing.
Freezes up. Not enough text content. App needs
improvement.
 This app is like my life line, set up my playlist in the
morning and press play on my commute everyday
 GPS shouldn't run continuously. Needs an option
to disable it to save battery.
 I stop the stream and then back out of the app.
About 5 minutes later it turns back on and starts
streaming again. Can be embarrassing
17

18. Onion News May 2011
4.5 stars
What it does:
 news video on demand
 search online video archives
 sort by show, popular and editor picks
What users are saying:
 Wish all news was like this
 Stays true to The Onion Video News and works well
on my Droid X. I would give five stars if there was the
option to read recent or popular headlines.
 Fun app for the first few days until you watch all
the videos. Need to update more often
 This app has made my commute waaaay better!
 Not my thing. I like real news.
Videos sluggish on anything but WiFi. Orientation
forced to Portrait on video list, Landscape when
playing video itself.
18

19. Pulse May 2011
4.5 stars
19

20. Pulse May 2011
4.5 stars
What it does:
 Personalised news: users can select “packs” to populate the app in different categories, using feeds from many publishers around the world
 Organise news: five customisable pages to be populated with feeds (from publishers, social and from Google reader), using drag and drop
 Like, share and comment items in your FB newsfeed from Pulse
 Uses feeds from users accounts on FB, youTube, Vimeo, Digg, Reddit and Hacker News (like Flipboard, combination of social feeds)
 Share articles via FB, Twitter and email
 Offline reading (downloads stuff to your device when you are WiFi connected)
 Tap to refresh news sources (suggests no auto refresh on background)
 Widget and app mode
What users are saying:
 Fantastic app so far. Seems to kill the battery a bit, but it's acceptable.
 Excellent app, gets all the news I normally have to trawl websites for and puts them in an easy to navigate format
 This app is absolutely fantastic. My all-time favorite. But it's no longer shortening links.
 used over 200MB data in one day even when set to manual refresh. Only reason I knew is because battery got very warm. Uninstalled
 Great layout. Would be nice if it pulled more data from australian news sites instead of sending me to their websites.
 Need easy way to delete multiple articles at once. Other than that perfect
 There should be an option to save cache on sd card as it tends to eat a lot of internal storage
20

21. The Guardian May 2011
4.5 stars
What it does:
 latest news
 offline reading (“fetch the paper while you sleep”)
 set wallpapers, widgets, personalization features.
What users are saying:
 Set to download overnight or just do it before you
set off - ideal for a free read wherever you are with
no need for a connection.
 Scheduled downloads don't always happen
 Great app, use daily on HTC desire. Would be 5, but
when move to SD card, schedule download stops
working?
 Wish that Zoom worked with photos too.
 Very nice app except it doesn't delete old articles
and I had to delete manually. Nexus S
21

22. The New York Times May 2011
3.5 stars
What it does:
 Free Top Stories; subscription for rest of content
 Paid version includes blogs, videos and slideshows
 Offline reading and bookmarking
 Portrait and landscape w/ adjustable font size
 Share (email, SMS, FB, Twitter) and push notification
What users are saying:
 Needs some updating. As a paid home delivery
subscriber I expected to see a search button to look
for past archives.
 What happened to the video? I'm paying $35 a
month and the Android app won't play videos since
the recent upgrade.
 Takes up too much space when it caches articles...
Almost 20 mb for text only! Uninstalling, World
Newspapers is much better
 Content is superb. Performance of the app is
horrible. Too slow with frequent freezes. It's a
memory hog that can't be moved to the memory
card, too
22

23. USA Today May 2011
4.5 stars
What it does:
 latest news, scores, weather and photos
 Different versions for PHONE and TABLET
 polls + share via FB, Twitter, email and SMS
What users are saying:
 easy to flip through news, no distractions. polls are
an interesting feature.
 Fantastic! This app has it all, sports. tech. finance.
weather. local news. etc yet easy and simple to use.
And no ads to distract your reading.
 Switched over from NYT. Great app, although it is a
bit more than i need. Weather, sports, and pics are
things i wish i could remove.
 This is my favorite news app - even without
landscape mode. Would give 5 stars for move to SD
card.
23

24. Apps’ core stuff
App Reader Podcast Streams Caching Customise Store - SD Notifications UGC Share
ABC (v1.1) x
ABC (2.0) x x x x x
Al Jazeera x x
BBC x x x x x
CBS x x x
CNN x x x x x
Fox News x x x x x
France 24 x x x x
Huff Post x x x x
MSNBC x x x x x
NPR x x x x x
Onion News x x x
Pulse x x x x
The Guardian x x x x
NY Times x x x x
USA Today x x
24

25. Identifying opportunities
What users want Translates into...
Convenience + apps and companion widgets (nice to have)
+ offline reading + search + news alerts (notifications)
+ same app to scale well on smartphones and tablets
Their personal touch + ability to tailor content offering to their preferences
+ sharing via email, twitter and facebook is a must
+ controlling frequency the app fetches updates (auto and manual settings)
+ scheduling download of content for offline consumption
+ controlling which stream quality they will consume (low-high)
+ being able to turn off news alerts (notifications)
Great content + news and entertainment from a source they trust (always fresh)
+ ratings and ability to read comments from others or leave one are nice to have
+ instant translation to other languages desirable for global distribution
Quality of Service + work on portrait and landscape, for smartphones and tablets
+ app needs to install on SD card without breaking user settings
+ audio and video (live and on demand) must work on WiFi and/or 3G
+ ability to control font size and zoom into images
+ app must not drain user’s battery or use data when on standby
+ app must shut down on exit
25

26. Implementing the change:
dealing with fragmentation
26

27. Fragmentation
 Screen sizes and densities
 User Interface (controls)
 Streaming media (flash x HLS)
320 x 200 800 x 1280
27

28. Testing the change:
learning to fail fast
28

29. Iterative process
The team decides together Design Close collaboration
Review Develop
Formal QA
Consulting Google
User feedback:
25+ ABC alpha testers
Test Distribute
29

30. Aiming for the stars...
What users want What we are still considering
Convenience + widgets
+ offline reading
+ search
+ news alerts
+ proper support for tablets
Their personal touch + favourites / bookmarks
+ scheduling download of content for offline consumption
+ controlling which stream quality they will consume (low-high)
+ being able to turn off news alerts (notifications)
Great content + more local content
+ increase audio and video offering (live and on demand)
+ open external links from app (even if not optimised for mobile)
+ read and write comments
+ UGC contributions
Quality of Service + work on portrait and landscape, for smartphones and tablets
+ media availability over 3G and WiFi
30

31. Questions?
(Yes. MoreABCappswillbesoon belaunchedforAndroid...iviewwillneedmoretime)
(By the way, this preso will be available on the ABC Innovation tumblr page: abc-innovation.tumblr.com)
Manuela Davidson
Mobile Executive Producer, ABC Innovation
e: davidson.manuela@abc.net.au
t: @manueladavo
31