OVERVIEW
Jan. 2022 - March. 2022
6-week UX Project
The Problem
The prompt we received is to design a live show app. While conducting interviews with our potential users (early professionals who are frequent live show audiences), many expressed passion for in-person live shows over streaming, especially after the pandemic. Still, they found it challenging to discover new artists on low budgets and receive the ideal experiences. Typically, they prioritize the artists as the most important aspect of going to live shows.
In response to the user needs, we discovered a more specific design problem for our targeted group of young professionals who are enthusiastic about music and live shows:
My Role
My teammates come from different backgrounds, so we aim to fully communicate and collaborate through the phases to gain as many insights from various perspectives as possible. I was a moderator to the overall design process, scheduling meetings, prompting tasks, etc., and contributed to product scoping, user flows, wireframes, prototyping, and usability testing at the same time. Additionally, I conducted synthesizing research findings to produce viable ideas.
The Solution
In the end, we designed the Munit app that is community-focused, building the bridge between two groups that enhances event sharing and communication. The app helps live show lovers discover new shows within budgets and preferences, and helps rising artists create any-size live show and communicate well with a community of potential fans.
Explore
Explore page serves as the home page that allows users to look for information based on their preferences immediately.
Onboard & Profile
We not only put the sign-in screen as a later step but also minimized the process by linking to users’ music apps, which also benefits personalization.
Promote
The Create screen provides step-by-step instructions for posting the concert, as well as a guide to create concerts for new artists.
Connect
The community page is the place where music lovers and artists chat, share event news, find friends with same taste, and connect to listeners.
EMPATHIZE
Let’s roll back to the beginning when we were given the broad topic of creating a music live-show app. We were aware that we needed to define the design problems and pain points of our targeted audience with their current solutions and seek opportunities to implement our solution. Thus, we started with a competitive analysis that helps us to understand the market first, followed by affinity maps and, most importantly, user interviews. These methodologies guided us in forming the final design problems and design goals.
Competitive Analysis
We did product evaluation and SWOT analysis on 3 direct competitors. Looking at the popular players within the market we discovered a similar feature offering across the apps that is centred around concert searching and ticket purchasing. We wanted to find an opportunity to position ourselves differently through approach. The incumbents also feature the live streaming event listing and recommendations. We hypothesised that this might be the popular feature left from the pandemic.
[ View Detailed Competitive Analysis in PDF ]
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︎ Covers wide range of concert info, including live streamings. Live streaming is less prioritized visually on both website and mobile.
︎ Mobile app requires sign-in during the onboarding phase, the users are unable to explore the options before registration.
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︎ Also features live streaming, which further allows users to watch past concert clips.
︎ Mobile can only be used after allowing the app integrate with apple music.
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︎ A new business model that is subscription-based, offering more live shows at a lower cost for frequent live show audience.
︎ Not much information is given out before registration.
︎︎︎ Popularity of virtual concerts and live streaming increased in the market. Live streaming feature was added and made as dominant as finding live shows in terms of visual hierarchy.
︎︎︎ There are new business models that started to trend, for example, Jukely’s subscription-based model is popular among young audience because of its cost efficiency.
︎︎︎ These platforms usually conduct different user experiences on websites and mobile apps:
Mobile: users are required to start with signing up and choose to build their profile by connecting to Apple Music and Spotify
Website: users could casually browse on the websites with less commitment
[ View Detailed Competitive Analysis in PDF ]
Observations
︎ Covers wide range of concert info, including live streamings. Live streaming is less prioritized visually on both website and mobile.
︎ Mobile app requires sign-in during the onboarding phase, the users are unable to explore the options before registration.
︎ Also features live streaming, which further allows users to watch past concert clips.
︎ Mobile can only be used after allowing the app integrate with apple music.
︎ A new business model that is subscription-based, offering more live shows at a lower cost for frequent live show audience.
︎ Not much information is given out before registration.
Opportunities
︎︎︎ Popularity of virtual concerts and live streaming increased in the market. Live streaming feature was added and made as dominant as finding live shows in terms of visual hierarchy.
︎︎︎ There are new business models that started to trend, for example, Jukely’s subscription-based model is popular among young audience because of its cost efficiency.
︎︎︎ These platforms usually conduct different user experiences on websites and mobile apps:
Mobile: users are required to start with signing up and choose to build their profile by connecting to Apple Music and Spotify
Website: users could casually browse on the websites with less commitment
Affinity Mapping
Gathering our initial findings from the competitive analysis, our team did a quick round of affinity mapping to share our insights and collect themes of our research. We managed to organize the thoughts into 6 themes:
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User Interview
Our in-depth user interviews invited 5 young music lovers. The questions are around finding out their goals, frustrations, motivations, behaviors, and influences from their past experiences of live concerts.
[ View Detailed User Interview Synthesis in PDF ]
Data Analysis
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Opportunities
︎︎︎ Shift the lean on online streaming to in-person shows recommendation.
︎︎︎ Build a music lover’s community where rising musicians and listeners could be connected, so that they can share event information, and find people with same fever, as well as share feedback and stories behind the scenes.
[ View Detailed User Interview Synthesis in PDF ]
Data Analysis
Opportunities
︎︎︎ Shift the lean on online streaming to in-person shows recommendation.
︎︎︎ Build a music lover’s community where rising musicians and listeners could be connected, so that they can share event information, and find people with same fever, as well as share feedback and stories behind the scenes.
DEFINE
Consolidating the key findings and opportunities we found from the research stage, we defined our design probelms and goals. We also translated the user goals into user stories that guided us to brainstorm the functionalities of our probuct.
Design Problem
How might we better connect and support non-mainstream music live show lovers to the rising independent artists?
Design Goals
- Make live music shows more accessible for audiences who want to discover new local artists and events within budget.
- Support rising artists and encourage live show posting.
- Allow users to share interests and transform into in-person relationships through attending local events.
- Make the product easy to navigate and manage events.
User Stories
As a designer who just moved to NYC for a new career,
I want to find people who have shared interests in non-mainstream music and artists to expand my social circles.
As a local bar owner,
I want to constantly discover new musical talent around me so I can update my playlist and invite them to host live shows.
As a part-time band vocal,
I want to earn more exposure and find a music community to share the gig information and communicate with my listeners.
IDEATE
With a shorter time scope, we decided to move forward with one solution for each design goal. We brainstormed and selected the key features and integrated into the information architecture:
Design Goals Design Solutions
Make live music shows more accessible ︎︎︎ Mobile App & Discover screen with flexible filters
Add exposure of live show posting ︎︎︎ Create screen: guides and supports gig posting + sharing
Encourage conversation of shared interests ︎︎︎ Community screen: creates room of sharing + connection
Make user goals easy to navigate and manage ︎︎︎ Clear navigation bar & easy profile building + managing
Design Goals Design Solutions
Make live music shows more accessible ︎︎︎ Mobile App & Discover screen with flexible filters
Add exposure of live show posting ︎︎︎ Create screen: guides and supports gig posting + sharing
Encourage conversation of shared interests ︎︎︎ Community screen: creates room of sharing + connection
Make user goals easy to navigate and manage ︎︎︎ Clear navigation bar & easy profile building + managing
Information Architecture
6-8-5 Sketches
PROTOTYPE
& TEST
We collected internal feedback, and expand our quick sketches into paper prototypes of more completed user flows.
[ View Clickable Paper Prototypes ]
[ View Clickable Paper Prototypes ]
Usability Test
We did the first round of user testing with 10 participants at the early stage of design, conducting 5 user tasks. The goal is to determine design inconsistencies and usability problem areas within the user interface and content areas.
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Despite the data systhesis, we also collected user behaviors and comments. Our next iteration is built upon assessing user feedback.
Metrics & Data Analysis
Despite the data systhesis, we also collected user behaviors and comments. Our next iteration is built upon assessing user feedback.
NEXT STEPS
︎ Keep testing.
If given more time on this project, we would conduct the second round of usability testing, compare and analyze the results, and improve the subsequent iterations before it goes to visual design and high-fidelity prototypes.
︎Test the business risks sooner.
I would test the risks and business value propositions if we had more time before jumping into the thorough design stage. I wish we could design experiments that can test user behaviors within context so that we could get a sense of this idea could live in the market. Additionally, it’s more effective to design around user behaviors than interpretations.
PROJECT REFLECTION
︎Don’t jump into assumptions; listen to the users.
One of the biggest learnings is to listen to the users, think for the users, speak for the users and do for the users. For example, our team found opportunities in the live-streaming market in the early research stage. However, we were surprised that all interviewees told us their preferences for in-person live shows and their memorable experiences that happened live. Listening to their extensive experience, we were able to find new opportunities and uncover pain points.
︎Never too early to test.
After the paper prototype, we hesitated to test on our users because of the visual design concerns. Surprisingly, the rough hand-written scripts had only minimum effects during the process. On the contrary, the testers could neglect the appearance and focus on providing feedback on product logic and usability. For example, at the CREATE user flow, instead of asking why the shapes of buttons are different, they spotted the missing features in the scenario, like Time/Dates options and Price ranges. We found many deficient features and interactions before devoting effort and time to making it tidy and pretty.
