Sean Baik — Amuse

Amuse is a one-stop music sharing and promoting app for all types of musicians and sound professionals. The innovative platform supplies creators with the necessary tools to efficiently showcase their music and work online, enabling them to reach more listeners, customers, and most importantly, opportunities.

The Challenge

How can we help busy musicians, artists, and producers, who don't have the time nor resources to market their music efficiently, stand out from the noise?

The Vision

Design an app that allows users to easily promote, share, and interact with their music online while networking and connecting with opportunities.

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

UX Research

Wireframe Layout & Prototyping

User Testing & Iterations

Visual Direction, Branding, and High-Fidelity Designs

Test, Refine, and Launch

phase 01

Focusing on the user.

Music professionals who lack the time and resources to craft their ideal marketing package.

To better understand the users I was designing for, as well as comprehend their key needs, I conducted interviews and developed empathy maps as my primary methods of research. This user group closely matched the initial expectations I had, but research also revealed that time and money were not the only obstacles users faced. Other problems included: lack of motivation, confusing algorithms, high competition, and poor niche reach.

Key Pain Points

Time

Music professionals are often busy honing and performing their craft.

Cost

Advertisement packages are too costly for most everday musicians.

Accessibility

Music sharing apps are not equipped with assistive technologies.

Interactivity

Apps do not offer tools dedicated solely for music sharing.

Personifying the problem.

Eddy Liu

20, Student

Primary User

Eddy is a busy student and part-time worker who needs intuitive and efficient music sharing tools. They would like a more practical, economical, and effective way to get their music out to the right listeners so they may focus their time doing what they loves most: making music.

Matthew Jonson

35, Music Producer

SEcondary User

Matthew is a full-time music producer and audio engineer who has worked with various industry leaders. As a seasoned professional looking to find long-term clients, they would like to find a more effective, business-oriented, and trustworthy way to market their music and grow their career.

Mapping out the journey.

Action

Tasks

Feeling

Opportunity

Open numerous social media platforms.

Turn on device.

Plan content.

Anxious to promote new song;
‍
Excited about interacting with fans.

Develop shortcuts and quick links to help users navigate.

Make it easy for screen readers.

Create posts to promote latest release.

Film + edit content.

Attach keywords.

Prep for publishing.

Eager to create fun and exciting content;
‍
Stressed selecting posts to publish.

Develop templates that creators and artists can use to quickly make posts. 

Prioritize a simple and intuitive UI.

Publish posts on different social media platforms.

Post content.

Schedule future posts.

Add captions to posts.

Nervous about posting content;
‍
Curious to see how fans react .

Add preview function to ensure all posts are ready and correct. 

Add analytics to show how posts perform.

Interact with followers and community.

Reply to comments.

Share posts with friends.

Interact with others.

Happy to interact with fans and comments;
‍
Hopeful about getting new listeners.

Add "share" button to posts to simplify promotion process.

Make comments easy to access.

Review analytics and plan next steps.

Review analytics.

Identify mistakes.

Develop strategies.

Determined to make improvements;
‍
Worried about song traffic and listener count.

Add analytics page showcasing post performance. 

Add "Explore" section for inspiration.

phase 02

Ideating solutions.

Sketching on paper.

Each version of the same screen was drafted on paper with the vision of creating a wireframe that highlighted key elements dedicated to addressing user pain points. Putting the user front-and-center, I prioritized a simple yet interactive music sharing process to help users save time and enjoy promoting their work.

Going digital.

When translating designs from paper to digital, I made sure to put the user front-and-center, basing my digital wireframes on the feedback and observations attained from user research. An easy and intuitive interface allows for users to see and listen to their work within the app, and ensuring navigation works with assistive technologies.

Connecting the dots.

The first low-fidelity prototype was created based on the completed set of digital wireframes. In preparation for a usability study, the primary user flow was creating and posting a promo pack for a single song.

Experience the low fidelity prototype

↗

Testing for usability.

A total of two rounds of usability studies were conducted. Findings from the first study helped guide the the overall design from wireframes into mockups. The second study used a high-fidelity prototype, which revealed which elements needed further refinement and iteration.

Round 1

Users want an easy and quick way to create and schedule promotional posts.

Users want to share multiple songs at the same instance of creating a promo pack.

Users need more legible fonts as well as attractive visuals to guide their journey.

Round 2

Users want an intermediary page when selecting the “Create” button/feature.

Users need a more prominent and easily identifiable Dashboard.

Users need a more accessible color palette for the app’s user interface.

phase 03

Refining the design.

Track Selection

Usability studies provided valuable insights for the refinement of our initial designs. Early designs did not allow users to select multiple songs to promote at the same time. For this iteration process, we added the option to select multiple tracks to promote.

Content Creation

The second usability study highlighted an interactive pain point experienced by all users. The frustration caused by a Create button that directly led to the Build your promo pack page was refined by adding an intermediary modal.

Connecting the journey.

The final high-fidelity prototype presented enhanced user flows for promoting music, interacting with social media, and exploring trends. The prototype met user needs and expectations, achieving an interactive, simple, and highly customizable music marketing and sharing process.

Experience the high fidelity prototype

↗

ACCESSIBILITY CONSIDERATIONS

Universal

Universally identifiable icons and a fixed navigation bar allow for an intuitive and enjoyable flow.

Actionable

Colors for clear actionable buttons were selected following proper accessibility standards.

Navigable

Accessible navigational features (i.e. scroll, tap, and gestures) were added for assistive technologies.

BRAND DEVELOPMENT

#9E00FF

#BD66F2

#F8A1FF

#FBC9FF

#636363

#000000

#FFFFFF

Syne

Regular, 30 px

Syne

Regular, 22 px

Syne

Bold, 13 px

Title

Syne

Bold, 18 px

Name

Syne

Regular, 15 px

Body

Syne

Regular, 14 px

Sub-Body

Syne

Regular, 12 px

To complement the app's functional interface, I strived to develop a strong brand identity and design language that conveyed positive emotions for the users: pink represents "emotion & compassion", while purple emits "power & ambition". The overall goal is to encourage users to complete a task that once seemed daunting with comfort and confidence.

phase 04

A look into the future.

"I could see a lot of people use this app to save time and energy, and rather focus on making music and improving their craft."

- Participant from Usability Test

Takeaways

As a fellow musician and creative professional, amuse is a design project that directly relates to my craft and an idea that significantly impacts my craft. One of my many goals was to communicate the struggles of musicians worldwide, especially those who do not have the time nor resources to properly promote their music to their desired audience. This innovative platform makes users feel like they have a dedicated marketing team that truly understands what their musical goals and visions are, no matter where they are in their career.

Lessons

While designing amuse, I learned that the true designers are the end users. Every new usability study revealed valuable feedback that elevated the app to a completely new level, and every iteration led to an improved, more intuitive, and enjoyable experience--I was simply the middle-man that made the users' desires into a reality.

Next Steps

Host additional usability studies to examine whether users' original pain points have been addressed.

Conduct complementary user research to determine new areas of need and additional feature implementation.

Prepare design for hand-off to engineering teams to enter production and ship product.