Content

1. Premise

2. Proposal

3. Research

4. Define

5. Ideate

6. Usability Testing

7. Visual Design

8. Recap

9. Prototype

Premise

The options to actively participate with others during the curation of playlists are limited. Features that involve interacting with others in real-time via sharing or other forms of participation aren’t prevalent the same way sharing of different mediums are - I.E. photo and video. 

Proposal

MixWav is a mobile app that allows users to engage with one another by allowing them to participate in the playlist creation process together and through the sharing of that content.

Research

Before getting ahead of myself with the reaction of my own experiences, I wanted to discover:

• What the current playlist experience entailed for other individuals.

• If others preferred to share what they listened to or keep it to themselves.

• What factors might compel an individual to share or not share their playlists and what they think/feel about sharing.

• The processes they utilized to share playlists, if they did.

Through both the surveys and interviews, participants expressed an abundant appreciation for music. Sharing music was described as a “social act” allowing one to “express how they feel" in the moment and could be described as an “attempt to draw someone into that same experience”. This motivated me to set the inclusion of moods in some form as an end goal.

After synthesizing my insights and findings, a few repeated concepts began to appear. Some of the elements brought up by participants were desires, and other factors were concerns related to why sharing might not be sought after by some individuals.

Recurring Concerns:

• Not knowing if someone would be willing to listen to a shared playlist.

• Users having friends on different platforms, making sharing difficult.

• Lack of interactive abilities/options.

Define

The data gathered from my survey and interviewing pursuits generated two categories of personas to consolidate the extrapolated personalities and goals of the target users:

• The Curator/Exhibitionist - Individuals that love to craft content and share what they’ve created.

• The Connoisseur - Individuals that may not necessarily take the time to craft their own content but love to engage with what others have created.

Personas

Baseline Features/Objectives

From the generalized goals and frustrations of definitive personas, a baseline for a future product could be established. Product objectives were then derived from these desires and pain points.

Ideate

Content Strategy/Information Architecture

The content strategy phase started with implementing a card sort based on the baseline features defined previously and was followed up with tree testing. These exercises determined the base navigation for the product by pinpointing terms of potential users associated with those baseline tasks.

A few tasks revealed errors in the original organization and clarified what users might be more likely to expect when completing specific tasks. After reviewing the data and concerns, a new simplified organization was created to account for participant feedback.

Card Sort + Tree Testing Excerpt

Revised Organization vs. Initial Sketch

Once the general structure was in place, user flows and wireframes were developed to look at tasks in more detail. The goal of these tasks was to address the concerns previously mentioned in some way. These tasks included:

• Creation of a new account to link existing music streaming services to platform.

• Adding a song to an existing playlist and sharing that playlist with a specific individual for shared participation.

• Creation of a live playlist session to interact with people in real-time.

User Tasks + Flows

Wireframes + Sketches

Usability Testing

A first pass prototype was generated from these wireframes to test design features and organization at this stage. The remarks gathered from this exercise were utilized to develop the design in the refinement stage. A few of the main comments were:

Visual Design

Recap

The following images highlight various features and elements, calling out their significance in relation to the concerns and insights of potential users uncovered earlier during the research/testing phases. This was also a way for me to comb through the design to ensure the placement and presence of the elements were purposeful, always tying back into the user’s needs.

Prototype