This project started as a way to give exposure to cool indie bands that don’t have a great following but good quality music online. Through the research process it morphed into a music player where you could create playlists and find new music from a database based on those playlists. I started the research process by identifying the goals I wanted to achieve and the problems I thought the project gonna face, and based on that I decided on the questions I was gonna ask in the interviews. There were plenty of assumptions I made about how people consume music based on personal experience but as I went through each interview I realized people listen to music for a wide variety of reasons. However we drew a main conclusion and it’s that playlists created to listen for long periods of time are made with a sense of representation.
Users want to find new music to listen to during long periods of time but have no time to actively look for it.
Create a tool for users to discover, share and listen to new music with little to no effort.
User research, wireframing, prototyping, mockup, testing.
People want something that feels real and down to earth, not industrialized
Sometimes it’s not about representation but just fun and enjoyment. The music and image must be fun to listen to (even if it’s a slow or sad song)
People want something that feels real and down to earth, not industrialized
The social interaction aspect is very important to users, so having no means of sharing or getting a feedback from musicians or other fans can put some people down.
Name: Andrea Duque
Age: 26
Occupation: Community manager
Andrea is an experienced community manager who needs to discover new music to listen to while working because her old playlist is getting repetitive and new music doesn't excite her as much.
Name: Mateo Echeverry
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Mateo is an interchange student who loves music and wants to meet new people with the same taste as him so he can share music and go to events together.
Our main goal is to simplify the connection between upcoming indie bands and the user by getting insights into the user’s musical taste and then recommending artists with related sounds. To achieve that, we need to identify the virtual scenarios in which the user interacts with their music and how can we get that information.
Before starting making the app we came up with a basic information architecture that explained the MVP (minimum viable product).
Through the use of paper wireframes I was able to quickly test the best layout for what I intended to make, and finally decided on the main user flow and functionality of the app.
I made sure to apply a combination of the best P&P wireframes that fitted the app’s goals and prioritized the creation of new exciting playlists.
The most important thing in the user flow was a swift and intuitive way to create your own playlists.
The low-fidelity prototype showed the main tasks a user would take while interacting with the app: like building a new playlist, editing a current one or listening to music.
Prototype.
I conducted two rounds of usability studies. Findings from the first study helped guide the designs from wireframes to mockups. The second study used a high-fidelity prototype and revealed what aspects of the mockups needed refining.
1. Users need better cues to navigate the app.
2. Clarify the recommended section.
3. Insert action button to add new songs.
1. There is a navigation problem when trying to go back from the playlists.
2. Add a feature to listen to the songs in the edit section.
3. It’s unclear which objects you can interact with.
Early designs had a very monochrome color palette that allowed high contrast but gave out a different message than the one I expected (mystery instead of discovery)
Early mockups had some flow and usability problems that got resolved after the usability study
We developed a simple Style guide which can expand itself as new features and options are created for the app.
The final High-fidelity prototype is much more clearer to the user and communicates better what the main flow is supposed to be.
The app works as a MVP that can grow into a full fledged music library that focuses on features that facilitate discovering new music.
I realized how important testing is at every step of the process. With each new iteration it became clearer to me where to go next to make the app more usable.
