Music Room
Networking App for Musicians
Music Room
Networking App for Musicians
Music Room
Networking app for college musicians
Music Room
Networking app for musicians
Overview
Working
Prototype
Created in Adobe XD, over the course of
2 weeks.
Working
Prototype
Created in Adobe XD, over the course of
2 weeks.
In Progress
Detailed case study coming soon
|Project Summary
MusicRoom is an informal networking app for college musicians which allows them to connect with other musicians on campus and prosper creatively through collaboration.
This is a story of how we came up with the concept behind MusicRoom and designed an interactive prototype with the hope of helping college musicians to find collaborators.
Team Myself (UX/UI)
Alexis H. (UX)
Niah R. (UX)
Tools Adobe XD
Figma
Illustrator
Premiere Pro
Challenges Accessibility
2-week deadline
Creating a one-minute advertisement deliverable
Impact Won the "Delightful Design Award" out of 70+ projects
Chosen as exemplary work for future groups
Problem Statement:
Loneliness is a self-observed state, which can hurt one's emotional, as well as physical well-being. Loneliness is most prevalent among women over-50 and is expected to increase by 49 % in that age group by 2025.
Fentra combats the problem of loneliness among older women by providing them with a safe environment to form meaningful connections with each other through practicing mobile photography as a hobby.
The complete research can be found here
Problem Statement:
Loneliness is a self-observed state, which can hurt one's emotional, as well as physical well-being. Loneliness is most prevalent among women over-50 and is expected to increase by 49 % in that age group by 2025.
Fentra combats the problem of loneliness among older women by providing them with a safe environment to form meaningful connections with each other through practicing mobile photography as a hobby.
The complete research can be found here
|Background
|The Problem
It is significantly harder to establish connections with other musicians for those who are not part of a music school, alienating college music enthusiasts who chose to pursue careers in different fields. In addition, most current music-sharing social media platforms suffer from the oversaturation of posts that restrict exposure to potential collaborators. This leads to the question -
How can we help college musicians connect with each other?
|Our Goals
Our high-level goal was to create a prototype that allows college musicians to find other musicians on campus and filter them by skills and location.
Specifically, we aimed to draw inspiration from platforms like LinkedIn, Spotify, and TikTok, to create an intuitive interface that utilizes the users' familiarity with existing social media platforms.
The project's scope was to conduct user research, design low and high-fidelity prototypes, conduct user testing, and pitch the prototype to assemble a team with the possibility of developing the app over the summer.
|My Role
I took part in constructing the interview questions, implemented feedback from usability testing, created most of the wireframes and high-fidelity visuals, and edited the pitch video.
Chapter 1
Empathize
|Interview
To understand our users and their needs, we interviewed a 20-year-old hobbyist singer from the University of Washington. The interview was semi-structured and was conducted via zoom.
Our main findings were:
Problem Statement:
Loneliness is a self-observed state, which can hurt one's emotional, as well as physical well-being. Loneliness is most prevalent among women over-50 and is expected to increase by 49 % in that age group by 2025.
Fentra combats the problem of loneliness among older women by providing them with a safe environment to form meaningful connections with each other through practicing mobile photography as a hobby.
The complete research can be found here
Problem Statement:
Loneliness is a self-observed state, which can hurt one's emotional, as well as physical well-being. Loneliness is most prevalent among women over-50 and is expected to increase by 49 % in that age group by 2025.
Fentra combats the problem of loneliness among older women by providing them with a safe environment to form meaningful connections with each other through practicing mobile photography as a hobby.
The complete research can be found here
|Competitive Analysis
We decided to perform a competitive analysis of 4 different apps; Spotify and SoundCloud, some of the most popular streaming apps, Instagram, which is often used for informal networking, and Vampr. This is our biggest competitor, a music-networking app for musicians, modeled after Tinder. We looked at the apps' strengths and weaknesses.
Problem Statement:
Loneliness is a self-observed state, which can hurt one's emotional, as well as physical well-being. Loneliness is most prevalent among women over-50 and is expected to increase by 49 % in that age group by 2025.
Fentra combats the problem of loneliness among older women by providing them with a safe environment to form meaningful connections with each other through practicing mobile photography as a hobby.
The complete research can be found here
Problem Statement:
Loneliness is a self-observed state, which can hurt one's emotional, as well as physical well-being. Loneliness is most prevalent among women over-50 and is expected to increase by 49 % in that age group by 2025.
Fentra combats the problem of loneliness among older women by providing them with a safe environment to form meaningful connections with each other through practicing mobile photography as a hobby.
The complete research can be found here
|Why Informal Network
When asked about networking platforms like LinkedIn as an option to find collaborators, they reacted negatively and claimed that "It [LinkedIn] puts a lot of pressure on students to appear professional," creating a stressful environment of competitiveness and social comparison. Thus, since we are creating a creative space, our solution should be informal, and encourage students to be themselves.
|Opportunity Areas
After completing the research and using the 4 apps we chose to analyze, we concluded that some opportunity areas for our app could be:
Problem Statement:
Loneliness is a self-observed state, which can hurt one's emotional, as well as physical well-being. Loneliness is most prevalent among women over-50 and is expected to increase by 49 % in that age group by 2025.
Fentra combats the problem of loneliness among older women by providing them with a safe environment to form meaningful connections with each other through practicing mobile photography as a hobby.
The complete research can be found here
Problem Statement:
Loneliness is a self-observed state, which can hurt one's emotional, as well as physical well-being. Loneliness is most prevalent among women over-50 and is expected to increase by 49 % in that age group by 2025.
Fentra combats the problem of loneliness among older women by providing them with a safe environment to form meaningful connections with each other through practicing mobile photography as a hobby.
The complete research can be found here
Chapter 2
Define
|Persona Development
Based on our research, we developed a user persona that demonstrates our target users, their goals, and pain points.
Chapter 3
Ideate
|Product Structure
Based on the opportunity areas we identified, we created MusicRoom's product structure. Users can post content such as videos, audio and images. They can also view recommended posts/musicians to collaborate with, as well as the posts people they follow have posted. Users can filter musicians by skills, schools, and genre, as well as select their personal skills. Finally, users can contact each other through chat, and edit their profile.
|Early Wireframes
Problem Statement:
Loneliness is a self-observed state, which can hurt one's emotional, as well as physical well-being. Loneliness is most prevalent among women over-50 and is expected to increase by 49 % in that age group by 2025.
Fentra combats the problem of loneliness among older women by providing them with a safe environment to form meaningful connections with each other through practicing mobile photography as a hobby.
The complete research can be found here
Problem Statement:
Loneliness is a self-observed state, which can hurt one's emotional, as well as physical well-being. Loneliness is most prevalent among women over-50 and is expected to increase by 49 % in that age group by 2025.
Fentra combats the problem of loneliness among older women by providing them with a safe environment to form meaningful connections with each other through practicing mobile photography as a hobby.
The complete research can be found here
Chapter 4 & 5
Prototype + Test
Problem Statement:
Loneliness is a self-observed state, which can hurt one's emotional, as well as physical well-being. Loneliness is most prevalent among women over-50 and is expected to increase by 49 % in that age group by 2025.
Fentra combats the problem of loneliness among older women by providing them with a safe environment to form meaningful connections with each other through practicing mobile photography as a hobby.
The complete research can be found here
Problem Statement:
Loneliness is a self-observed state, which can hurt one's emotional, as well as physical well-being. Loneliness is most prevalent among women over-50 and is expected to increase by 49 % in that age group by 2025.
Fentra combats the problem of loneliness among older women by providing them with a safe environment to form meaningful connections with each other through practicing mobile photography as a hobby.
The complete research can be found here
|Mid-Fidelity Mockup
We designed a mid-fidelity mockup using Adobe XD, which we used for user testing. Click here to view an interactive version.
|Usability Test
We gathered feedback from 3 participants:
-
A college student who plays in their university’s ensemble
-
A college student who produces music videos and songwriting
-
A college student who is a hobbyist singer
We wanted to determine the users' ability to perform a set of tasks using the prototype. After each task, we asked them about their experience, and whether they were bothered by anything.
|Opportunity Areas
Things we can add/improve for the next iteration:
Problem Statement:
Loneliness is a self-observed state, which can hurt one's emotional, as well as physical well-being. Loneliness is most prevalent among women over-50 and is expected to increase by 49 % in that age group by 2025.
Fentra combats the problem of loneliness among older women by providing them with a safe environment to form meaningful connections with each other through practicing mobile photography as a hobby.
The complete research can be found here
Problem Statement:
Loneliness is a self-observed state, which can hurt one's emotional, as well as physical well-being. Loneliness is most prevalent among women over-50 and is expected to increase by 49 % in that age group by 2025.
Fentra combats the problem of loneliness among older women by providing them with a safe environment to form meaningful connections with each other through practicing mobile photography as a hobby.
The complete research can be found here
Design Solutions
_gif.gif)
|Task 1: Join a meetup
|Task 2: Create a meetup
|Task 3: Access mobile photography tips
|Task 4: Upload meetup photos to the shared-gallery
Conclusion
|1-Minute Product Explanation Video
The product explanation was meant to visually communicate the prototype in one minute or less. I edited it in PowerDirector as well as Adobe Premiere Pro, using stock footage from pexels.com.
To address some of the users' safety concerns, we decided to require all meetup locations to only include pre-approved public places (the location status could be determined by google maps). Also, meetup times will be limited to no later than 10:00 PM.
|Concerns and Potential Solutions
Due to the 2-week deadline, we had to make a lot of compromises and give up on features that would improve the users' experience. Below are some of Fentra's existing flaws, with potential solutions.
-
Concern #1: How can Fentra guarantee the safety of its users and protect them from fake meetups?
-
Potential Solution: A panic button should be integrated into Fentra's system, as well as a "report" option.
-
Concern #2: What about people who don't like mobile photography?
-
Potential Solution: Expanding Fentra's services to include other activities such as cooking and even exercising together.
-
Concern #3: How do I know that people are not lying about who they are?
-
Potential Solution: A future version of the app could have an age verification tool that would ensure the age and identity of Fentra's users.
-
Concern #4: What about people with mobility issues?
-
Potential Solution: Unfortunately, the only solution to this would be creating/joining meetups as nearby as possible.
-
Concern #5: How should I use the app if I have bad eyesight and can't read the text?
-
Potential Solution: For those with partial vision impairment, a possible feature would be a font-resizer, which would allow users to increase the app's font size.
|Future Product Features
Below are features that would resolve some of Fentra's remaining pain points and improve the user experience.
|What's Next
The prototype still needs a few key interactions, which include an onboarding process as well as a snippet upload screen. In addition, the filter selection screen is quite overwhelming, and the profile editor mode needs to be more comprehensive. We plan to continue iterating the design and develop this project as our capstone during the winter of 2023. Regarding potential changes, we are considering allowing users to sign in with their regular emails and only require college emails upon signup to confirm the users' colleges. This way, users can access their accounts after their college emails expire. Below are some opportunity areas:
|Challenges and Lessons
One of the challenges we encountered was finding a method of identity verification for college students and we were not sure how the recommendation system would work. However, we solved that problem by requiring a college email for login. We also had some issues with the sizing of the prototype, as the font on the mid-fidelity prototype was often too small to read. Thus, we enhanced the font size and increased spacing.
|Thanks For Reading!
Team Myself (UX/UI)
Team John H. (UX)
Team Marina W. (UX, web development)
Tools Adobe XD
Tools Illustrator
Tools PowerDirector
Duration 3 weeks
Deliverables High-Fidelity Prototype
Impact Product Video
Problem Statement:
Loneliness is a self-observed state, which can hurt one's emotional, as well as physical well-being. Loneliness is most prevalent among women over-50 and is expected to increase by 49 % in that age group by 2025.
Fentra combats the problem of loneliness among older women by providing them with a safe environment to form meaningful connections with each other through practicing mobile photography as a hobby.
The complete research can be found here
Problem Statement:
Loneliness is a self-observed state, which can hurt one's emotional, as well as physical well-being. Loneliness is most prevalent among women over-50 and is expected to increase by 49 % in that age group by 2025.
Fentra combats the problem of loneliness among older women by providing them with a safe environment to form meaningful connections with each other through practicing mobile photography as a hobby.
The complete research can be found here
|Feedback
|Design Change 1 - Activity Status & Messages
We added a green/gray dot for activity status next to the profile picture in messages. We also added a messages page that shows all of the user's chats.
Problem Statement:
Loneliness is a self-observed state, which can hurt one's emotional, as well as physical well-being. Loneliness is most prevalent among women over-50 and is expected to increase by 49 % in that age group by 2025.
Fentra combats the problem of loneliness among older women by providing them with a safe environment to form meaningful connections with each other through practicing mobile photography as a hobby.
The complete research can be found here
Problem Statement:
Loneliness is a self-observed state, which can hurt one's emotional, as well as physical well-being. Loneliness is most prevalent among women over-50 and is expected to increase by 49 % in that age group by 2025.
Fentra combats the problem of loneliness among older women by providing them with a safe environment to form meaningful connections with each other through practicing mobile photography as a hobby.
The complete research can be found here
|Identity Verification
To make sure that all users are college students, we decided to require a college email for login. That will mean that once the email expires (upon graduation) the users will no longer have access to their account.
This allows us to:
|Design Change 2 - Editing Profile
We added a screen that shows the personal profile in "Editor Mode" (what it would look like if the user were to edit each section on the profile) & character count for the "About" section.
Problem Statement:
Loneliness is a self-observed state, which can hurt one's emotional, as well as physical well-being. Loneliness is most prevalent among women over-50 and is expected to increase by 49 % in that age group by 2025.
Fentra combats the problem of loneliness among older women by providing them with a safe environment to form meaningful connections with each other through practicing mobile photography as a hobby.
The complete research can be found here
Problem Statement:
Loneliness is a self-observed state, which can hurt one's emotional, as well as physical well-being. Loneliness is most prevalent among women over-50 and is expected to increase by 49 % in that age group by 2025.
Fentra combats the problem of loneliness among older women by providing them with a safe environment to form meaningful connections with each other through practicing mobile photography as a hobby.
The complete research can be found here
|Design Change 3 - Select Filter Screen
Instead of only allowing one filter per category, users can now choose up to three per category, with all of the filter categories (skills, genre, and school) displayed on one screen.
Problem Statement:
Loneliness is a self-observed state, which can hurt one's emotional, as well as physical well-being. Loneliness is most prevalent among women over-50 and is expected to increase by 49 % in that age group by 2025.
Fentra combats the problem of loneliness among older women by providing them with a safe environment to form meaningful connections with each other through practicing mobile photography as a hobby.
The complete research can be found here
Problem Statement:
Loneliness is a self-observed state, which can hurt one's emotional, as well as physical well-being. Loneliness is most prevalent among women over-50 and is expected to increase by 49 % in that age group by 2025.
Fentra combats the problem of loneliness among older women by providing them with a safe environment to form meaningful connections with each other through practicing mobile photography as a hobby.
The complete research can be found here
|Design Change 4 - Message Without Follow
Since connectivity is a central aspect of MusicRoom, we made the message button visible without having to follow the user.
Problem Statement:
Loneliness is a self-observed state, which can hurt one's emotional, as well as physical well-being. Loneliness is most prevalent among women over-50 and is expected to increase by 49 % in that age group by 2025.
Fentra combats the problem of loneliness among older women by providing them with a safe environment to form meaningful connections with each other through practicing mobile photography as a hobby.
The complete research can be found here
Problem Statement:
Loneliness is a self-observed state, which can hurt one's emotional, as well as physical well-being. Loneliness is most prevalent among women over-50 and is expected to increase by 49 % in that age group by 2025.
Fentra combats the problem of loneliness among older women by providing them with a safe environment to form meaningful connections with each other through practicing mobile photography as a hobby.
The complete research can be found here
|Design Change 5 - Login Screen
We added a login screen to make the prototype more realistic, and make sure that users understand that the app requires their college email to log in.
Problem Statement:
Loneliness is a self-observed state, which can hurt one's emotional, as well as physical well-being. Loneliness is most prevalent among women over-50 and is expected to increase by 49 % in that age group by 2025.
Fentra combats the problem of loneliness among older women by providing them with a safe environment to form meaningful connections with each other through practicing mobile photography as a hobby.
The complete research can be found here
Problem Statement:
Loneliness is a self-observed state, which can hurt one's emotional, as well as physical well-being. Loneliness is most prevalent among women over-50 and is expected to increase by 49 % in that age group by 2025.
Fentra combats the problem of loneliness among older women by providing them with a safe environment to form meaningful connections with each other through practicing mobile photography as a hobby.
The complete research can be found here
|Trying Vampr
We noticed that Vampr, an existing music-networking app for musicians, had a similar premise to our idea, and thus decided to take a deeper look into its features as well as its strengths and weaknesses.