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Product Design
Desktop App
Capstone Project
Facilitating career growth
of local music artists
OVERVIEW
This project is an initiative by the host of Hometown Heroes, which is a radio show based in Delaware Valley that showcases local music talent and helps them get visibility. We (a team of 5) worked with them as part of our capstone project to conceptualize and design a digital community platform aimed at facilitating the career growth of local music artists.
DURATION
Oct 2023 - May 2024
5 Months with breaks
TEAM
A team of 5 students
ROLE
Product designer
SKILLS
User research
User interface design
Product design
CLIENT BRIEF / PROJECT CONTEXT
The client wanted to extend his support to local artists beyond the radio show
"Hometown Heroes," hosted by Mark Rogers, is a radio show spotlighting local talent in the Delaware Valley. our client Mark wanted to extend his support for local artists beyond the radio show and its website, through strategies aimed at helping the artists grow professionally and enhance their visibility.
CHALLENGE
How do we help local music artists grow professionally through a for-profit sustainable digital solution?
BUSINESS GOAL
Make a profitable digital product while helping local music artists
CONSTRAINTS
Local music artists shouldn't be asked for excessive monetary investment
FINAL SOLUTION
A community-focused platform that provides mentorship and music gig opportunities leveraging an established network of Hometown Heroes
This platform capitalizes on the robust local community cultivated by Hometown Heroes, offering dependable and nearby opportunities for artists. Moreover, it provides a platform for local artists to build credibility through verified and responsible interactions within the community.
Explore mentors and find the right one for you!
Explore nearby music gigs and opportunity
Track and manage all your commitments
RESULTS
Over 90% user satisfaction rate
Learned client communication & collaborative workshops
After doing the final usability testing of the platform with real artists in the area, we got user satisfaction rate of over 90%.
The project helped me understand how to perform efficient client communication and involve stakeholders in collaborative workshops to get higher client satisfaction as well.
PROCESS MODEL
We collaborated with the client over 5 sprints / 5 months
Interview studies
USER & DOMAIN RESEARCH
Competetive anaysis
Affinity & Journey Mapping
01 SPRINT
IDEATION AND CONCEPT VALIDATION TESTING
User survey
Wireframing
Concept testing
02 SPRINT
PRODUCT THINKING & REVENUE STRATEGIZING
Designing through product thinking
Revenue strategies
03 SPRINT
FEATURES INTEGRATION & VISUAL DIRECTION
Information Architecture
Wireframing of new features
Design system foundations
04 SPRINT
USABILITY TESTING & HANDOFF
Usability Testing
Hi-fidelity interactive prototyping
Handoff documents
05 SPRINT
Led user research
Led usability testing
FORMATIVE RESEARCH FOCUS
What are the real challenges of local music artists and how can Hometown Heroes support them?
USER RESEARCH
We interviewed 5 stakeholders to understand the holistic landscape of the music industry and the career journey of a music artist
PARTICIPANTS
METHODOLOGY
DATA COLLECTION
3 local music artists
1 artist manager
1 booking agent
1 radio show host
1 hour long zoom semi-structured interview sessions
5 hours of videos and audio transcriptions
DATA ANALYSIS
We analysed our interview data along with doing a market research to ideate key insights
QUALITATIVE INTERVIEW DATA ANALYSIS
COMPETITORS ANALYSIS / MARKET RESEARCH
A COLLABORATIVE WORKSHOP TO IDENTIFY KEY INSIGHTS
We analyzed interview data using an affinity map and a journey map of a local artist's career journey, helping us understand industry landscape, and music artists's career journey.
We analyzed 30+ competitors to identify the current solutions and find market gaps.
We conducted a collaborative workshop to review research data, analysis and find key themes that would guide us towards framing main problem statements to solve for final solution.
KEY PROBLEM STATEMENTS
We formed key problem statements including behaviors and pain-points based on research, highlighting solution opportunities
BEHAVIOR
PAIN-POINT
01
Artists need guidance at multiple points in their journey,
but it's hard to find a reliable mentor.
02
Established artists are always willing to guide early artists,
but providing guidance hasn't been monetized for them.
03
Artists find band members and other opportunities from networking with others in the music industry,
but current methods like social media and distribution platforms are not niche and efficient.
04
Artists are always looking for sources of incomes due to their instable nature of career.
but current distribution platforms don't pay enough, and it's hard to find opportunities for performing.
SOLUTION SPACE 01
How might we help artists get access to guidance to grow in their early careers?
EARLY ARTISTS GOAL
Get access to reliable mentors to seek guidance
ESTABLISHED ARTISTS GOAL
Guide new artists and make some extra money along the way
BUSINESS GOAL
Provide the service for free for struggling artist, but try to make some room for revenue
DESIGN
We sketched out user flows and wireframes to ideate the mentorship feature
We started with sketching out possible flow for this feature. It helped us identify a few gaps that we needed to fill by doing some user research.
MENTEE FLOW AND IDENTIFIED RESEARCH QUESTIONS
MENTOR FLOW AND IDENTIFIED RESEARCH QUESTIONS
BASIC WIREFRAMES
How do we incorporate paid sessions in this flow?
How much are new artists willing to pay?
What kind of sessions and topics are artists interested in?
Are established artists interested in providing guidance through such a solution?
How do we get them paid without asking mentees pay a lot?
We also decided to create basic wirefrmaes to conduct some concept testing that could help us get some more insights into the concept.
CONCEPT VALIDATION
We conducted a user survey and concept testing sessions to identify issues, opportunities and possible adoption of mentorship feature
SURVEY INSIGHTS (BASED ON 47 RESPONSES)
High interest in mentorship
Preference for different type mentorship session with willingness to pay around $50 an hour
Areas of interest and values in mentorship
Over 95% of survey respondents expressed interest in participating in the mentorship paradigm in some capacity.
Respondents showed a preference for long-term collaborations and were open to various forms of mentorship, including one-on-one meetings, group and jamming sessions.
Networking, finding gigs, and representation emerged as the top areas of interest among respondents. Industry experience, and networking abilities were identified as the most valued attributes in a mentor.
CONCEPT TESTING KEY INSIGHTS (BASED ON 2 SESSIONS)
Copyright Awareness
Non-Monetary Mentor Benefits
Music law and business support
Adding a disclaimer emphasizing the importance of copyright for shared music.
Considering non-monetary benefits such as featuring mentors on Hometown Heroes or interviews, expanding beyond monetary incentives for mentorship, opening new avenues for social recognition and appreciation.
Recognizing the need for assistance in understanding music law and business among musicians, highlighting the importance of addressing this gap in our support offerings.
BUSINESS MODEL
We explored a mix of commission market place and freemium model to monetize mentorship feature
Commision cut whenever a paid mentorship session is booked
Every mentor has to have 10 free sessions before they start charging
We decided to charge a nominal fee for booking a mentorship session through our platform.
Free sessions can be used by struggling artists that are tight on money, and gives a chance to mentor to build their credibility before they start charging.
SOLUTION SPACE 02
How might we help artists find band members, collaborators and music gigs opportunities?
ARTISTS GOAL
Easily find band member, collaborator and gigs
VENUES GOAL
Get access to reliable local music talent
BUSINESS GOAL
Generate revenue through external stakeholders other than artists
STAKEHOLDER RESEARCH
We interviewd a venue booking agency to understand the process of booking
KEY INSIGHTS
Emphasis on genre match with event type
Background check on artists based on reviews
Venues unwilling to spend a lot of money by hiring an agent
BUSINESS MODEL
We explored a basic service charge model to monetize opportunities feature
Any external stakeholder of the platform has to pay a nominal fee to post an opportunity
We decided to charge a nominal fee for posting an opportunity on our platform for external stakeholders who are not community members.
FINAL INTEGRATION
How might we merge mentoship and opportunities features into one cohesive platform?
FEATURES INTEGRATION
We created information architecture to conceptualize a community platform incorporating all features
VISUAL DIRECTION
We established a visual direction based on our moodboard of inspiration
COLORS
APPLICATION FONTS
Public Sans
MARKETING WEBSITE FONTS
Clash Display
Playfait Display
USABILITY TESTING
We conducted usability testing to identify usability issues
KEY INSIGHTS
Allow users to add reviews from multiple points
Rephrase sessions into specific mentee and mentor session
Allow users to add cancel session message
Users wanted to review the mentor separately from their profile other than specifically prompting them to review a session.
Users often got confused between a type of session, and wanted to have different words for their session as different role.
Users also wanted to add a cancel message in case they have to cancel the mentorship session to leave no room for confusion and maintain a good relationship.
FINAL DESIGNS
The final solution is an integration of mentorship and opportunities features into a Hometown Heroes community platform
FEATURE 01
Explore mentors and book mentorship sessions
This feature of the platform helps local music artists find the right mentor for guidance. Mentorship sessions can be 1:1 or group with the option of its mode being virtual or in-person.
Reviews by mentees help mentors build their credibility. Eliminating the rating system in reviews keeps the community positive and fair.
FEATURE 02
Explore and post music gigs & opportunities
This feature helps artists find curated music gigs posted by local entities as well as post a community opportunity when in need of band members or collaborators.
Quick glances with key information points help artists in scanning all the opportunities in less time
FEATURE 03
Track and manage all of sessions and gigs at one place
Track all sessions both as a mentee and a mentor at one place
We've also included trackers for mentorship sessions and music gigs that can help users manage all of their activities easily on the platform.
Track posted, applied, saved and all upcoming gigs easily
LEARNINGS
Importance of domain research before diving into designs
I was completely new to the music industry domain, let alone design solutions for local music artists. Primary and secondary formative research helped me uncover a lot of insights that drove our solution.
Leveraging team members' strengths for a better outcome
I realized how diving work according to everyone's strengths and having a lead for each area helps the project achieve higher quality and efficiency.
Setting scope for each task to stay on track
Having this big scale for a project often results in ambiguity and unnecessarily delays the final outcome. After working on such a project in a team of 5, I learned to set goals and scope for each task to stay focused and get important work done efficiently.
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