1. Brief1. Brief

Exploratory Research

We began with the research question: "Why aren't the Millennials going to the Symphony?" This question led to a string of other questions, such as:

  • How do Millennials feel about the symphony? 
  • Can they afford it? How much are they willing to spend on a night out?
  • When are they currently listening to music? What are they using to do this?
  • Do they know about Sound Box, an experimental series targeted towards a younger audience?

But before we could come up with a potential solution, we had to understand what the SF Symphony was about.
After browsing their site, we discovered SoundBox.

What is SoundBox
It's a series of experimental events hosted by the Symphony, as part of their current efforts to attracting millennials.
The show includes drinks and snacks, creating an "orchestra-meets-nightclub" atmosphere.

Methodologies Used:

Created an online survey to learn about people's experience with the symphony and their music-listening habits. There were 30+ respondents, giving us some important quantitative data:

•  90% of participants listen to music on their phones
•  88% of them listen to music during commute
•  Spotify & Pandora are the most popular apps for music

User Interviews

Conducted 10 user interviews to get qualitative data on how the symphony was perceived. Some interesting insights were revealed: 

•  "Classical music is scary, there's so much to choose from. It's like Russian Roulette."
•  "I think of formal old people in suits"
•  "I'm curious about music theory, but don't have the time or energy for more work."

Competitive Analysis

Deriving from the quantitative & qualitative results, it was clear that our product should be a classical music discovery app for mobile devices. 

To understand the current market space, I compared and analyzed the features of 11 different music apps, including Spotify, Pandora, Sonata, Houston Symphony. 

Synthesis

Patterns started to emerge as we started to consolidate the results of our research by constructing an Affinity Map.
We created a summary of findings, which showed:
•   Our findings on the Millennials
•   ​​​​​​Our solutions addressing each discovery
•   How each solution translated into a specific feature in our app

3 personas were created based on the information gathered from the survey and user interviews.

 

All 3 of our personas fall within the definition of Millennials, but Sam was our primary focus.
Based on our survey results, he represents the majority of our customer base.

Some details on Sam: 
•  He's single and in his late 20's
•  He doesn't own a car and has an entry level job
•  He likes Electronic Music, he's tech-savvy and highly connected on social media

His main goals are:
•  Kill time by listening to music during his daily commute
•  Discover new music
•  Find inexpensive entertainment with friends
•  Impress girls with classical music knowledge :) 

Ideation & Iterations

We went through the ideation process by holding multiple team design studios. We quickly moved into paper prototyping driven by the insights from our research.

KEY AREAS OF FOCUS:

  1. Easy Onboarding Process: 
    • Allow users to import existing songs/playlists from existing music apps, such as Spotify or Pandora
  2. Emphasis on Social Aspect:
    • "Events & Tickets" section: increase exposure to events & ticket sales, and allow users to share event with friends
    • "Friends' Feed" section: allow users to see events that their friends are attending, and the music they're listening to 
  3. Incorporating Educational Component: 
    • Allow users to discover classical music, by linking the song currently being played to its classical ancestor 
    • Display music visualizations to engage users, and to break down different elements of music (rhythm, melody, harmony)

 

Design Studio

The team did multiple ideation cycles of rapid sketching and critiquing. 

Sitemap & User Flows

 We created user flows based on our 3 personas.

User Testing

We conducted 5+ usability testing on paper and digital prototypes.

Defining the Solution

Easy Onboarding Process: 
Allow users to import existing songs/playlists from existing music apps, such as Spotify or Pandora

Increase exposure of symphony events by including the "Events & Tickets" section for easy access to view upcoming event details, and to purchase tickets

Music Visualizer

Display music visualizations to engage users, and to break down different elements of music (rhythm, melody, harmony)

Allow users to discover classical music, by linking the song currently being played to its classical ancestor