Heya

In my diploma thesis I focused on the topic of "Social Music". I've experienced how music streaming changed the way we listen to music. We share less music with our friends and since the pandemic we also can't join a party or concert and celebrate music live together. We rather just listen alone.

The Problem

Music streaming changed the way we listen to music. Most of us rarely share music or connect on it with other people. The driving force behind the digital age is algorithm. Music streaming platforms inundate you with new content and you aren’t expected or encouraged to keep track of how much you consume. The social part of listening to music has been lost, especially now during the Covid-19 pandemic. You can’t attend listening parties or concerts, never mind connecting with a larger group of friends over your jams.

→ Make music social again

The goal of “heya” is to offer a fresh and innovative music sharing platform that emphasizes the shift from our everyday world to the current online reality. A platform that creates a subtle way to interact with each other and discover new content. Shape our music-listening habits through the efforts of a new personalized hybrid, one that combines the algorithm with social interactivity data to bring people back together again. Listening to music is one of the many wonderful ways that connect us, and heya will not only reintroduce this connection but sustain it through both the good times and the bad

History

For a long time music was only a live event, but with the rise of technology we experienced a lot of revolutions. The change of the medium shaped the way we listened to music. From haptic content, later a few megabytes, we now have almost everything in our pocket.

Music streaming is one of the most popular ways in which consumers interact with streaming media. In the age of digitization, the private consumption of music transformed into a public good. But how is music social?

Designing for a Community

There are currently three different levels. The artists provide their music on different channels and thereby create a fanbase. The platform e.g. music streaming decides what content appears on the top and which don't. They curate certain content to the user with their algorithm. Sometimes they almost decide for us what we are listening to. As a leading part of the music industry they shape the way we listen to artists. The user is just the consumer and the platform directs the user in his habits. A real community is not really exciting 

User Testing
Preparing for our user tests through the DECIDE framework.

Persona
Based on the real people we've met; helped us personalize the experience by using them as valuable reference.

MoSCoW Method
Made prioritizing features and managing scope much easier.

Social Music

Music gets social when we turn it into social music tech. A technology that strongly pushes to connect people trough music. I view social music tech as the products which leverage both music, something inherently social in its very nature and technology in order to uniquely spark conversation and interaction.

Benchmark Analysis

To build a strong understanding of the music streaming products, comparing them to popular social networks and community apps. Through this comparison I looked for ways to create a more social experience when designing Heya.

Many existing social music features appear and disappear, feeling boring and forced.

Pain Points

An essential part of my approach to design interactive systems is an understanding that it should put people first.

① Recommendations
How do I send a song recommendation to a friend?

② Feedback
How do I find out if my friend enjoyed the song?

③ Community
How do we learn what our friends are listening to?

Site Map

After I brainstormed potential solutions and analyzed pain points, I created a detailed site map outlining where each of heya's features would be developed. This allowed us to get a grasp into how the platform would work system-wide.

For my monitor flows, this stage helped me distinguish the structure and constraints I would need to consider as music is send and recommend.

Validating decisions

Validating decisions through a feedback loop with the community. The overarching goal was to identify any gaps in my knowledge, overlooked issues and friction points with the decisions made so far.

→ Visibility
Social features in streaming services are often hidden and the most people aren't aware of them.

→ Interaction

Push interaction with others, rather than consume the data driven content of streaming services.  

→ In-App Experience 

Don't leave the app to send content to others or react. Stay in the heya universe.

Wireframes

I began the ideation process with the main problems and started to develop how this new product might look like and how it would solve these challenges. After several rounds of development and lots of feedback from friends, colleagues and professors, I created the final wireframes and went to work prototype designing the final app.

The Brand

Once I moved from ideation phase to prototyping, I decided to build the brand and a  visual design guideline together to make sure that all design elements were cohesive throughout the process.

The Prototype

After a long three months, the final solution is a new solution that helps to interact with a community about music. For users this new service is an invaluable step up from what they currently have in many different ways: