Popular true crime podcast calling out greed

We love podcasts at GLIDE and can’t stand greed. That makes for a perfect pairing with Swindled, a leading true crime podcast that exposes powerful people and corporations that take advantage of those less privileged. Additionally, this website redesign and build warranted a less conventional, more disruptive experience than some projects allow. We took full advantage.

Some sites are direct and informative, while others are more experiential. For Swindled, we wanted to immerse visitors in a narrative experience that compliments the podcast itself. Tactile, staticy backgrounds. Scrolling text to reinforce key themes. Clickable audio samples from the archive. Anyone who spends 15 seconds on the new Swindled site should know what they’re in for with the podcast.

We wanted the language on the site to mirror the tone of its ‘Concerned Citizen’ narrator and host. Fans of the podcast that come to the site to show support or buy merch should appreciate sardonic headlines like “Buy something you don’t need.” Tone is everything when building a rapport with listeners, and the same applies to website visitors.

It’s not all fun and games and Pigmen when it comes to design. You have to find the right balance between creativity and achieving goals. In this case, we made it easier to browse old episodes by providing (only) two filter options (Season and Topic). Also, we created a custom landing page to increase signups to the ‘ValuedListener’ program. Loyal fans and brand new listeners should feel right at home on the new website.