top of page
.png)
Jalen Lee
Experience Designer
Musitrack Case Study
This project was completed as part of the Google UX Design Professional Certificate Course to simulate the UX research and design process from start to finish.
Project overview
The product:
MusiTrack is a mobile app that tracks the sales of musicians and their projects. The app provides detailed statistics about music sales to provide music professionals and music fans alike with the information they need.
Project duration:
August 2023 to October 2023
The problem:
Music professionals and music fans lack a platform that condenses information from multiple sources into one place and presents it in a digestible way.
The goal:
Design an app that tracks music sales.
My role:
UX Designer and Researcher - designing Musitrack from conception to delivery.
Responsibilities:
Researching competitors, conducting interviews, low and high-fidelity prototyping, conducting usability studies, accounting for accessibility, and iterating on designs.
Understanding the competition
Market research: competitive audit
To understand the current market and identify where there were gaps, I completed a competitive audit. I analyzed 4 direct competitors: DistroKid, TuneCore, LANDR, and CD Baby.
Points of analysis included price, target audience, unique value proposition, website versus mobile experience, analytics features, accessibility, user flow, navigation, brand identity, tone, and descriptiveness.
The results of this research revealed several gaps in the market. These gaps included a lack presence on mobile platforms, limited data (specifically lacking physical sales numbers), and a lack of accessibility features.
These gaps provided the opportunity to design a mobile app that rivaled website experiences, incorporated a larger pool of data, and included more accessibility features.
Understanding the user
User research: summary
I conducted simulated interviews based off of sample user biographies provided to me, and created empathy maps to understand the needs of the users I’m designing for. Primary user groups that were identified included music professionals (e.g. record label employees, talent agents, or established musicians), aspiring musicians, and music fans.
Research revealed that these user groups desired a central platform that could display information in a clean and concise way, with the ability to track multiple musicians and compare their data.
User research: pain points
Pain point 1
Having to go back and forth between different music tracking apps and websites.
"I'm always bouncing back and forth between multiple tabs when one of my clients releases new music."
Pain point 2
Confusing displays for casual music fans.
"Whenever I look up album sales of my favorite artists the amount of information provided is overwhelming."
Pain point 3
Lack of assistive technologies on music tracking apps and websites.
"I have a visual impairment, so all of the small numbers on graphs are too small for me to see."
Persona: Carlos
Problem statement:
Carlos is a talent agent for a record label who needs to track the sales of his clients and their competitors because it allows his record label to make strategic decisions about who to sign.
Persona: Zareen
Problem statement:
Zareen is an aspiring music star who needs to track her music sales so that she can keep track of her progress.
User research: user journey map
Starting the design
Paper wireframes
Taking the time to draft iterations of each screen ensured that the elements that made it to digital wireframes would be well-suited to address user pain points. For the home screen I prioritized simple navigation, advertisement, and a “pinned to home” feature.
Digital Wireframes
As the initial design phase continued, I made sure to base screen designs on feedback and findings from user research.
The "pin to home" feature allows users to quickly view the items that they are most interested in, as well as easily compare the statistics of multiple musicians and projects.
The recent activity feature allows users to resume where they left off after opening the app.
Usability study: findings
I conducted two rounds of usability studies. Findings from the first study helped to improve the low-fidelity designs before transitioning them to mockups.
The first usability study I conducted was an moderated study where users were given prompts with tasks to complete. Due to my limited sample size, the primary focus of this study was to examine user flow and usability of the low-fidelity prototype. Some Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that I examined were Use of navigation vs. search, System Usability Scale, Net Promoter Score, Drop-off rates, and Conversion rates.
Affinity Diagram
.jpg)
Participants were given a post-study survey which asked them questions based on the System Usability Scale (SUS). The average SUS score was 78.5, which equates to a "Good" rating.
The question with the lowest score was question 1: "I think that I would use this app frequently." Given that the sample size was limited to users outside of the target audience, this makes sense, as none of the participants viewed music sales statistics in their everyday lives. The next two lowest scoring questions were question 3 and question 8: "I think this app is easy to use" and "I feel confident using this app."
The question with the highest score was question 10: "I need to learn a lot of things before I can start using this app."
Round 1 findings
1
Navigation was confusing
"It took me some time to figure out how to get to the favorites page."
2
UI elements were too small
"I have bad vision, so some of the icons were difficult to see."
3
Two search bars on the favorites page was confusing
"I don't understand why there are two search bars on the favorites page."
Before
After
Top navigation removed.
Explore page added to provide a central place to search for musicians and their projects.
Low-fidelity prototype
The low-fidelity prototype connected the user flow of navigating the app, searching for an album, adding an album to the favorites page, and pinning something to the home page, so the prototype could be used in a usability study with users.
View the MusiTrack
low-fidelity prototype.
Refining the design
Mockups
Sticker Sheet
Round 2 Usability Study Findings
1
Interactive elements needed to be less limited
"When I go to someone's profile I want to be able to tap anywhere, not just their profile picture."
2
Users wanted the ability to view more types of statistics
"I want to see where these sales are coming from."
3
Animation needed to be added to certain interactions
"When I tap on the menu icon it feels slightly jarring because it appears so suddenly."
High-fidelity Prototype
Adding cleaner, more intuitive, animation was a goal after the second usability study.
Before usability study
_gif.gif)
After usability study
_gif.gif)
High-fidelity prototype
The final high-fidelity prototype presented cleaner user flows, interaction, and animation.
View the MusiTrack
high-fidelity prototype.
Accessibility considerations
1
Colors meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
2
Text added beneath important icons to display what they are for.
3
Menu includes an accessibility section which will have features such as screen reader technology available.
Going forward
Takeaways
Impact:
MusiTrack allows users to track music sales in a fun and easily digestible way.
One quote from peer feedback:
“This is an app I would be glued to when my friends and favorite artists release new music.”
What I learned:
While designing MusiTrack, I learned how important it is to make design decisions with your target audience in mind. MusiTrack has two separate target audiences with conflicting needs, which created challenges when designing MusiTrack.
Next steps
1
Conduct another round of usability studies to validate whether the pain points users experienced have been effectively addressed.
2
Conduct more user research to determine any new areas of need.
3
Provide the option to view even more detailed statistics within the app.
bottom of page