MusicBase
Dwight Clarke
Table of Contents
Project Overview
The Product:
MusicBase serves as a resource for the Music Industry to help professionals market credits for work they have done on recordings and for potential employers to seek these professionals for future work.
Project Duration:
3 Weeks
My Role:
UX/UI designer, UX researcher
Responsibilities:
User research, Wireframing, Mockups, Prototyping, User Testing, Branding
The Problem:
There is currently no unified reliable resource for all of the talent in the music industry and their contributions to records.
The Goal:
To provide a cohesive resource for talent who contributed to any recording from the 3 major labels and most popular Independent records.
Understanding
the User
User Research
Personas User
Journey Map
User Research Summary
I created empathy maps and conducted interviews to get a primary Understanding of my target users. The primary groups I identified were:
Group 1:
Freelance and contract Studio Session Players
Group 2:
Record Label A&R’s and Executive Producers
Group 3:
Studio Staff
Pain Points
1
Certain groups of contributors very rarely get credited publicly for the work they have done on records.
2
No quick and easy way to find the contributor of a specific element of a recording.
3
No professional setting for contributors to market credits on recordings outside of Social Media.
User Personas
Parker
Age: 36
Education: Bachelors in Audio Recording
Hometown: Queens, NY
Family: Married, no children
Occupation: Recording Engineer
“I love the artists I work with but I would like to branch out to potential major label artists for higher pay.”
Goals:
Have more time to focus on work
Publically show all of his credits
Frustrations:
Spends a lot of time at clubs and show venues to network for more work
Most people are unaware of his work on all of the recordings he has worked on.
Problem Statement:
Parker is an established recording and mixing engineer for some popular up-and-coming acts in New York City. Without credits on most streaming services, Parker’s work on the recordings is not shown which makes it difficult to expand his clientele
Viola
Age: 27
Education: Bachelors in Business
Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
Family: Single, no children
Occupation: Artists and Repertoire Coordinator at a major music label
“I usually don’t know about talented engineers or songwriters until they have contributed to numerous hits, I’d like to find them before that happens.”
Goals:
Compile a list of prospective signees
Find quality inexpensive hired work to
contribute to records
Frustrations:
Spends a lot of time at clubs and show venues to network for more work
Most people are unaware of his work on all of the recordings he has worked on.
Problem Statement:
Viola currently works with 2 artists on a major music label and is looking to bring on some new members to the team to improve their sound. She wants to sign budding Mixing/Mastering Engineers and songwriters who are not yet popular enough to have a high price value. It is very time-consuming for her to compile a list by looking up songs on Wikipedia to find the contributors she is seeking and those listings are not always accurate.
Starting the
Design
Paper Wireframes
Digital Wireframes
High Fidelity Mockups
Paper Wireframes
Desktop:
Tablet:
Mobile
Digital Wireframes
Desktop:
Tablet:
Mobile
High Fidelity Mockups
Early designs allowed for some customization, but after the usability studies, I added icons to clearly point out what the category is.
I conducted two rounds of usability studies. Findings from the first study helped guide the designs from wireframes to mockups. The second study used a high-fidelity prototype and revealed what aspects of the mockups needed refining.
Going Forward
Takeaways
Next Steps
Takeaways
Impact:
The target users shared that the design was intuitive to navigate through, more engaging with the images, straightforward forward and very explanatory.
Accessibility Consideration:
Used icons to help make navigation easier
Next Steps
Conduct more user research to determine any new areas of need.
Conduct another round of usability studies to validate whether the pain points users experiences have been effectively addressed.