☆VIVIAN CHEN

Hi, I’m Vivian
Los Angeles based Product Designer,
Available for work

About Me

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Music Sharing App for DJs

Overview
With this project, I aimed to create a music sharing platform for DJs and independent artists. Social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook are generally image or text based. I noticed that there was a missing niche of sharing audios/music. There has been discourse around whether or not Spotify could be considered a social media platform but I personally do not see a strong social aspect in their app. This app idea would be used to tap into this liminal space and provide a platform where musicians can share their creations and create a space for communities to thrive.

Research
I conducted a competitive analysis on similar existing products on the market today such as: Youtube Music, Soundcloud, and Spotify.

To understand what kind of platform independent artists are looking for, I conducted surveys and interviews in an attempt to empathize with their needs.

What does the music space do well currently?
Can you describe your frustrations with the current music sharing apps?

Goals
The aim of this exploration design for a social media app tailored to DJs and independent artists is to address key user frustrations while unlocking new creative and collaborative opportunities. Specifically, the design seeks to:

Facilitate Music Discovery: Help users broaden their musical horizons beyond their immediate social circles by surfacing diverse genres and styles.
Improve Organization Tools: Enable users to categorize and manage their music libraries more effectively using filters such as BPM, key, or genre.
Simplify Sharing: Create a streamlined experience for artists to share tracks and audio content with peers or fans without friction.
Promote Social Engagement: Foster meaningful interaction through features that encourage feedback, group discussions, and collaboration among artists—beyond basic messaging.
Unify Digital Presence: Provide a centralized platform where artists can integrate their online personas, eliminating the need to manage multiple tools or profiles.
Enhance Playlist Management: Empower users to collect, curate, and save tracks and playlists, including those created by others, in a seamless way.

Ideation
I began designing low and mid fidelity wireframes with a simple user flow in mind: adding a song to a playlist and then sharing the playlist.

Testing
I conducted 5 moderated interviews with users who were avid music listeners and recorded their click paths as well as some notable quotes. Some findings of this usability study can be summarized in three common frustrations:

1. Icon Frustrations
-> Some of the icons I chose were not intuitive to users. Users were not able to tell what functions certain icons had and were hesitant to click certain icons.

“Which feed is the discover feed? What if I continued scrolling on the home page, is that the discover feed or is it the popular now tab?”

2. Feed Confusion
-> Users were unsure of what type of content they were looking at. The lack of indication mixed with the different options of feeds made it ambiguous.

“These icons are confusing and especially the layers looking one. I only see that icon when I’m on Photoshop or drawing apps so I’m confused why its here.”
“I’m not sure about where to find my library, if its under my profile or if its on the navigation bar.”

3. Misleading Text on Buttons
-> Many of the users I interviewed were met with confusion on how to close the share modal due to the text on the button.

“The button said return to feed but it didn’t take me back to the feed, so I’m confused about why it said to return to feed.”

Icon Changes
The icon used for adding a track to a playlist was not intuitive to users so I changed it to something more widely used. Icons that I personally thought evoked a straight forward function were not received positively with users in testing.

1. Initially, I selected a layered icon to suggest a 'more options' function, but user feedback revealed confusion around its meaning. In response, I replaced it with clearer, more intuitive icons specifically for sharing and adding tracks to the library.

2. The original sharing icon was frequently mistaken for a direct messaging symbol, which misaligned with the intended functionality and user expectations.

I realize now that although there are creative liberties that designers can take, sometimes the best solutions are ones that are conventional and long established.

Feed Confusion
I added a tab that states which “feed” the user has selected to minimize confusion on what the user is browsing. Features that are obvious to me, because I’m the one designing it, are not always obvious to the intended user and must be explicitly stated.

Misleading Buttons
Many of the users we interviewed were thrown off by the modal button. They were mainly confused on why the button would return them to the feed, when they simply just wanted the modal to go away after selecting a playlist to add the track to.

At first, I opted to remove the button completely and to replace it with a simple x button on the top right, which seems to be more ubiquitous to users. However, as I kept iterating, I found that repeating a “share sheet” looking interface would maintain visual consistency throughout the app.

Conclusion
This project was an excellent learning opportunity in regards to user research. Keeping in mind the user needs and what pain points need to be addressed, I was able to create a prototype that allowed for easy sharing and curation of music.

With more time, I would like to explore creating screens for:

Uploading and posting a track
Onboarding screens
Direct messages
Search and filters