Chord Progression
Research, Design Process, and User Solutions
Case Study
MOBILE APP
About the project
Chord Progression is a passion project stemming from my love of music and gamification of learning. I had two weeks to complete some basic UX research as well as ideate and create a user-centered solution from wireframes to mid-fidelity prototype.
Timeline
2 weeks
My Role
Product Designer
Tools
Figma
Photoshop
Problem Statement
Music learners need a fun and engaging way to practice and grow their music theory knowledge in order to become better musicians.
Design Process
-
Research
Interviews
Competitive Analysis
Affinity Map
User Personas
-
Ideate/Solution
Rapid sketches
Low-fidelity prototype
User Test
Mid-fidelity prototype
User Test
Recommendations and next steps
Research
User Interviews and Affinity Mapping
I conducted 4 interviews with casual music students (the potential user group) and 2 interviews with music teachers about how music theory fits into their instrument practice, as well as their dislikes and likes when it comes to music learning.
From these interviews I extrapolated and categorized thoughts and feelings into an Affinity Map (see left) and concluded three major insights to move forward with in ideating a solution.
Insights
Teachers have very little time to cover music theory in class and lessons and don’t have time and brain space outside class to create materials they know will work.
Music students find theory boring, but they have seen improvements when they do dedicate the effort towards theory.
Music theory is a complex topic that can be overwhelming and confusing, frustrating music learners
Research
Competitive Analysis
I took a look at three direct competitors (Music Theory Practice Apps - )that could potentially offer a solution to this group and three indirect competitors (Game-style learning apps for subjects other than Music) and analyzed them to see what they were doing well, not so well, and where there was opportunity for this product to fill the needs they were not.
Strengths
All the apps were simple and easy to use
Theory apps have a variety of exercises in various music theory subjects
Many gamified learning apps used bright colors and fun characters to make content engaging
Weaknesses
All three theory apps felt like digital textbook/workbooks
Theory apps only offered multiple choice questions with repetitive format
Learning apps required set up time - teachers/users either need to build the games themselves or sift through the library to find something tailored to their needs
Opportunities
Provide guided games based on users level
Fun and engaging, not just like digitizing a theory text book
Gear it toward kids & casual learners, not serious collegiate students
Incorporate things that make other game learning apps so addictive - rewards/badges, community, fun characters & colors, variety
Empathize
User Personas
From the affinity map insights and looking at what features the competition was offering, I created three user personas to keep in mind who would be using this product through the rest of the process. I attributed quotes to these users directly from the interviews conducted earlier.
Ideation
Rapid Sketches and Low-Fi Mockup
Ideation
Usability Test
I chose to prototype a low fidelity mock up based on the sketches which I felt had the best opportunity to showcase engaging game formats.
The low-fi mockup was then tested on two users, who were asked to complete a game level. This task was chosen to ensure the game formats ideated were easy to understand and use.
Task: Complete a game level
100%
Task Completion
Fewer than 3 minutes
Time to complete each game format
Solution
Mid/High-Fidelity Prototype
A mid-fidelity prototype was the final deliverable required, but extra time allowed for some additional elements to be applied. This is in no way a full high-fidelity, so think of it somewhere between mid and high.
Home Screen - from here users can select the category of theory they’d like to work on. There are currently three game styles in each theory section.
Games were tweaked based on user feed back from the Low-Fi usability tests. Game show, the jeopardy-like format, was the most popular choice for user test subjects.
Common game app elements such as communities and user accomplishments were incorporated to keep users engaged and have something to work towards.
Solution
Usability Test
After creating the mid-fi mockup, I conducted another user test on 3 users and gave them 3 tasks to complete
Complete a game - same as the low-fi test, to make sure the games were still easy to understand.
Edit your notification settings - as this is a common thing users expect in any app.
View your followers lists - as community elements are vital to keeping users interested in gamified learning apps.
100%
Task Completion
Mid-Fidelity Prototype
Test it yourself!
Reflections
The main question I asked myself through this process is do I think this is a good solution to our problem statement?
“Music learners need a fun and engaging way to practice and grow their music theory knowledge in order to become better musicians.”
It’s on the right track - it satisfies the user need for a fun, engaging yet simple way to practice theory, but there is one place where I think there is opportunity is practical examples. It was emphasised by both teachers and students in research, so it is important. It was really difficult in such a short time frame to think of many game formats and how to use them to not only enforce theory concepts, but to show it in real pieces of music in a way that fit the fun and engaging format I tried to create with this game. I have some ideas of how that could be done, but haven’t fully formulated and tested them.
I think there is also an opportunity to make the app and games even more fun and engaging in the UI phase, which was not in the scope of this project. Things that other learning apps use like animations and characters to make things learned memorable but also establish a brand identity to their app. I also have ideas for this, but again it was out of scope for this project and would be considered a next step.