Merge
Prototype 2021
Cross platform music sharing app I prototyped for my HCI course in Fall semester 2021 at Cornell Tech.
Methods:
User interview, survey design, contextual inquiries, qualitative data analysis, and Figma wireframes
How can the music sharing experience across different music platforms be improved for users?
Key Behavioral Insights from User Interviews
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Music lovers are sharing music a lot!
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Users share music in multiple ways (a link directly to friend, group chats, on social media, and more)
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Users are missing out on music shared with them from different platforms
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Users wish they could have could have all their shared music in one place and the option to open shared music in a platform of their choosing
Context Inquiries
The goal was to understand users existing music sharing behaviors and how users access shared music from multiple platforms.
Insights
Spotify users (two daily users) were asked to open and listen to music shared with them from Apple and Amazon music. Spotify Users were unable to even open the song on Apple and Amazon music. To listen to the shared songs, users had to look the songs up manually on Spotify (their prefer music platform).
Apple Music
Amazon Music
Spotify users shared music with their friends in various ways including WhatsApp, Snapchat, and Slack groups.
Snapchat
Prototype
Flow 1 allows users to generate Merge sharing link within their preferred music platform and share it in their desired way (frame 1-4). Upon clicking the Merge link the receiver will be promoted to open the shared music in the platform of their choice (frame 5).
Flow 2 shows the homepage of Merge showing all the music shared with a user in one place (frame 1). The user can view all the music shared by a friend from all modes by clicking on their name (frame 2). The user can then play any song shared with them on their preferred platform (frame 3-4).
Next Steps: A/B Testing of Merge's Homepage
Option A
Option B
Option A- the shared music is sorted by the sharers name and date it was shared
Option B- individual shared songs are sorted and displayed by the shared date
To measure what design is preferred by users, we would measure conversion as a percentage of users who eventually listen to music from the Merge app divided by the total number of users who open the app and come onto the home page. A higher conversion rate indicates preference for one interface over the other.