FanBase
Research, design for a social media management tool for musician
My Role:
Researcher, UX/UI Designer
Teammates:
1 Researcher, 1 PM, 3 Marketers
Duration:
One Month
FanBase is a project from Startup Weekend NYC Music Tech Edition. I worked with five teammates to discover problems, research, brainstorm, come up the solutions and prototype the basic features at a weekend. After that, I spent some time to perfect the design and features.
Based on research, we found musicians lack time and skills for social media management, while they need that to connect with their fans and build their fanbase. As the researcher and UX/UI designer at the team, I conducted research to discover users’ major pain points, and designed the interfaces for FanBase – a platform specifically helps musicians manage their social media networks, provide post suggestions and monetization opportunities..
Musicians lack time and skills for social media management.
Design Process
User Research
To better understand the potential userbase of Fanbase, we used Qualtrics for survey creation and data analysis. This effort helps identify engagement opportunities / features.
Musicians are our major users, so we researched on their social media usage, their expectations and challenges.
Persona - Musician
Since we need to help musician engage their fans, so we also researched on the social media usage and expectations of music fans and create a persona.
Persona - Music Fan
I researched and analyzed the direct and indirect competitors of our product, learning about how they help musicians engage fans from different aspects and techniques.
Competitive Analysis
DIRECT COMPETITORS – SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT TOOLS
INDIRECT COMPETITORS – AGENCIES OF MUSIC INDUSTRY
INDIRECT COMPETITORS – AGENCIES OF MUSIC INDUSTRY
After the research phase, my team went into the ideation phase, developing potential user flows and product ideas.
Ideation & Wireframe
Then we conducted usability test with the paper prototype, which confirmed that the app’s user flows fit the mental models of our users, which gave us more confidence to more forward.
Usability Testing
App Structure
Based on our research and successful user testing, we identified 4 core main categories that our users need in our system.
Wireframe
After completing the app structure, I developed wireframes for the 4 main sections of the application. This is a high level view.
Design - Manage Post
Design - Create Campaign
Design - Data Analysis (Instagram)
Design - Community
Design - Opportunities
Design - News
Design - Influencer Network
Design - Image Editing Tools
Mobile App
Conclusion & Learning
FanBase is a very interesting project to work on. From research, ideation to design, I learned to identify and focus on the most important problems and features, brainstorm solutions, get inspirations from direct or indirect competitors and integrate business idea with the design.
As a designer, I developed an appreciation for the variety of fields that this project encompasses, such as social media management, data visualization, community building, image editing tools, and more.
It was exciting for me to leverage my digital marketing and research background to understand the entire landscape of competitors this field. This gave me the insight of evaluating a variety of niches within the music management industry, such as fan relationship management and platforms specifically focusing on music marketing. This approach gave me the ability to draw from the best of different fields to design FanBase.