Background

The music streaming service, Tidal, is coming out with a new feature called TurnUp that allows users to simultaneously play music through multiple devices. This could be used to create a multi-room audio system or to share music with family and friends. The objective of the project was to design the user experience and interface of TurnUp. This project was part of the Designlab UX design program.

UX STRATEGY

I created a UX strategy document to summarize the goal, expected use, design criteria, and success metrics for the project.

Vision

Tidal will provide a full-feature music player with built-in music syncing capabilities. TurnUp will allow users to seamlessly sync music across devices from anywhere.

Circumstances of Use
  • Who: People between 15 and 30 yeas of age who use a smartphone and either currently use a music streaming service or are looking to.
  • What: Music syncing between devices, one device controls the music queue and volume of all connected devices.
  • Where: In the Tidal app, Tidal newsletter, the Tidal website, or the app update.
  • When: Most likely seeing the new feature in the Tidal menu or app update, seeing it in a Tidal newsletter or on the Tidal website, or hearing about it from friends/family.
  • Why: A person wants to sync music across devices and comes across Tidal’s TurnUp feature in their research, or a person is exposed to TurnUp through someone they know.
Design Criteria
  • The TurnUp experience should enhance the current Tidal experience, not detract: Reuse existing functionality where possible.
  • Promote widespread adoption of TurnUp among current user base: Make TurnUp easily accessible in the Tidal app.
  • Integrate TurnUp design into the Tidal design: Use the Tidal style guide and UI kit to create a similar look and feel to TurnUp.
Success Metrics
  • An increase in the number of new customers in the six months after TurnUp’s release as compared to the six months prior to TurnUp’s release.
  • If 13% of music streaming service users would definitely use a syncing feature like TurnUp, then we’d like at least 6% of the current customer base to actually use TurnUp within the first six months of the feature’s release.

Research

I performed competitive analysis on other music streaming and music syncing services. I found that the most important feature was how well the devices synced followed by how easy to use the music syncing feature was.

I also surveyed 40 music listeners on their behaviors and how likely they would use a music syncing feature. What stood out in the results the most was that 87% of respondents indicated they would not use the feature or were not sure if they would use the feature. Therefore, conversion and retainment were especially important.

PERSONAS

Based on the research results of the demographics and behaviors of the music listeners, I created the following persona that captured the scenario of a user wanting to sync music with her friends.

persona

Interaction Design

USER FLOWS

Because it was important to be able to easily convert users, I focused on creating a seamless integration of the TurnUp feature into the existing Tidal experience so that both existing and new users would be able to easily use TurnUp. Successfully creating this integration started with the user flows for the following scenarios:

  • Accessing TurnUp
  • Adding music to the TurnUp feature
  • Creating a TurnUp group
  • Joining a TurnUp group
  • Managing a TurnUp group (control volume and group members)

Click to open image in a new tab user-flows

WIREFRAMES

Then I created low fidelity wireframes for the different user flows. I focused on maintaining consistency with type, spacing, content, and elements. I also added the TurnUp feature to the main navigation for easy access.

Click to open image in a new tab wireframes

USABILITY TEST

I ran an in-person usability test with a user from the targeted demographic. The user was a daily user of Spotify but had never used or heard of Tidal. I created a prototype using Marvel and recorded the user's actions while completing a list of scenarios I gave him. The notable area of confusion was how to add music to TurnUp when the TurnUp queue is empty. So I modified the instructions in the empty TurnUp queue screen to be more clear and added an animated video of how to select the song's options menu and add it to your TurnUp queue. I performed a usability test on the same user with this modification and he found it to be much easier to understand.

Conclusion

Then I created the high fidelity mockups. Below is how the user would access the TurnUp feature through the main menu on the home screen.

tidal-gif

These are all of the high fidelity screens. Maintaining visual consistency between the current Tidal design and the TurnUp design was the main priority.

Click to open image in a new tab finalscreens