Maestro 1.1 update — lessons & new design
Since Maestro 1.0 was launched, I have received feedback from music students, teachers, and friends. I internalize the feedback and prioritize what to include in the newer version 1.1.
Android App can be found here.
iOS App can be found here.
First, 1.1 introduces music lessons. People can read small, digestible lessons on various music theory (e.g. notes, scales, chords).
Second, 1.1 introduces a brand new design. The new design plays a lot more with colors and visual cues.
Behind 1.1: Product Vision
The product mission of Maestro is to make music learning fun, and the starting strategy was to modernize traditional ways of music practices. That strategy has been proven useful — during user feedback sessions, music students and teachers are delighted to have a mobile app to practice whenever, wherever. Additionally, they like the personalization of teachers embedded in the application. It’s cute, it’s personal.
Problems of 1.0 app also showed during feedback sessions and data analysis. One problem is low user engagement, another is high user barrier.
The design of 1.0 isn’t very appealing — people find it interesting at first but then later lose interest. This phenomenon is proven by the high uninstall rate (~50% on Android) and low user sign up rate (~10 in-app sign up since launch).
In addition, people who don’t have much music experience find the app less valuable. Some feedback I received include: “I don’t quite remember what each key is, it’s been a while.”, or “I wish I can also look up some basic knowledge in this app”.
As a product, Maestro 1.1 aims to be more inclusive to users who want to learn music, and it aims to be more engaging with users by providing a better user experience.
Behind 1.1: Design Process
Given the product goals being increasing inclusivity of music education, and increasing user engagement with better UX, I started by doing design research for 1.1. I started by doing competitive research and understand some examples of successful education apps.
Two applications attracted my attention: Duolingo and Primer. I’ve been using Duolingo to learn Spanish and its colorful UI has been a great attraction for me to come back and practice on a regular basis. Primer is an application developed by Google to teach people how to start a business, it offers small lesson sets that allow people to learn a small idea in a very short amount of time.
I decided to incorporate the colorfulness of Duolingo and the flexible lessons of Primer into Maestro 1.1.
Conclusion
The feedback and development process I undertook for rolling out Maestro 1.1 has been a great experience. I hope the newer version of this application brings even more value to music learners out there! It will continue to evolve to accomplish the mission of making music learning fun.
Android App can be found here.
iOS App can be found here.
