Mobile & Desktop App
Project
Conceptual Case Study
My Role
UX/UI Designer
Tools
Figma Framer Illustrator Procreate
Timeline
2024
Description
Bubble is a premium music streaming and sharing app designed to connect passionate fans with emerging artists. It combines high-quality streaming, a social hub for real-time artist updates, and career resources to help musicians evolve. With an intuitive design, Bubble fosters a vibrant community where music lovers and creators thrive together.
Context
This case study covers the design of a music app for emerging artists and fans. It tackles exposure challenges with user-centered design, offering personalised recommendations, artist engagement tools, and social features to build a vibrant community.
Problem
New musicians face challenges in gaining visibility and standing out in the crowded music industry, where streaming platforms host vast amounts of content, including low-quality tracks. This makes it hard for emerging artists to be taken seriously and for listeners to find quality music. Additionally, musicians lack effective tools for promotion and audience insights, while limited customisation options hinder their ability to connect with fans. The absence of social interactions further complicates sharing and enjoying music with friends. These barriers create significant obstacles for new musicians trying to succeed.
Process
I used a user-centric approach with iterative design and testing to ensure the app met the target audience's needs. This involved analysing market trends, user preferences, challenges faced by emerging musicians, and music discovery behaviours. Insights from research helped define project goals and key challenges. I created wireframes and prototypes, refining designs based on user feedback, and developed high-fidelity wireframes.
Solution
With intuitive discovery tools and social engagement features the app addresses exposure challenges for artists while offering a unique, community-driven experience for users. The final product meets both user and potential business goals, creating a vibrant platform for discovering and supporting new music. The features included are, a niche environment, Marketing, live performance and music production resources, an immersive listening feature, a community driven environment, track share and a customisable interface.
Process Work
Music Streaming/Sharing App Survey
Sections:
Demographics: Age, gender, location.
Music Habits: Listening frequency, platforms, favourite genres.
Discovery & Engagement: How you find new music, preferred app features.
Supporting Artists: Interest in new artists, ways to encourage support.
Feedback: Challenges in discovering music, desired app features, suggestions.
The surveys for the project are designed to gather quantitative data from both emerging musicians and passionate music enthusiasts.
They will cover demographic information, music listening habits, discovery and engagement behaviours, and preferences for app features.
The surveys aim to understand the challenges users face in discovering new music and what features would encourage them to support emerging artists.
The insights gained will help us tailor the app’s design and functionality to better meet the needs of our target audience and enhance the overall user experience.
Competitive Audits
Conducting a competitive analysis was crucial for shaping the app by identifying market gaps and opportunities to differentiate the product.
It allowed me to understand best practices and successful user engagement strategies from leading platforms, set benchmarks for user experience and functionality, and avoid common pitfalls.
This analysis also informed the feature prioritisation, ensuring that the app focuses on high-impact functionalities and delivers a unique and competitive user experience that supports emerging musicians and caters to niche music enthusiasts.
User Personas
The user Personas played a crucial role in the development of the app's features and design, by providing a detailed understanding of the target users' needs, behaviours, and goals.
Project Goals
The combined project goals focus on enhancing exposure and success for emerging musicians while facilitating music discovery and engagement for users.
By creating a supportive and interactive community, I aim to foster connections between artists and listeners.
The app will provide a premium, user-centric experience to encourage user loyalty and subscription upgrades.
Expanding market presence and brand recognition, I will differentiate my app through exclusive content and innovative features, continuously adapting to industry trends to maintain competitiveness and relevance.
How Might We Questions
I developed a list of 'How might we' questions to help clarify the issues that need addressing and to guide my problem-solving efforts.
How might we help new musicians stand out and gain visibility in a crowded music industry?
How might we streamline the discovery process for music enthusiasts seeking high-quality, new music?
How might we provide musicians with effective tools to promote their music and understand their audience demographics?
How might we offer artists more customisation options to create a personalised and engaging presence?
How might we create a vibrant community where artists, industry professionals, and fans can connect and interact?
Low-Fidelity Wireframes
During the ideate phase of the project, I explored a wide range of design possibilities through the creation and iteration of Low-Fidelity wireframes.
This process involved experimenting with various layouts and user interfaces to determine the most effective and appealing design for the app.
By testing different combinations and gathering feedback, I was able to refine the functional aspects of the app to best meet the needs of users and provide an engaging experience.
Information Architecture
Establishing the Information Architecture (IA) was essential in organizing the app's content and structuring the user experience, which greatly streamlined the design process.
By mapping out how information is grouped, labeled, and navigated, I ensured that users could easily find and interact with content, creating a logical flow throughout the app.
This clarity in structure guided the development of wireframes and prototypes, ensuring that each design element was purposefully placed and aligned with user needs. Ultimately, the IA served as a foundation for intuitive navigation and a seamless user experience, making the design process more efficient and focused.
High-Fidelity Wireframes
As I transitioned from low-fidelity to High-Fidelity wireframes, the focus shifted from basic layout and functionality to incorporating detailed design elements and branding.
The high-fidelity wireframes included the app's colour scheme, typography, and imagery, ensuring a cohesive visual identity.
I refined UI components like buttons and icons for better usability and added more detailed content and interactive elements to reflect the final user experience.
This process allowed me to visualise the app in its near-final form, ensuring that it not only functioned well but also aligned with my branding and design goals.
Prototyping
The high-fidelity wireframes shaped the Prototype by providing a detailed and visually accurate blueprint of the app, complete with refined UI components, colour schemes, typography, and branding elements.
This detailed design ensured that the prototype accurately reflected the intended user experience, incorporating realistic interactions and navigation flows.
By basing the prototype on high-fidelity wireframes, I was able to create a functional and visually cohesive model of the app.
