Can I turn my passion for writing original songs for loved ones into something more than a hobby?
As a music therapist and songwriter, I wrote original songs for friends’ weddings, birthdays & even lullabies for friends’ babies. It was a hit! People loved it and would be overcome with emotion and express how much they loved their songs- the novelty of it, never receiving something like that before, and also the special touch of music, seemed to make this gift pretty unique.
So pre-UX Design, I looked at one other website that a friend had said did something similar and then I (poorly) designed my own website... It was a short lived hustle and I gladly put it to rest until I pivoted into the world of UX Design. I wanted to give it another go, but now I was equipped with the right tools.
Are people actually interested enough in purchasing personalized songs as gifts?
Without the proper & thorough research, I can now see the major steps I unknowingly skipped that could have drastically affected my product as a whole. So for my Capstone 2 project, I wanted to challenge myself again- not to create just any e-commerce website, but tackle a niche problem space that could really put my newly learned UX Design skills to the test.
A revamped user flow that is efficient and delightful to help the purchase process.
The competition scored low in at least one category across the board, which creates risk in an unsaturated market.
For in-depth insight into this product space and opportunity for solutions, I ran a competitive analysis and then a heuristic evaluation to further evaluate 3 experts in the industry that sold custom songs. As an e-commerce website that sells a unique product, I chose the following heuristics for my evaluation, finding room for improvement in at least one of the following heuristics:
.png)
- Visibility of system status
- Match between system & real world
- Recognition rather than recall
What do customers want to see included in their songs?
Although I had prior data from my background and experience as a music therapist and first attempt, I knew I needed to conduct proper user interviews to gather solid information. Research questions are as follows:
1. What is their view on giving and receiving gifts?
2. What motivations do they have in giving personalized songs?
3. What would help them start and complete the purchasing process?
Users want to give practical, yet meaningful & tangible gifts.
After coding notes from the user interviews, I found that users expressed a desire for personalization, novelty, and tangibility within the product space, in addition to efficiency and knowledge of the product itself.
Meet Cathy.
After coding notes from the user interviews, I found that users expressed a desire for personalization, novelty, and tangibility within the product space, in addition to efficiency and knowledge of the product itself.
%202%20(1).png)
Balance is key.
Auditing the competition was also helpful to see the standard of this product space, by incorporating their strengths in creating a smooth user flow, in addition to the insights gathered from my user interviews.
Too much user control can lead to information overload
After conducting 2 rounds of usability tests, I was able to iterate and fine-tune the overall UI Design and user flows. The most critical issues are as follows:
1. Keep it concise
Problem: Users don’t want to input information more than they need to
Solution: Condense the number of pages and amount of free writing required
2. Match system to real world
Problem: The order/layout of the checkout process was not the “norm”
Solution: Conduct further research to make sure the checkout process matches other processes
3. Further define the copy
Problem: Terms such as “genre” can be interpreted differently to users
Solution: Add an optional text box where users can input preferred songs or artists they would like their song to sound like
The Style Guide
I wanted to create something fun, vibrant, yet trustworthy.
My main takeaways.
This was my 2nd capstone project and I was grateful to have a second go at my prior passion project- to tie my past to my present was fun to recreate and endeavor again. My main takeaways are as follows:
1. You can trust yourself.
There have been moments where I second guessed myself, but in the end, I realized my intuition was right and that I can trust myself.
2. Research, research, research.
This project made me appreciate the research process so much more. The differences I realized and the information I gained from my past attempt to my current attempt are crucial landslides.
.png)
