Band Website
Change From Understanding
Initially this project revolved around designing an album listening & ordering flow. Through the process of iteration and understanding I adjusted the site to be a pure band site aimed at getting users information related to various aspects of the band / artist instead of just focusing on the album aspect.
Roles and Responsibilities
For this project I was the full UX designer and my responsibilities included research, user research, usability studies, paper & digital wireframing, low & high-fidelity prototyping, and iterating on designs.
Challenge in the Process
With this project, instead of relying on utilizing Figma for designs from start to finish I opted to try my hand at Adobe XD and understand the differences in designs as well as usability of both products.
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This presented a challenge of having to learn a new program I was mostly unfamiliar with. Although this was a challenge, I was able to learn and use previous knowledge gained from other projects to understand how to use Adobe XD.
User Research
To understand the users who would be best served by this website I conducted user interviews to find many ways that users utilize websites for their favorite music artists and what motivates them to visit a band’s website. The primary user group for this was those who enjoy specific artists / styles (rock / metal / industrial) and seek out artist websites in order to invest either time or money into finding albums, touring info, or merchandise.
Through this research I learned that not a lot of users utilize artist websites to specifically stream their music but instead use it as a means to find the platform they’d like to listen to the music on. They also utilize band websites as a primary means of finding merchandise.
Sitemaps to Wireframes
In my sitemap my goal was to provide an extensive artist website that included more than just a focus on the music. I wanted to provide a means for a user to access all facets of the artist’s information
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Initial designs focused on how I could possibly provide a one page or multi-page website for users to access more details about the artist and their catalog of music
Low-Fi Designs
Through the process of iteration on low-fi wireframes I was able to better understand what users truly wanted when it came to browsing for and listening to their favorite artist’s music.
Low to High
After a few rounds of usability studies I was able to make adjustments to my designs as well as put forth higher fidelity mockups. These designs were adjusted to consider iconography as well as the placement of images and how they impact the user
It's All Coming Together
After additional usability studies and understanding I was able to complete my designs and implement a high-fidelity prototype.
This final iteration gave users a better workflow through the process of learning more and accessing an artist’s discography as well as a focus on iconography and images.
Takeaways and Next Steps
Throughout this study I learned to focus not necessarily on “re-building” an already existing platform (streaming services) and instead focused on ways for users to connect with the artist as well as find their music.
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Moving forward I plan to continue iterating on designs as well as seeking feedback from musicians so I can better understand their desires for website functionality. I'll also take some time to complete more competitive analyses to better understand how other artists approach user designs for their fans.