SoundScout
Overview
SoundScout is a platform where users can explore music festival lineups across the US, and their artists’ music by listening to their music on this platform.
Project Details:
Product: Responsive Website
Client: Jose Roman(developer)
Tools: Figma, Figjam, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel
Responsibilities: Understanding User Needs | Wireframing |Prototyping | Collaboration with Development Team
Problem?
There is currently no platform available that allows users to explore all music artists performing at music festivals across the United States.
Solution!
SoundScout helps users to explore music artists that will be performing at music festivals. At SoundScout, our ultimate objective is to provide users with a seamless and delightful platform, enabling them to explore new music artists effortlessly and curate personalized playlists with utmost efficiency.
Research Methods
Competitive Analysis
User Interviews & Surveys
User Personas
Competitive Analysis
The initial phase of my research involved conducting a thorough market analysis to identify competitors and their unique strategies. My primary areas of focus encompassed a website dedicated to the music festival experience and a music streaming service.
The insights gathered provided a valuable foundation for shaping the design approach, including the seamless integration of the visual design of music festivals and the design process to listen to songs.
By engaging in a comprehensive interview phase, I delved deeper into participants' pain points, motivations, and behavioral patterns. To cultivate a richer understanding and extract valuable insights regarding user preferences and expectations, I deliberately selected individuals who go to music festivals.
The carefully crafted interview questions were strategically designed to unveil users' desires for a music festival platform.
Number of Participants: 8 people
Method: 1 on 1 virtual calls
Participants: Users who go to music festivals
Affinity Map
Our aim is to uncover patterns and traits among interview participants, gaining insights into the unique needs of our target audience. Customized questions enable a deeper understanding of features that could fulfill individual requirements.
Themes:
1. Music is a collaborative activity between friends
2. Users like to listen to music through playlists
3. Users like to sort music by genre
4. Suggested Feature: Recommend Music Festivals/Artists
Point of View Statement to
How Might We Question
# 1 Collaboration
I am interested in exploring ways to facilitate sharing and collaborative exploration of new music among friends on this platform.
How might we make sharing music easy between users?
How might we help users be able to share their music exploration on social media?
#2 Music Organization
I am interested in finding ways to provide personalized music recommendations to users who are exploring new music, taking into account their music festival preferences and listening history.
How might we create an effective search engine to sort and filter new music?
How might we create helpful UI design to show users the entirety of a music festival lineup?
#3 Recommendations
I am interested in exploring methods that offer users, who are discovering new music before a music festival, a seamless and personalized way to listen to both established and emerging artists in the festival lineup.
How might we access users’ music information to make recommendations?
How might we use genres to give users’ music recommendations?
User Personas
Music Enthusiast
Veronica is a music snob who likes to know new music artists before anyone else, and will do heavy research before a music festival to make sure of it.
Social Butterfly
Irene and her friends share a love of music. They like to go to music festivals together, so Irene likes to make playlists for her friends to listen to, so that they can enjoy their music festivals more.
Task Flows
Theses task flows serves as a visual representation to identify potential areas for improvements, if any.
Explore New Music From a Festival Lineup
Low Fidelity Wireframes - Desktop
Having amassed sufficient information, I embarked on crafting preliminary low-fidelity concepts. Presented below are several preliminary screens:
Home Page
For the home page, I wanted it to reflect a music news outlet. The homepage is also the search page, where users can either use the map or the search bar to find a music festival.
Music Festival Page
Users would go to a festival’s page which has an overview of the festival and then a list of music artists that will be at that festival for the upcoming year. On this page, users can then listen to artists’ music and filter/sort it to their desire.
Account Page
On a user’s account page, they are able to link their music platform (either Apple or Spotify) to be able to listen to the music full on this website. They are able to view their liked artists, personalized playlists, preferred music festivals, and preferred genres.
Low Fidelity Wireframes - Mobile
After brainstorming ideas for the desktop version of this responsive website, I broke down each area of the desktop screens into mobile screens so the amount of information wasn’t overwhelming. Presented below are several preliminary screens:
High Fidelity Wireframes
After several rounds of iterations I created a user interface that reflected the brand’s image, but kept the user experience of creating personalized playlists clear and easy to manage. Presented below are several of the screens:
I created a home page that promotes the music festivals across the US and the individual music artists.
I further developed the music festival page, and made it so users can add artists to playlists on another page. I also created a background that is unique to each music festival, as the colors change to the colors in the lineup poster.
Users are able to not only filter songs by genre, but they are also able to choose how many songs they listen to per artist. They are also able to search for specific songs and artists.
Each music artist has their own artist page, where users can listen to an artists’ top 10 songs, and have SoundScout recommend other similar music artists.
Research Goals
Evaluate how easy task flows are accomplished, such as
1. Navigating a festival's main page
2. Filtering/Sorting music artists
3. Creating a playlist
Evaluate how much time it takes for users to complete each task flow
Analyze any challenges users faced while completing each task flowReceive feedback on UI
Success Metrics
1. Users are able to navigate platform and complete tasks with little to no errors or confusion
2. Users are able to complete tasks in under 5 minutes
3. Users are satisfied with their experience
4. Users want to use this platform again
5. Users want to share this product with their friends
100% Success Metric
Recommended Iterations
Improvements
Design a seamless and efficient sign up process by asking for only crucial information. To further streamline, we should offer the option for users to sign up or log in instantly through their existing Apple or Spotify accounts.
Design an updated user profile page that dynamically tailors its content to match the user's music preferences on both desktop and mobile
Include option for UI adjustments for users who have linked their Apple Music accounts to the website, ensuring seamless integration with the Apple Music API with developer.
Additional Features
Collaborative Playlist
To enhance the playlist experience, it would best to implement a collaborative feature that allows users to share playlists with their friends who are attending the same festival.
Language Accessibility
Include options to be able to show text in other languages, such as Spanish or French, to allow for a larger user base.
Responsive Website
SoundScout
Collaborating closely with my client and the website developer, Jose Roman, we fashioned a music exploration platform. Our design ethos drew inspiration from the eclectic ambiance encapsulated by music festival posters and their unique branding. To amplify the user experience, we are seamlessly integrating APIs from renowned music platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, to elevate the music playback feature to an unprecedented level of sophistication. In doing so, we adeptly addressed a critical void in the music industry – the arduous task users faced in unearthing new and exciting music artists from the confines of a static festival lineup picture.
Want to learn more?
ASK ME IN AN INTERVIEW:)
