Punkscape is an interactive audio experience for music enthusiasts and travellers in London. It is a self-guided tour that aims to create a sense of discovery among users and give them a new perspective on Soho's musical history through the lost punk venues in Central London. This case study focuses on qualitative research, analogue UX design and user testing.
Punkscape is an interactive audio experience for music enthusiasts and travellers in London. It is a self-guided tour on an analogue mixtape with hidden clues. The walking tour aims to create a sense of discovery among users and give them a new perspective on Soho's musical history through the lost punk venues in Central London. Additionally, it explores the history of the British punk subculture in the UK.
The purpose of this tour is to help users understand the influence of punk music on youth. Punkscape is an analogue experience that allows people to travel back in time through the 70s British music, places, and personal stories of those who were a part of the punk subculture. The target audience is 18-25 year olds who are music enthusiasts - tourists, immigrants and locals who are visiting or living in London.
The goal of this project is to create a music-centric audio tour for music lovers. When I began this project, I was interested in exploring the British subculture. Therefore, I started with the following research question -
To define the problem statement further, I started my UX research with a Literature review on British subcultures. Based on my primary research, I learnt that there were eight significant British youth subcultures from 1920 to the 2000s. I focused on punk music as historically important in the influence of youth identity worldwide.
London is a mecca for music lovers as all live music performances happen yearly. To get further user insights, I used the research method of AEIOU and behavioural mapping to observe the users in their natural environment. Following were the insights I gained -
As an immigrant, it was crucial to understanding what influenced the British youth identity. Music was a big part of a subculture. But punk music is known for pushing the boundaries regarding art, music and fashion.
To gain the user’s perspective, I interviewed people who were a part of the punk movement in the 70s using the research method of directive storytelling. I asked them the following questions to analyse what punk meant to them.
I had to interview three types of users to design an immersive yet realistic experience.
As mentioned above, I used different research methods to optimise my time and resources to speak to the users. I conducted surveys and codesign workshops with Gen Y and Gen Z to understand what they would be interested in learning about the punk subculture as an outsider. Based on the survey responses and insights from the codesign workshop, I used the thematic analysis method to synthesise my acquired data. Following were the user insights that emerged -
Based on a helpful review, there are very few places people can visit to learn more about this subculture. There are online platforms like Google Arts and culture and the museum of youth culture which gives you a glimpse into history. But most of these are limited to online archives and few exhibitions.
Therefore, to make it more experiential and authentic, I used the research methods of brainstorming and co-design workshop to funnel down my ideas. Finally, I zeroed in on creating an audio-first interactive installation about Punk subculture to be displayed publicly.
I designed a life-size prototype with the highlights regarding the history, the famous band like sex pistols and the damned and the fashion during this time. In addition, I included low-fidelity audio outputs to the installation by which people could hear stories of people and music from the punk era.
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Although it did attract people’s attention, one of the significant feedbacks I received from the users was that it felt static and not immersive enough as it was restricted to one location. Therefore, based on the user feedback, I decided to use the content of my installation and create an experience that was more real and situated. Consequently, I curated an audio tour instead.
Punk music's birth occurred in Soho, London, during the 1970s. There have been many lost punk music venues around this area which held much musical history. I chose to do a self-guided audio tour in the city because I felt that the traditional audio tours were not accessible at all times throughout the year. They also tend to be rushed and only cover the factual history of these places.
The objective of my tour was to cover the following things - Music, venues and stories of punk. Therefore, I curated a digital map with eight iconic locations in Soho. Each place held a gig by iconic bands like The Sex Pistols, The Clash, and The Damned. Next, I edited the audio recordings based on the interviews I conducted with the punk-era experts. Finally, I stitched them with music and information about punk history.
In the spirit of the old-school punk area, I created an analogue mixtape for this audio tour that people could listen to on their cassette player. Designing an audio experience was challenging as there needed to be a physical/visual interface to refer to.
Therefore, I created a user journey map to determine the information architecture.
I mapped out places based on proximity of location as each of them was nearby and at walking distance from one another. After finalising the path, I rearranged the content and created a flowchart which stated the order of the content. This content included music and the punk stories of people, which were specific to certain locations.
I wrote a script to stitch all the audio together and asked one of my friends to narrate the tour. Considering I needed more time and resources, I used a mobile phone audio recorder to get most of the audio files. I edited and cleaned the audio files using the Adobe audition software and created a mixtape in mp3 format. Later, I transferred the mp3 file from my computer to a tape recorder using an HDMI cable. Once I uploaded the mp3 file into the cassette, I tested it with different players. I chose to proceed with a portable cassette player for convenience. Finally, I designed a few visuals for the project, like a poster, cassette cover and postcards to promote the audio tour and make it more authentic.
To make it more exciting, I had hidden these postcards at each location which the users had to find to learn more about those respective locations.
I named this tour, Punkscape to emphasise the punk music landscape in London. For the final testing, I asked five users to participate and experience the audio tour individually. I met them in person, gave them instructions on using the mixtape, and accompanied a few of them to observe their behaviour. For the audio experience, I gave them the cassette player and mixtape and shared a google maps tour link to help them navigate to these locations. They were excited to discover new places through an audio medium like this.
Feedback
Overall, I received positive feedback from all users as they were curious and excited to visit the places and learn more about the history. They especially enjoyed the hidden clues and activities they were asked to do to make it more interactive and fun. However, one of the technical feedbacks I received was that the audio could have been clearer, as these streets tend to get crowded during certain times of the day, and the cassette player needed to be of better quality. But besides that, everyone thoroughly enjoyed the tour and wanted to try similar audio tours in the future in different cities.
Limitations of the device
Since only wired earphones were compatible with the device, one could not use his earphones because he had to borrow mine.
Instructions
Two of three felt that the instructions weren’t clear when they were supposed to stand in a place and when they had to walk. They also wished there were more precise instructions to find the envelopes as they couldn’t figure it out independently and often walked past them. They felt that having an instruction manual with steps and a map might help them figure out the experience better.
In conclusion, punkscape was a great learning experience. Despite the challenges, I enjoyed learning about the different subcultures. In the future, I would consider designing two separate tours (analogue and digital) to expand the punkscape tour. This approach would be more user-friendly and accessible to multiple people simultaneously. Furthermore, if I had more time and resources, I would like to expand further on the different fields of punk subculture. Also, I would like to create more minor routes related to fashion and the art history of punk for users to go down mini trails. Furthermore, I’d be interested in expanding the tour to other subcultures like mods, rave and grime if I had the opportunity. I believe discovering the city through its music and psychography is an excellent way to learn new things about different subcultures.
