Project Overview

What's the Problem?

Boombox addresses the challenge of isolation among music enthusiasts in the digital era. Despite vast streaming options, users struggle to find a shared space that promotes community, connection, and musical discovery. Brand loyalty divides users from being able to engage with others who are on competing streaming services. The division of users by brand loyalty is the underlying issue that we are set out to solve for.

Duration: 2 Week Sprint
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Project Status: Delivered on January 12, 2024
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Method Used: Screener Survey, User Interview, Business Model Canvas, Competitive & Comparative Features Analysis, Affinity Mapping, User Persona, User Journey, Feature Prioritization, Sketching & Design Studio, Style Guide, Wire-framing, Prototyping, and Usability Testing
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Tools: Figma, Notion, Zoom, Google Docs/Sheet/Survey/Forms, Slack, Keynote, Trello, and Zepelin

Goal And Hypothesis

How Do We Envision Solving the Issue?

Our goal is to create a digital environment where music lovers can seamlessly connect, share, and discover music that resonates with their tastes, forming vibrant communities centered around their shared passion. We take inspiration and leverage how users already engage with one another online through various social platforms. What sets us apart from current platforms is that our product would be for the shared purpose of discovering music. We want to encourage users to share music with others and form community.

Deliverables:

User research & insights
UX-driven problem statements, design hypothesis, and approach to solutions
Flows and maps of problem and solution
Wireframes and prototype
Usability testing & insights
Design artifacts

Assumptions

Music listeners bond over shared musical tastes but also seek new music outside their usual preferences, often relying on streaming algorithms for discovery. Despite these algorithms, users often encounter familiar tracks and prefer their own music when not actively searching for new songs. Sharing music with others who have similar tastes is important, but it can be challenging for users to listen to every recommendation they receive.

How might we enable music lovers to connect with others who have similar music tastes, create a sense of community and shared musical exploration?

Features

DJ Rooms

Cultivates a vibrant digital community where music enthusiasts come together to share, discover, and curate playlists in dynamic rooms, fostering connections and musical exploration.

live Chat

Revolutionizes music discovery by integrating live chat functionality, empowering users to interact, share reactions, and forge connections in real-time while exploring new sounds together.

Queue songs

Amplifies the collective experience with a queue functionality, enabling users to seamlessly contribute songs that resonate with the room's vibe, promoting a collaborative musical journey.

Community

Enhances the music community experience with a vibrant forum, where users can engage in discussions, share music news, and connect with like-minded enthusiasts, enriching their musical journey beyond the DJ rooms.

Concerts

Elevates the concert experience by providing users with comprehensive event details, including performer lineup, venue, and time. It also facilitates connections through finding concert buddies and seeing friends attending, all seamlessly integrated with ticket purchasing options.

Impact

What Difference Did our design make?

We conducted testing on several screen flows that aligned with our users' goals and requirements, and here are the ways in which our design enhancements impacted user experience:

Users completed the flows 23.33 seconds faster

Users completed the flows 26.7% more directly

Users rated our app 5 out of 5 on easiness

Users completed the flows 11.8 seconds faster

Users completed the flows 26.7% more directly

Users rated our app 4.7 out of 5 on easiness

These advancements demonstrate our commitment to enhancing user experience while also driving our business objectives, affirming our dedication to a future where technology and music seamlessly blend.

discovery

What did we learn from competitors and users?

Business Analysis

Our team conducted technical background research to help us understand the advantages and limitations of our partner: djay. Djay excels in providing cross platform integration, a user friendly platform, and music service integration. However is limited by being a freemium app and limited hardware compatibility. We conducted both comparative and competitive analysis to assess strengths, weaknesses, and unique features among competitors. Specifically we looked into platforms that offered social and community features as well as concert integration. Through this analysis, we were able to establish a baseline of features we would need in our app (audio quality and platform integration) as well as features that would set Boombox apart from others (group chat and concert find a buddy).

User Research

Using a screener survey, we collected a interview pool that fit the target audience - individuals who listen to music on a streaming service yearning to share and discover new music. We interviewed five individuals keen on understanding their current music streaming habits, how they connect with others through music, their discovery methods, the role of algorithms versus human curation aiming to gain a comprehensive view of their music discovery journey and community interaction.
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Here’s what the interviewees had to say:

Insights & Takeaways

Users rely on their music streaming platforms for discovering new music, using features like personalized playlists and music suggestion tools.

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Implement dedicated rooms to allow users to immerse themselves in different genres and discover new songs they were previously unaware of

The ability to share music and view others' music preferences is a valued feature for some users, highlighting the social dimension of music streaming experiences.

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Design a feature where users can connect with their friends, fostering a more social and interactive music streaming experience

Users exhibit a wide range of music interests, indicating the necessity for music streaming platforms to offer diverse catalogs to satisfy varied preferences and encourage exploration.

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Develop the platform to encompass music tastes from all genres, ensuring a comprehensive and diverse music catalog to cater to varied user preferences

Synthesis

Who Are we designing for?

Persona

After synthesizing the user and business research, we consolidated what we learned about our users and created our persona. This allowed us to keep our target audience in mind and empathize with their needs, motivations, and behaviors. Say hello to Jordan!

Journey Map

We mapped out the process Jordan would experience discovering new songs and connecting socially with others through music. From this, we learned Jordan’s pain points, frustrations, and emotional experience through each step in order to identify opportunities for implementing new features and refining existing ones.

Insights & Takeaways

Users need a consistent and enjoyable method for music discovery

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Create a personalized experience that streams a continuous mix of fresh and appealing music tailored to individual tastes

Users crave social features that facilitate meeting people who share similar passion towards music

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Integrate social features that allow users to connect with others who have similar musical interests, such as community forums, group chats, and concert buddy

Users navigate between various music apps, social media, and online forums, highlighting their struggle to connect with a community that shares their musical interests

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Opportunity for a more integrated solution that consolidates music discovery, sharing, and community engagement into a cohesive, user-friendly platform

ideation

What features would users want?

Feature Prioritization

As we transitioned from research into design, we were conscious of utilizing the key insights and takeways gathered through user and business research to make informed design choices. We deliberated on the set of features we would intake for the initial launch scope, factoring in the both how essential and how much effort the feature is to build. Once we had all the features mapped out, a prioritized list was created.

The following were our top MVP features:

Sketches to Mid Fidelity Prototype

Utilizing a design studio, we broke out app into three bite sized sections: Rooms, Search, and Community. For each section, our team collaborated by individually sketching concepts, sharing our visions, ultimately refining a solution that incorporated our favorite design choices that conveyed what Boombox stands for. With the screens drawn on whiteboard, we tackled the three different areas of the app transitioning our design from low to mid fidelity. We were conscious of utilizing a style guide and components to provide consistency across the design.

Joining a room and sending a message

• Added room population to understand which rooms are trending.

• Changed chat chevron to drawer with physical swipe gesture. Clicking the chat area also swipes up the chat functionality.

• Added icons to allow for quick emoji, save of song, or sharing.

Finding concert buddy

• Tab bar navigation "Social" label changed to "Community".

• Removing "Find a Concert Buddy" CTA on gateway. Users are able to find concert buddies through dedicated concert pages.

Next Steps & Reflection

What did we learn?

Design

• Platform Tour: Develop a screen flow for a quick, skippable introduction to what Boombox offers and how to use core functions.
• Room Page Icons: Rearrange the icons on the Room page so the save song feature is next to the current song, following the law of proximity.
‍• Concert Buddy Feature: Integrate the find a concert buddy feature directly within a friend's profile page.
‍• Username and Profile Picture: Refine the prototype to ensure users fill out their username before selecting a profile picture.

Research

• Social Connectivity: Interview users to gain insights into their needs and preferences for social connectivity and community features within the platform.
• Gamification: Conduct specialized user interviews to explore the integration of gamification features and understand the motivations and preferences driving user engagement.

KPIs

• User Engagement: Measure the percentage of users engaging with key features such as music discovery, sharing, and community interaction.
• Feature Adoption: Track the adoption rates of new features, including the concert buddy and room functionality.
• Retention Rate: Monitor user retention rates to evaluate the effectiveness of the integrated social and music discovery features.
• Feedback Implementation: Assess the impact of implemented user feedback on overall user satisfaction and platform usability.

Reflection

Our team will continue to refine the aesthetics and usability of our high-fidelity prototype based on data gathered from usability testing. We aim to closely align our design with user behavior and preferences. By collaborating with the software development team, we will bring Boombox to life and gather further data once the product is accessible to the public. This iterative process will ensure that Boombox evolves to meet user needs, fostering a vibrant and connected music community.