Loop music UX/UI Project
A 4 week classroom project focused on using user centric design methods to discover, analyze and design for the discovered opportunity areas
My role
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UX Research
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Wireframe & Prototyping
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UI Design
Results
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Discovered gap areas present during the time of consuming/discovering music
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Developed Low/Hi fidelity wireframes
Overview
With the growth of digital music streaming services, consumers now have a huge variety of options to
choose from.
It has become clear that streaming services (or probably anything related to content consumption for that matter)
has become the primary source of how we access music.
As an avid music listener, curator and having interest in UX, I wanted to dive a little deeper and explore
how consumers of these services from the age of 18-25 discover, consume & maintain their music.
Phase 1
Research
Research is an integral part of the user centered design process. Not only does it help in identifying patterns and trends across users but also guides in discovering pain points and gap areas which are turned a blind eye to.
Surveys
The first step in understanding how users discover & experience music was, well asking them about it. Conducting an online survey with a group of 25 users helped me figure out unique observations which I could later use in the
ideation phase.
Insights
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Mood plays a dominant role in influencing the consumption of music at any certain point in time.
(Metal for gyming? Count me in!)
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While a lot said that they like using their own playlists, they tend to gravitate towards recommendations made by these services to discover new music too.
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Users who are passionate about curating music often correlate album artworks to the brand value of the artist. If done right, it establishes a connection with the consumer which helps the artist to get more listeners and fans onboard.
A few screenshots from the survey results
Contextual Models
One thing where surveys fall short are in giving us the chance of observing user and passively understand their ideas and problems. Contextual Inquiry (let's call it chai pai charcha, shall we?) gave me the perfect opportunity to do one-on-one casual music listening session to passively understand how they use these services.
Casual conversations gave me more organic insights against interviews. The conversation passively covered
topics like:
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How does the user use these services (Efficiency?)
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How do they discovers music (Effectiveness)
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Keep themselves updated with their favorite artists (Couldn't find anything for here...)
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How mood affects their choice of music at any given time ( It's raining outside! Anyone for some Lo-Fi beats?)
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Exchange music among their friends (Share your audio wisdom, here's some from me)
Contextual models made after the casual conversation
Insights
Social media is influential
Users heavily rely on social media sites to keep themselves updated with new artist/tracks
Sharing is caring
Tracks/artists shared by friends carry equal importance to the user if they have the same taste.
Curators switch more
Users who use multiple platforms tend to switch apps a lot more to keep playing music of their interest to find relevant tracks
Collaboration is fun
Collaborative playlists is assumed as a fun thing among curators as it gives them an opportunity to constantly share music and probably create hot mixtapes too?
Get-set-go
Users enjoy interfaces which do the heavy lifting
for them. It should add into the experience rather than complicating it
Personas
Making personas is like filling in a 16personalities.com form, but only for someone else. Persona's are quick way of visualizing groups of people with similar goals, needs & pain points & behaviours.
Persona 1
Sunny, 21
University Student
Being a creative individual, he spends most of his time listening to music while working. His friend circle also consists of people who
enjoy discovering music, hences he always has something new to listen to. He has an extensive library of his own across all possible
platforms available as one can't do it all
Goals
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Be updated with new music and keep his friends in the loop too.
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Wants to spend less time on social media
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Finding for something new everyday
Frustrations
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Hates it when he cant find out a track which is on the tip of his tongue.
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Finds himself switching apps a lot to keep his music flowing
Persona 2
Alexa,25
Product Manager
Alexa commutes everyday to work using public transport and
listen to music when commuting. She considers herself as the
lean backed one when it comes to listening to music. She listens to premade playlists as she's busy to make her own playlists. She occasionally enjoys sharing music on social media.
Goals
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Doesn't want to do the heavy lifting here.
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Doesn't prefer searching alot.
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Play and go along is the motto here
Frustrations
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Finds herself confused about what she wants to listen to when presented too many options
Phase 2
Ideation
With all this research done, I had a clear idea where my design was going to focused. The research let alone set the style for the UI.
Be bold
Emphasize artist's visual language. Help user connect to a brand
Keep them aware
Keep users informed about social posts about their favourite artists
Make it seamless
Connect apps together to give a seamless listening experience across all platforms
Let them play
Allow users to collaborate in realtime to make seamless playlists
Phase 3
Wireframing
I started out by creating paper wireframes to explore layouting options. I wanted to emphasize on the visuals while keeping the layout simple to follow through
Paper wireframes
Low fidelity Wireframes
Phase 4
UI design
