rova
2024

UX Foundations for New Zealand’s Entertainment Hub

The Rova app is MediaWorks' newly reimagined digital platform, centralising live radio, podcasts, videos, and articles from 14 of New Zealand's most loved radio brands. Involved early in the design phase, we had one week to synthesise a broad brief into focused UX to validate core user journeys against client-led focus group sessions.

Contribution

UX/UI Designer

Deliverables

Lo-fidelity UI Componentary

Wireframes for User Testing

Focus Group Testing Script

Design Team

Lily Wigglesworth

Vonnie Joe

Nel Johnson

The Why

MediaWorks previously hosted its 10 radio brands on individual sites. With over 2.44 million weekly radio listeners and 1.1 million monthly digital users, we saw an opportunity to unify its entertainment offering into one experience. The goal was to move users from passive listeners to active participants, providing a platform that reflects New Zealanders’ shifting media consumption needs—flexibility, personalisation, and multi-format content on demand.

The How

Our job was to translate key hypotheses into clickable, testable lo-fi wireframe flows. Artefacts were designed with priority to:

  • Cross-platform coverage: desktop and mobile

  • Mobility-first logic to support real-life use cases (commuting, workouts, etc.)

  • Universal UI design to simplify navigation and content discovery

  • A consistent design system supporting brand individuality across MediaWorks stations

  • Familiar interaction patterns using TV app-style content rails and social-style content feeds

  • Heroing the “live on air” experience as the platform’s central feature

Research Methods

  • Client discovery workshops

  • Hypothesis mapping and goal alignment

  • Prototype scripting and embedded annotations

  • Interactive lo-fi wireframes for guided testing sessions

  • User testing conducted by MediaWorks, with design refinements based on feedback

Key motivators

Key motivators for the Rova audience included:

  • Familiarity: Navigation patterns borrowed from Netflix, Spotify, and TikTok made the app feel intuitive

  • Control: Users wanted the ability to follow, save, and revisit content effortlessly

  • Convenience: A unified platform made content quicker to find

  • Live-first: Quick access to live radio was a top priority

  • Community: Some users were interested in connecting with hosts or fellow listeners

  • On-demand: Users expected smart recommendations, playback memory, and cross-format browsing

  • Mobility: Features needed to support on-the-go listening—from commuting to working out

Key learnings from focus group testing sessions:

  • A strong preference for a streamlined navigation—merging Home + Feed tabs to combine personalised and general content

  • Search results focused on user-driven discovery, showing all content types without overlays of suggested or trending media

  • Users rejected an integrated chat with announcers; they preferred direct call or text options linking to their native phone app

  • The “Stories” format was not well received—findings leaned toward a Reels/Shorts-style video preview model

The Results

These insights led to:

  • Consolidated architecture and navigation model

  • Enhanced prioritisation of high-value features

  • A solid UX foundation for personalised, on-demand, and live-first experiences

By integrating live content, personalised recommendations, and a variety of on-demand media, this early UX work laid the foundation for the entire Rova experience. The result was a user-first structure that made content easy to discover, leaned on familiar interaction patterns, and positioned Rova as an entertainment hub built for Kiwis, by Kiwis.

Next

Samson 2023