N X  L A B E L

Music | Responsive web

NX LABEL (personal project) is a unique aesthetic music platform, enabling users to discover up and coming artists from the UK. Focusing on promoting the most distinctive new artists and original sounds. The platform enables users to follow, discover new artists, stay updated with the latest music and events as well as watch the latest visuals from artists.

Role:
UX/UI Designer

Tools:
Pen & Paper | Adobe XD | Illustrator | Photoshop | InVision

BACKGROUND

From personal experiences I felt I wasn’t informed about the latest music and activities from my favourite artists. Such as:

  • Shows and events
  • Latest songs
  • Latest visuals

This is due to the artists I listen to not being mainstream. In order to be kept more informed about my favourite artists, I would often have to follow them on other social platforms. However this was not always successful due to the amount of content on social platforms.

RESEARCH

In order to validate my idea of a music platform tailored for the less mainstream artists based in the UK, I decided to create and send out a survey which was then followed by some potential user interviews. From the survey I was able to produce some data to analyse which would provide more insight to potential users. With the follow up interviews I was able to pick out more pain points which aligned with mine.

Existing Platforms Analysis

Further research was conducted on the most commonly used platforms highlighted by users from the survey and interviews, based on pain points.

Spotify has a subscribe to artist feature which sends you notifications when new tracks & albums are added to that artist’s profile. However, I found this ineffective as they would often notify me on artists I don’t follow. Spotify also doesn’t notify you when an artist has released new visuals.

Soundcloud another music platform has a stream page, which is a personalised feed that keeps the user up to date with the people they follow. The stream page displays tracks, playlists and repost from people you follow in a chronological order. However, Soundcloud doesn’t inform users of events and visuals.

I then grouped findings using affinity diagram methodology to further organise the research and help define the problem statement.

Affinity diagram

Combing the user research, platform analysis and affinity map, I was then able to create a user persona to keep the user at the centre of the design to ensure goals are met.

From all the research I was able to define NX Label and list features that will add value to the user and must be incorporated into the design of the web platform.

Goals

  1. Easily discover the latest music, visuals and events from artists subscribed to
  2. Provide news and updates of UK artists
  3. Link to Spotify
  4. Integrate Youtube for visuals

APPROACH

With NX label defined and features decided, I started the design process by creating a site map to represent the hierarchical structure of the website and group content.

Site map

Low Fidelity Wireframe

Utilising responsive web design approach, clickable low fidelity wireframe mock ups were created for both desktop and mobile simultaneously. However I focused more on the mobile version as there is less real estate to work with and I found it easier to add content than remove. The design was based on results from research and goals highlighted with the aid of the site map for the navigation of the website.

NX LABEL MID FIDELITY 2
NX LABEL MID FIDELITY 1

During the design process, I created a mood board  to help with the mock up process and define the brand identify, gain direction and inspiration from different styles and motifs.

OUTCOME

Combining the low fidelity wireframe mock ups and styles guide a high-fidelity mock up was created.

Artist about page
Artist music page
Artist videos page
Similar artist page

FUTURE RECOMMENDATIONS

Moving forward, my recommendations for the future of NX LABEL would be:

  • More social features. The ability to follow friends and create music groups with friends to share songs
  • Automatic playlist creation. Combination of Algorithm and API system to capture taste and favourite songs of
    people joining playlist.
  • Create a recommended page. Page tailored for the user to recommend new music based on recommendation
    algorithm via ‘like and ‘dislike buttons’
  • Link other music platforms. This would make NX label more inclusive for everyone
  • Create NX LABEL APP. Enhance user experience with more functionalities and features
NEXT PROJECT