Better Sound
Giving users the ability to have audio settings on their phones and computer.
Overview
Problem
Phones don’t have an audio equalizer. This means that when streaming music the only control you have is how loud or quiet the music is.
Responsibilities
I created storyboards, wireframing, interacted with development for technical feasibility, created a low-fidelity prototype, and iterated with key stakeholders through development.
Project Length
(2 weeks) The project was started with a one week design sprint. From there it was iterated on and completed in under 2 weeks.
My Role
User Experience, User Interface Design, Research, Low, Mid and Hi Fidelity Prototyping, User Journey Map and Graphic Design
User Journey Map
Having the user journey map helps show what is crucial for the user. The user journey map is also a simple competitive audit, showing what we could improve on to make Better Sound stand out.
User Flow
A clearly defined user flow helps us spot and eliminate dead ends, pain points, or confusing steps where users are having trouble.
Research
Quantitative
Music is huge in the world, the ability to find research already completed was a huge help and sped up the process. The data found shows many things that impacted the user interface and user experience design. The key takeaways are that people don’t know what sound frequencies are, or what adjusting them does. The other key point is that it needs to be simple and easy to use.
Qualitative
User Testing
1st Round- With the initial wireframe complete, participants were asked to do two things. First was to point out where they think the presets are. After that they were asked where they would click to go to equalizer. 9 out of 10 were able to complete the tasks. One participant did not know where to go to find the equalizer. The purpose of this test was to see if without any text or symbols if the app would be intuitive to use.
2nd Round- With the initial round showing that the layout was intuitive and easy for the user to navigate without any guidance the focus turned to accessibility and functionality. Again 10 participants were used. They were asked to navigate from the home screen to save a preset. 10/10 were able to do it without any issues. Next they were asked to do the same thing on the computer app. All participants were able to complete the path with only one issue coming up. The issue was that there was no way to say which equalizer they were saving for the presets.
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3rd Round- Before conducting the round the changes were implemented and then given to participants to use. The same questions were asked from the 1st and 2nd round. No issues came up and all users were able to complete the tasks. The users were then asked to play with the app on their own for a while. From watching this it was discovered that there was no indication showing which preset you have selected currently from the home screen. This was corrected by adding an overlay and text saying that it is the selected one.
Story Boarding
storyboards help tell the stories of the users. Based on data and combined with other UX activities, they help take the focus off our internal bias and help us empathize with our users.
The storyboards are based off of the personas. The personas show us that the user needs it to be easy to switch between audio presets.
