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Radio Times App: TV Listings Experience

Optimising the TV listings experience in the Radio Times app through time filtering, grid view and channel personalisation

Project details

Team

Kanza Leghari

Snr Product Designer

Jared P.

Snr Software Engineers

Software Engineers

Micheal W.

Product Manager

Platforms & Softwares

UserTesting

User research

Figma & Claude

Design & Prototyping

Firebase

A/B testing (App)

Summary

The RadioTimes app launched without a TV listings feature and the later MVP, which showed only what was live and on tonight, lacked key functionality such as filtering by time, resulting in a high volume of negative App Store reviews.

I led the design of an improved listings experience that addressed these gaps by introducing time filtering within list view, a new grid view optimised for browsing schedules, and the ability for users to favourite channels and filter by provider.

The work was informed by competitor analysis, App Store review insights, and targeted interviews with Radio Times audiences. The feature is currently in development and is expected to reduce negative reviews while improving the app’s value for traditional Radio Times users who rely on TV listings.

The RadioTimes app launched without a TV listings feature and the later MVP, which showed only what was live and on tonight, lacked key functionality such as filtering by time, resulting in a high volume of negative App Store reviews.

I led the design of an improved listings experience that addressed these gaps by introducing time filtering within list view, a new grid view optimised for browsing schedules, and the ability for users to favourite channels and filter by provider.

The work was informed by competitor analysis, App Store review insights, and targeted interviews with Radio Times audiences. The feature is currently in development and is expected to reduce negative reviews while improving the app’s value for traditional Radio Times users who rely on TV listings.

↑ Uplift in App store ratings

↑ Uplift in daily active users on RT app

Continue reading for the detailed version.

Research &
Discovery

Sprint 1

Competitor review

As an initial step, I reviewed several major UK TV listings platforms across both mobile apps and web to understand the baseline functionality users expect from a listings experience. This included analysing how established listings brands structure browsing, filtering, and schedule navigation. Across competitors, several patterns emerged.

  • Most platforms supported both list and grid views for browsing schedules

  • Allowed users to filter listings by specific times

  • Enabled users to favourite channels or personalise their listings.

These patterns helped establish a clear benchmark for the minimum functionality users expected from a TV listings experience and informed the feature set explored for the Radio Times app.

User Interviews

To validate the problems identified through App Store reviews and competitor analysis, I conducted a small set of user interviews with people who regularly use Radio Times content. Participants were asked to complete common browsing tasks using the existing listings view in the app, and similar tasks using the grid view listings on the Radio Times website.

The interviews reinforced three key needs: the ability to filter listings by time, the option to favourite channels, and a strong preference for grid-based schedules, which users found more intuitive for browsing TV listings.

Design & Testing

Sprint 2

Filtering by time in list-view

The most consistent piece of feedback from both App Store reviews and user interviews was the need to filter listings by time. The existing experience only allowed users to browse by day, which made it difficult to quickly find what was on at a specific time.

I explored several design approaches for introducing time filtering, including combining date and time selection within a single control and separating them into distinct interactions. After testing these approaches through usability testing, the strongest performing solution was keeping date and time selection separate, allowing users to first choose a day and then refine listings by a specific time.

This approach proved clearer and easier for users to understand, and was selected as the final design.

Listing in grid view

I also introduced a grid-based listings view in the app, a format widely used across TV guides and strongly preferred by users for scanning schedules across multiple channels. The design adapts the existing Radio Times web grid, optimised for mobile by simplifying the layout and reducing cell heights so more channels are visible within the viewport.

Users can switch between list and grid view via a toggle, with day filtering kept consistent across both formats.

Channel preferences

To make listings easier to navigate, I introduced the ability for users to select preferred channels and providers. Users can choose these through a filter panel, allowing listings to prioritise the channels they care about most. These preferences are saved, so the app remembers a user’s selected channels across future sessions.

Dev Handover

Sprint 2

I shared progress with the development team throughout the 2 sprints to ensure feasibility and alignment ahead of implementation. Once designs were finalised, I provided detailed component specifications and annotated flows so the team could clearly understand interactions and edge cases. This allowed development to begin with minimal ambiguity while keeping communication open for questions.

Outcomes &
Learnings

The design work for this project was completed within two sprints, requiring a quick turnaround from research and exploration through to final designs and developer handover. It reinforced the importance of addressing core user expectations before introducing more ambitious product innovation.

It also highlighted the need to design with empathy for audiences whose behaviours may differ from my own. While linear TV viewing may feel less central to younger audiences, it remains an important habit for many Radio Times users, and supporting those needs was key to improving the product experience.

The design work for this project was completed within two sprints, requiring a quick turnaround from research and exploration through to final designs and developer handover. It reinforced the importance of addressing core user expectations before introducing more ambitious product innovation.

It also highlighted the need to design with empathy for audiences whose behaviours may differ from my own. While linear TV viewing may feel less central to younger audiences, it remains an important habit for many Radio Times users, and supporting those needs was key to improving the product experience.

↑ Uplift in App store ratings

32%↑ Daily active users on RT app