Interactive Prototype
HIGH-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE
GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE
I decided to go with a warm, brown/red/orange color scheme that was reminiscent of Los Angeles's sunsets as well as the "retro" color palette often seen throughout music history. I utilized the red as a pop of color for important information and buttons as a way to guide the user experience.
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From version 1 to version 2, I decided to adjust the interface with rounded corners and simplify the color usage to create a more modern and welcoming feel for the app.
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INTERACTIVE PROTOTYPE
With feedback from Professor Cho, I decided to make some major and minor changes to the prototype.
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Rename the app to "Amplify LA" to control for bias as I will be using the same participants from my initial user testing
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Simplify filters to one page with dropdowns to make the search process easier
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Standardize icon labeling practices
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Add loading screen
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Adjust several horizontal scroll elements throughout the prototype to allow for easier use
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Add more user interactions/search results for more realistic experience
USABILITY TESTING
TESTING MATERIALS
I tested Version 2 of the high-fidelity prototype with 5 of the participants from my first usability test to compare their responses to both apps.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Overall, users found the prototype to be more user-friendly than the original app. The Amplify LA system usability score was calculated to be 72.14, which scores much higher than that of the Hearby app at 52.77.
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Comparison of product satisfaction card between Hearby (left) and Amplify (LA).
Users largely agreed on a sense of calmness and trustworthiness to the app. They found it easier to find results for an on-the-spot music search, to obtain necessary information about a venue, and to find music events tailored to their interests.
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However, while the quantitative results showing an improved music search, the qualitative findings showed that the music player and playlist elements did not add much value to the search. Users largely skipped over the music player and playlist tab on the venue page. This may be due to the fact (1) the prototype lacked the playable music feature, and on a deeper level (2) that spontaneous music event search should be quick; users do not want to spend too much time on an app to find a music event they may like and may have other methods for finding information about a new concert other than playing music. In conclusion, while my overall interface and user experience design helped to improve and streamline music event search, the addition of music features did not seem to enhance the search to give users more historical context or a feeling of immersion in the physical space.
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I also believe that my questionnaire was not well-calibrated to test the music features of the app. It seemed that my tasks were designed to see if the users would use the music features if presented with the option to play music from the venue/artist, but not to see explicitly if they enjoyed or found the music features to be useful. For future testing, I would like to write in the music features into the specific steps of the task.
Additionally, for future testing of the research question, I would like to see an overhaul of the current design to have a much less familiar event search experience. The current app follows a familiar event search app design, like Ticketmaster or Eventbrite. However, a completely novel layout and feature to the app that puts the audio discovery at the forefront may reveal more information about how music can guide the user to attend local music events; this was actually my original research idea, but I found that it was hard to incorporate an augmented reality feature for LA music events because venues are often spread out and users do not often walk from place to place. The latest prototype of Amplify LA was tailored to the behaviors of the LA music lovers and concertgoers that I tested, but a Shazam-like/AR discovery feature may be feasible in an area in which people tend to walk more than drive.