Real music fans love discovering new songs, learning about their favorite artists, and attending concerts.
WHAT:
My solution is an application created for android that utilizes a recommendation engine to offer relevant music, concerts and venues to the listener and compliments these recommendations with a pin board, giving users a place to quickly store information in a personalized format.
WHEN:
This project was completed during the fall quarter of my junior year at the University of Washington (September – December 2014).
WHY (THE GOAL):
After performing a thorough competitive analysis I found that very few services offer a convenient way for listeners to discover concerts and venues that they would enjoy attending and even fewer provide a quick way for users to record these new discoveries.
WHO:
For this project I worked alone as part of my information architecture class, placing an emphasis on system level thinking and creating a full application in extreme detail.
RESEARCH AND EARLY IDEATION:
To begin the project I performed primary and secondary research. This included studying the many music services that are offered today and highlighting their advantages and pain points. I also interviewed music listeners from different demographics to discover trends of what makes a good experience and where an interesting opportunity space can be found. This research was then brought to a charrette and pieced into sticky notes for affinity diagramming, a process that helps highlight trends and develop guiding insights from research.
IDENTIFYING THE PROBLEM SPACE AND AUDIENCE:
The charrette process surfaced insights that guided my design. It became apparent that few services today offer a convenient way for listeners to discover concerts and venues that they would enjoy attending. Another big problem was that most services offered do not have a quick way for users to record new discoveries or their favorite content. From this charrete I derived that the audience who would want these problems solved would be passionate, excited, and social music listeners. For the service's users, music is more than a way to fight boredom; it is a lifestyle. The users would show this by actively attending concerts, looking to discover new music, and sharing their favorite songs with friends.
For the service's users, music is more than a way to fight boredom; it is a lifestyle. The users would show this by actively attending concerts, looking to discover new music, and sharing their favorite songs with friends.
CREATING A STORY:
With a clear problem space and audience, the next step was to develop key scenarios that would make my services experience unique. This was done through storyboarding; creating the key moments of my music service.
Rediscovering content
Discovering and pinning a new venue
DEVELOPING SYSTEM MODELS:
The next step was to start defining my application through system models including a conceptual model, navigation model, and interaction model. This helped to map out all of the systems attributes and functionality to make the wire framing process easier and faster.
DEVELOPING THE INTERFACE:
Creating wireframes and annotating key screens followed system models as I pushed towards finalizing the functionality of the interface's core components. For a complete overview of key screens, view my complete design document linked below.
FINALIZING THE KEY FLOWS:
After developing all key screens, the next step was to create finalized task flows. Task flows highlight the typical way that a user would navigate the application, giving an overview of how the system feels. To see all task flows please view the document linked at the bottom of this project.
PROTOTYPING:
The final piece of this project (and my favorite) was creating a prototype. I created the prototype using Axure RP, a program which generates a live url, allowing for testing on a mobile phone, or a desktop. The prototype is optimized for a Nexus 5 device (1080 x 1920 px screen size). This brought the application to life and allowed me to test and iterate on my ideas better than any other part of the process. The prototype can be accessed below.
CREATING HERO SCREENS
As our class ended we remained only in high fidelity wire frame states. I have recently began to add a visual style to the application, taking it away from a wire frame state and moving towards a more finished product. Check back later for updates on the final design!
