The Incomparable

A fresh look for a fan-favorite podcast network

About this project

The Incomparable has long been one of my favorite podcasts, so when a friend mentioned that Jason Snell was looking to redesign the membership part of the site, I immediately got in touch. After working with Jason on the membership pages, he decided to update the rest of the site to match the new look.

There are a number of interesting problems to solve when designing a site for a single podcast. Designing a site for a podcast network, with lots of podcasts, hosts, topics, and even sub-podcasts — especially a network with the sheer longevity and breadth of content as The Incomparable — proved to be a fun and challenging project.

My role on the project

I designed templates for each of the major sections and pages of the site by starting in the browser. Jason worked with long-time collaborator Antony Johnston on a rebrand with new type and logo treatments, which I incorporated into the new design. Jason then took the pages I created and used them as the starting point for templates within the site’s CMS.

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Skills used

User experience design
Front end development
Responsive web design
Visual design

The Incomparable Homepage

The homepage fills several roles, showcasing new episodes and blog posts, enticing visitors to become members, and also listing ALL of the network's active shows.

Wherever You Listen

When I made a list of design podcasts back in 2017, it amazed me how many podcast sites were lacking basic, but important details. Many lacked show notes. Some gave only sparse info on hosts, episode summaries were missing, or a brief description of the show itself might be lacking. Oddest of all were the podcasts with sites that had no links to subscribe easily.

There were so many obvious issues (particularly for design-related podcasts) that I started writing a post specifically on the basic requirements of a good podcast site. That post is still in the Drafts folder for now, but all that thinking paid off when I found myself with this opportunity.

Because the majority of podcast listening starts on mobile devices, I knew the site absolutely had to be responsive. With that in mind, I started by designing in the browser. And with mobile as a primary consideration, I also opted to design both dark and light modes for the site to take advantage of modern media queries. The result was a site that works no matter what device the listener uses and what environment they prefer.

One Network, Many Shows