AppSong

AppSong app provides an easy way for musicians to share their songs because we noticed that existing social networks rely on the algorithm that prioritise famous people. With AppSong, teachers can share work from their best students and producers can discover new talent independently. 

This project was part of my Google UX Design Professional Certificate (Module 5).

In this project, I was responsible for all the tasks, from concept to delivery: research, define the problem, ideate, select solutions, prototype and test.

Pen & Paper, Figma, Google Forms, Numbers, Pages, Keynote, Google Drive, Procreate, Pixelmator,  Post-its, Miro.

The research phase started in October 2022 and the final presentation was in July 20023.

PROBLEM: how to make the work of musicians more visible 

There are lots of very talented musicians who don’t have visibility on current social networks. Many of them wouldn’t want to share their private life; they want just to show their work and have a chance to get hired.

Solution: a song share app


Our music share app will let users share their songs which will affect students and not famous singers/ musicians by letting users been reachable by producers and public.

THE PROCESS

[1] Discover

At this phase, we tried to understand which are the user pain points. So, we conduct a survey and interviews, besides the secondary research (competitors audit).

Competitive audit

We analysed in depth the three main apps that musician use to share their work: Spotify, Instagram and Soundcloud.

As a conclusion of the competitive analysis, we identified the following gaps:

  • low monetisation
  • musician needs to invest so their music is heard
  • The algorithm doesn't help musicians that aren't in a certain mainstream circuit
  • Algorithms reduce visibility from time to time


The following opportunities were listed:

  • There is an opportunity to make something that lets musicians control usage and make reasonable money if they desire, though users can share easily i.e. bandcamp but with users able to make and share playlists with friends and lots of other design features missing. Such as, having shareable playlist, let musicians be able to see how their music is being shared and listened too, so stats about plays, shares etc. Also, a musician should be able to link their different projects, link to the labels(even if not all projects on the same label) etc.
  • Allowing smart recommendations, reaches to the like-minded(like-tasted audience).
  • Something like Instagram, with only videos and audio. No room for personal updates, just for discovering music.
  • People being able to share their work with audiences without much interference from algorithms and ads.
  • Something where it can be all exported universally, Souncloud, Mixcloud, Spotify, Bandcamp.
  • One which can't be gamefied.

User research

Personas

We created two personas in order to better represent our user: Thomas and Sarah.

user journey

We also designed a user journey for Thomas and Sarah.

[2] DEFINE

At this phase, we were able to define the problem statements: one for Thomas, one for Sarah.

[3] DEVELOP

We developed wireframes in paper and digital format. After this, we build a low-fidelity prototype to test with potential users.

Usability Study

We planned and apply research questions for usability tests, following the following framework.

Before & After mockups

Following the recommendations, we did some changes.

[4] DElivery

We developed wireframes in paper and digital format. After this, we build a low-fidelity prototype to test with potential users.

next steps

In this case, we had the opportunity to go deeper into the techniques acquired during the bootcamp and which could be better used in future projects.

As further learnings and conclusions, we can mention:

  • Hi-Fi prototypes need to be tested with more users
  • Support for other languages and alphabets should be implemented
  • A way of monetize this app could be hiring musicians using the platform