OVERVIEW
Client
Guitar Center, a music store that is involved in the music industry in a variety of ways.
(As a student project we did not actually work with Guitar Center.)
Objective
Provide a tool for musicians to connect and collaborate with one another that will establish Guitar Center as a major player in the digital space with the ability to expand the service to help local musicians in more ways.
Role
Researcher, UX designer, UI designer
Duration
2 weeks
Research
We began with an empathy mapping exercise which helped us define the focus of our survey, interviews, and competitive and comparative analyses. Affinity mapping helped us determine the key insights that drove our final design.
Activites: Empathy Maps, Competitive/ Comparative Analysis, User Interviews, Survey, Contextual Inquiry
Key Insights:
• Music is very personal to musicians
• There is more of a need for beginners
• Musicians connect more in person than online
• Community is very important
• Musicians are busy
Empathy Map
Competative/Comparative Analysis
​We wanted to see what other companies were doing out there, this helped us create our survey to give us more insights about what features musicians were using and which they felt they would be most interested in having.
3 Personas
We then created 3 personas after interviewing and surveying musicians to really help us understand the wants and needs of our customers. We based our personas on the qualitative and quantitative information we received through our research.
Going to The Guitar Center
My team and I went to The Guitar Center to get a better understanding of their current customer base to see if we could find any new insights to add to our design.
Key Takeaways:
• We found a bulletin board that was hidden and messy but showed people wanted to meet
• We found a stronger need from beginner to amateur musicians
• They did offer lessons but didn't advertise them online
When we saw this we immediately thought about an online bulletin board, and from our interviews we found that most musicians would go to Craigslist to jam, find new band members or record music. We've found that musicians always have issues from craigslist. People would be unreliable, flaky, or a bit sketchy and couldn't really find out more about the person posting their ad. That's where we had the idea of a bulletin board with more personality to it. Where you can see a little about their personality, their level of experience, background, and even listen to some of their music.
Looking at our new design
We created a site map and login/register flow to help us understand the system of the site and how it would be laid out for our users.
First initial sketches
We did a lot of sketches and iterations while gaining a lot of feedback from multiple users. Through our usability testing, we made some changes from our first designs. Some of the biggest adjustments we made were:
​• We combined the bulletin board style and added a more social touch to it
• We created a less intrusive login process
• We made the purpose of the site more understandable at first glance
Final Designs
Musicians page
The real need is for beginner or ameteur muscicians. Flashy music blending and collaboration tools for professionals already exist. Exclusive sites that cater to top recorders already exist. What isn't available is a simple bulletin board that allows everyday musicians to connect and collaborate with one another.
Teachers & students page
After moving to a new place, many musicians started or stopped playing based on the community of musicians available to them. We also saw that people were looking for a meaningful way to learn from one another so we included a Teachers/Students tab in our platform. We recognized that this could evolve to serve the business needs of Guitar Center later on.
Profile page
Since music is very personal to musicians we gave users the ability to create robust user profiles that allow other musicians to know who they are connecting with. We also included elements of that profile alongside posts so other musicians don't have to navigate away from the bulletin board to access important information. We also felt it was important that musicians login or register before posting anything to ensure a more personable experience.
Message center
Through our interviews and surveys we found that musicians connect more in person than online, this is driven by the fact that there aren't many good resources available, and that musicians don't want to reply to anonymous Craigslist postings. This led us to include a messaging service to make communication more personalized and safe. This also prompted us to create an 'Events' tab, so musicians could find events in their area where they might be able to connect with their peers in person.
Quick view modal
Musicians are busy whether you're talking to a small time musician who is fighting to break into the industry, or an amateur who wants to enrich their life with something they love to do, music has to fit in between family, friends and work. A tool that requires a lot of time and effort from the user would not be successful. We designed quick view modals that allow users to view and reply without leaving the page.
Mobile designs
Next Steps
• Refine copy
• Add footer
• Tie in Guitare Center for music lessens or events
• Targeted ads
• Add a calendar feature
• Endorse, review, or upvote users
• All for more detailed profiles
• Possibly add a forum