In order to fully understand how well our prototype will do in front of actual users, we had 5 participants fully test our prototype and compare it to our fellow competitor Shazam. By having the users perform various tasks, it allowed us to evaluate our prototype and see where we currently stand in terms of releasing the actual product. Through our testing we were able to identify the strengths and weaknesses of our prototype and how we compare to actual products on the market.
We had participants run through our own prototype and run through the various tasks that we have listed out down below. After the users completed the tasks for the prototype, we had them run the same task again, but on the Shazam app. We picked these tasks in order to fully test out our prototype and highlight the appeal. We had the users apply the “think-aloud protocol” in order to fully understand their thought process and identify areas that may need improvement. To begin our user test, we asked each participant some questions in the beginning to get a better understanding of users’ music discovery.
Link to Prototype: Prototype
Background: Our studies have found that all users’ only means of discovering songs are through recommended playlists, songs from movies and tv shows, and through friends. Around 60% of users are currently satisfied with their current method of music discovery, but would be open to trying new ways to find more of the music that they like.
Task 1: All participants were able to create an account and sign-in, letting us know that our sign-up process is simple as well as intuitive. The ability to already be logged in after creating an account made the experince much more enjoyable for participants. One user voiced that they liked that there was minimal information needed to create an account.
Task 2: All participants were able to find and like a song within the prototype, but participants stuggled with adding it to a playlist. We learned that we need let users add songs to playlists with as little clicks as possible. Participants who used shazam all had the idea to press the menu button with the three vertical dots, which let us know that the same button would be useful in our app.
Task 3: All participants were able to upload their own song to the app. A few of the users struggled to find the “upload” button, so we could make it easier to access. One stated that they saw the visual confirmation which let them know they were done with their task. Average ease rank was 4.2/5.
Wrap Up Questions: Wrapping up our user test we asked our participants a series of questions in order to gather their overall opinion. 80% of users found our prototype more favorable than our competitor Shazam in the test. Features that made our prototype more appealing than our competitor was our overall layout and ease of accessibility. Some users expressed that they preferred the song recognition feature on Shazam over our prototype. Users expressed that they wanted to see a sort of friend/social system in place to share songs.
Using the methods and techniques that we have learned throughout the past year, we have finally been able to come up with a working prototype for our product. Having the opportunity to test out our product in a working environment has provided great insight into what areas we need to focus on improving and any changes along the way. Most users found our application to be easier to use and preferable compared to our competitor Shazam. Since our application follows the trends of user interface that is recognizable to the everyday user, that is what gave our application the upper hand.
We also found a common trend in users in where they expect an upload button would be. In our prototype, we have the upload button located in the library. However, all users gravitated towards the account page first to see if they could locate the button there. Implementing an upload button on the account page as well as keeping the current button is our current solution.
One trend that we saw in about 40% of users was that when completing the tasks, at some point they thought they completed all of the objectives. We believe it may have been due to the wording of the question and how users interpret it. It is also a possibility that users are satisfied at that point to where they do not feel like they need to go any further.
After the user test, we had our wrap-up question discussion to see if there was anything that users would like to see coming from our application going forward. We received some very useful feedback and creative ideas. Outside of the main swipes functionality for finding the song snippets, users wanted to have a sound recognition feature. By using the mobile devices microphone, it would listen for songs then find the exact song that it is playing. A real thought provoking idea that we got from 40% of our users, was a way to interact with friends on the platform as well. The general idea was to implement a sort of friend system that first tracks the song snippets that a person has liked or disliked. Then a friend on the app can compare with the other person what songs that they liked or not. This gives the users a way to interact with each other and find common interests in music. Having a social aspect to the application was not something that we considered, but could be a valuable asset moving forward.
From what we have learned throughout Phases I and II, we have accumulated all that knowledge and really tried to apply that to our prototype here in Phase III. Having learned from our previous testing, we were able to come up with a prototype that was simple and easy for users to interact with. They were easily able to learn how to navigate around the page, despite some of the limitations of the prototype. We have located areas that need improvements and ideas that we would love to implement in the future. Our next steps moving forward, would be to fully implement those ideas and focus more on the design of the product.
The biggest limitation of our user test would be our sample size. With having only 5 participants, it is hard to gather a wide range of data. Also having said users have similar backgrounds and career interests, it makes the data not as comprehensive as we would like it to be. Ideally, we would like to survey a wide range of people of various career fields and ages in order to fully grasp what areas need improvement.