Overview
INTRODUCTION
As a passionate follower of underground and independent music, I love the unique ecosystem Soundcloud has created for both creators and listeners to connect with each other. However, I believe that there is more Soundcloud could do to create a better experience for their users, both casual listeners and die-hard fans alike.
OBJECTIVE
Uncover and understand user pain points when using Soundcloud and ideate simple and achievable solutions to create a better listening and exploring experience.
SCOPE & LIMITATIONS
1. I do not work for, or have any professional affiliation with Soundcloud, and I made inferences on stakeholder objects and business goals based on assumptions and independent research
2. Usability testing was only conducted on listeners, and not content creators
OUTCOME
1. Reduced cognitive overload and friction in the music search process
2. Allowed users to find an artist's most recent music on their profile page
3. Made it easier to discover new music based on an artist criteria
Research
GUERRILLA USABILITY TESTING
To uncover user pain points, I conducted guerrilla usability tests in city parks around San Francisco. While the selection process was randomized, I was able to find a sample of 7 users that regularly used music streaming apps, and would be potential Soundcloud users.
For the tests, I ran users through common scenarios and tasks they might encounter when using Soundcloud to uncover any common pain points.
UNDERSTANDING USER & BUSINESS GOALS
Before the usability tests, I asked users about their music listening habits to understand their behaviors and goals when using music streaming apps. I also did independent research on Soundcloud's business to make inferences about stakeholder objectives. Through these research methods, I assumed the following priorities on each side:
Synthesis
AFFINITY MAPPING
After analyzing the user tests, I was able to gather data points by category and build common insights and patterns to synthesize. I found that users often struggled with areas where the Soundcloud's design didn't match with the users' expectations or mental models.
PRIORITIZATION
Using the business and user goals I established in the research phase, I was able to map out insights from the user testing on a 2x2 plot based on their importance to both users and the business. The insights in the top right quadrant became the key pain points I considered in my design solutions.
For users, I prioritized pain points that impeded usability, finding new music, and music discovery. For the business, I prioritized pain points that would keep users from being engaged, returning to the app, or from subscribing to the premium service.
Plotting the insights on the 2x2 allowed me to visually see the hierarchy of pain points by comparing each one's importance to user goals vs. business goals.
KEY PAIN POINTS
3/7 users had cognitive load and friction when searching for artists/tracks
6/7 users couldn't find recent music by a specific artist
6/7 users either couldn't find the "Station" feature, or did not understand its function to find suggested music
5/7 users expected to find a "suggested artists" section in the artist profile
3/7 user were distracted by the top card of the artist profile page, and were not aware of its functions
Design
DESIGN FOCUS
Finding the key pain points allowed me to focus my design solutions on specific areas:
Search page for artist & tracks
Highlight the artist/track they're searching for
Reduce cognitive load in the search process
Artist profile page
Create a clear section for recent music
Create a "Suggested Artists" feature and make the "Station" feature more obvious
Make the top card of the artist profile more functional and less confusing
DIVERGENT IDEATION
After establishing the design focus, I began crafting rapid pen and paper sketches to ideate a wide variety of solutions for each feature on each page. This process of high speed and high volume ideation allowed me to efficiently develop a large bank of divergent concepts to draw on.
CONVERGENT IDEATION
Using my pool of divergent concepts, I drew on the best ideas and converged on solutions that not only solved the problems, but were also achievable and realistic. This meant avoiding breaking Soundcloud's current interaction designs. Because the key pain points were not caused by visual elements, I also maintained Soundcloud's colors, branding, typefaces, and visual components to stay within their design system.
Results
PROTOTYPE & VALIDATION
After drafting the high fidelity designs, I created a prototype of the Soundcloud app to test and validate my solutions. Through testing the prototype with 5 users, I validated that my solutions had the following impact:
5/5 users found a specific track/artist through the search page, compared to 4/7 users before
4/5 users found music similar to a specific artist, compared to 1/7 users before
5/5 users found an artist's most recent music, compared to 0/7 users before
FINAL THOUGHTS
I was surprised with how many behaviors and pain points I could uncover with a few guerrilla usability test. I also found common issues with the Soundcloud app that affect key user goals that I would not have expected, even as a power user myself. However, through some very simple and feasible design changes, I believe that Soundcloud would be able to create a better experience for its users, and in turn, improve their business metrics as well.
