Research, Personas, Sketches

Soundwave - Initial Research and Sketching

User Observation and Interview:

For user research, we decided to observe and interview potential users, as we felt that it would be a relatively simple yet highly effective way to understand our potential users.

We decided that each member of the team should observe a user engaging with Spotify. Before doing this, we developed a set of tasks for each user, and developed a set of questions to ask after observing them. The tasks included things like: find a song that you haven’t heard before, but might like; find a playlist based on your current mood; find a playlist based on a song you like.

We then asked some follow-up questions, focussing on finding out how a user finds new music, how interested they are in a social version of Spotify, in what context they often listen to music/what sort of device they use, and if there was anything they would change about music apps.

We noticed that each user used Spotify in a slightly different way.

some users were highly active on Spotify - dedicated to all features and playlist creation options
other users liked to listen to songs and playlists they made themselves
most users used Spotify mobile, some were aware of the desktop version while others were not

Ultimately, we felt that this research indicated an interest in the sort of app we were thinking about designing.

Persona development and empathy map:

As a group, we developed two distinct personas - Engaged Emily and Casual Calvin. Together, we decided that Emily would represent the younger, highly tech-savvy, ultra-engaged music app user, while Calvin is a slightly older, more ‘casual’ user. We collaborated to create the following empathy maps:

User 1: Casual Calvin, a middle-aged dad who uses Spotify casually. He often listens to music in the car, using auto-generated playlists or music sent to him. He is less tech-savvy.

User 2: Engaged Emily, a college student who is a highly active Spotify user, using more niche features to expand on her music taste and accumulation of playlists. She is more tech-savvy and shows it through her engagement on the app.

Problem Statement:

Based on these personas, I was in charge of developing a problem statement - an explanation of the crux of the issue at hand and an overall goal for our design:

“We seek to develop an application that functions as an alternative music platform (to Spotify, Apple Music, etc). We intend to develop an interface that is clearly designed and easy to understand for users who may not be as technically engaged, while also offering a high degree of customization for users who are very tech-savvy or music orientated. Ultimately, we hope to develop this music platform to help people find new music that they love; socially connect with friends and family through music; and explore a wide (but tailored) variety of playlists for all scenarios.”

Developing Lofi Sketches and Mockups:

Each member of my group produced three sketches for our potential design. I wanted to explore the possibility of a more inventive search page. I wasn’t sure about whether this would be best used across mobile, tablet, or laptop, so decided to sketch different versions across devices. I also included a general home page sketch.

Final Sketches:

After looking at each other’s sketches, I was in charge of developing a set of final sketches based on features we liked the most from each sketch.