An audio recognition app designed for music lovers. Vollou provides a solution that identifies and reports music, ensuring artists receive precise and fair royalty payments in the UK and Europe. As the lead product designer, I was responsible for designing the new features for their mobile experience for Android and iOS along with conducting design sprints and qualitative and competitive research.
When I joined Vollou as a product designer, the app was primarily known as a social media platform for music enthusiasts. Although Vollou's unique selling proposition was its audio recognition technology, allowing users to recognise multiple songs, create sessions, and export them directly on Spotify. However, based on user and investor feedback, we realised that our focus should shift towards music venue owners, targeting a more extensive user base through a top-down approach. We identified a gap in the market, specifically in the UK, for discovering new music venues. Existing apps lacked credibility in providing comprehensive information about clubs, pubs, or live events, including music genres and ambience. Therefore, we decided to reposition Vollou as the first platform where users could discover venues through music by conducting a design sprint along with a co-design workshop.
Objective
Our goal was to help nightclubs and bars enhance their brand presence and attract the right customers by leveraging our audio recognition app.
Challenge
Vollou needed to redefine its brand identity, prioritise music venue discovery, and establish a stronger connection between venue owners and users.
Co-Design Workshop
To redefine Vollou's direction, I facilitated a co-design workshop with stakeholders as a part of the design sprint. During the workshop, we conducted a brand positioning exercise to evaluate competitors, identify our primary users, and redefine Vollou's brand identity. By employing UX research methods such as "How might we" statements, Affinity Mapping, and Competitive Landscape analysis, we gained insights into areas for improvement within the existing app. We generated ideas for new features to enhance the user experience.
Research Methods
During the co-design workshop, we utilised various research methods to gather insights and shape the future of Vollou:1. Brand Positioning Exercise: We compared Vollou with its competitors to determine its unique selling points, positioning, and target audience. This exercise helped us understand Vollou's competitive advantage and set a clear direction.2. "How Might We" Statements: By framing problem statements as "How might we," we encouraged brainstorming and ideation to generate innovative solutions for the identified challenges.3. Affinity Mapping: We collected and organised user feedback, ideas, and insights generated during the workshop into meaningful categories. This process helped us identify common themes and prioritise areas of improvement.4. Competitive Landscape Analysis: We comprehensively analysed existing apps in the music venue discovery space to identify their strengths, weaknesses, and potential opportunities for Vollou.
UX Strategy
Based on the insights from the co-design workshop, we developed a UX Strategy that outlined Vollou's vision, goals and long-term plan for the app. This strategy was a roadmap for prioritising features, creating innovative solutions, and guiding the team's next steps.
Redesigned Features
We focused on redesigning the home feed and search flow to improve the discoverability of venues and sessions. By considering user's music preferences, we aimed to curate personalised recommendations. Additionally, we introduced a new profile designed explicitly for venue owners. This profile provided essential details such as upcoming events, access to music from past gigs, pricing, and location information, empowering venue owners to build their brand and connect with users.
Prototype
Based on the shortlisted features, I created wireframes to represent the app's redesigned interface visually. While we retained the existing UI design, we improved the card styles. We introduced new card sizes, optimised screen space and facilitated the discoverability of unique venues. Furthermore, we added music genre tags to each card, enabling users to explore sessions aligned with their music taste.
Testing
We conducted usability testing with a small focus group with users between the age of 20-30 year olds in the UK. We asked the users to go through the prototype and explore the new features in Vollou. We observed users while interacting with the app and measured the KPI based on three aspects - Task success rate, Time on Task and user error rate. These metrics helped us understand what worked well and what were the areas of improvement required. Based on these KPI and user feedback, we designed the UI for the new features.
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In conclusion, the co-design workshop and design sprint played a pivotal role in transforming Vollou into a premier platform for music venue discovery. The redesigned features, including personalised recommendations and a venue owner profile, significantly enhanced the user experience. With positive user feedback and improved brand presence, Vollou is well-positioned to attract a more extensive user base and establish itself as a go-to app for discovering music venues. Ongoing iteration and attention to user needs will ensure Vollou's continued success and innovation in the music industry.
