I want it that way (and other ways)

How IRL research led to needs and opportunities

Pictured above is Kino, the official mascot of our MHCI capstone team!

Hello again! This publication follows the MHCI Amazon Music team as they seek to change the dynamic between private digital music experiences and “in real life” (IRL) music experiences. We’ll be cataloguing our sprint-by-sprint process, as well as any insights we gain along the way.

While a lot has changed in the world since our last post, we are still committed in our continued effort to make music listening experiences better safely from our homes. Please be safe and stay healthy!

For more information about our project, MHCI, and our team, check out our first blog post.

The team reflecting deeply on each other’s performance thus far.

Directed Storytelling

Picking up where we left off with diary studies in our last installment, we wanted to gain more contextual understanding of how and where people were using music through their day. We decided that a directed storytelling approach would be most fruitful, and had users walk us through the most recent day in their lives. If anything came up about music, music listening, or streaming, we would drill deeper into the situation.

As a group we managed to interview nine individuals and gain a number of insights that covered a wide spectrum of cases including:

• Music is multifunctional in use (music as a tool)
• Music as a way to track time (i.e. shower)
• Using music to create a “private space” (ex. commute, loud places)
• Music and conversation have a strong relationship
• Familiarity of music/noise can determine whether it becomes intrusive or performance-enhancing

We also created customer journey maps of each individual the team interviewed to see if there were overlaps in their journeys.

Storyboarding and Speed dating

Looking to gain deeper understanding of the needs/insights discovered in directed storytelling, we decided to ideate on the most recurring needs that users mentioned during the study. From there, we created storyboards loosely outlining scenarios and solutions to show potential users.

Using a speed dating format, we interviewed eight individuals who walked us through their thoughts on these solutions. The top solutions/problems subjects resonated with are listed below.

Sample of a storyboard — specifically showcasing an auto music selection for users with high cognitive loads

Rankings from Speed Dating in order of popularity

• Selecting music for a group of people in a social situation doesn’t have a smooth solution currently.
• Having to pick music for yourself while fatigued or facing cognitive load throughout the day is rife with opportunity.
• Music streaming is not able to selectively silence environmental noise, which is useful across different daily contexts.
• Not being able to access music when you want to/typically do (i.e. forgetting headphones at home) results in a significant loss of delight or joy throughout the day.
• There is a need for context and cognitive overload-intelligent music streaming services.
• Immediate control of music streaming (play/pause) presents itself as a need throughout daily moments.

Trash bag ball to help ideate

Ideating — ft. prototypes

With a pocket full of validated needs, we decided to use spring break as a natural time for the team to break apart and do some individual ideation. From this we determined four separate concepts we wanted to test using lo-fi prototypes with a potential user base. These concepts include

• Brain Drain - a concept focused on how activities/cognition might influence the experience of selecting music

Brain drain screens

• DJ Rotation - explores idea of group curation and stress that come with curating music for others

AuxParty home screen — we are utilizing the app for our study

• Music Profile - focuses on using a tangible algorithm to create a profile for the ultimate playlist

Music profile prototype screens

• You might like this - a feature that shows how much you might like a certain song or playlist

Screens from “you might like this” prototype

Using these prototypes, we aim to refine these features and understand more clearly what users may want in an eventual solution. We are also planning to test new concepts in the coming weeks as well.

Needfinding machine

Using CMU professor Nik Martelaro’s needfinding machine as inspiration, our team member Irene took it upon herself to create a quick and affordable IRL observation device. We are hoping that if people’s lives get back to being more regular in the next few months, we can launch this device to observe more IRL music listening situations. Additionally, we hope to use this product to test more complicated prototypes with users and get a deeper understanding of our potential solutions in real contexts.

Our on-the-go needfinding machine!

Looking forward to Summer

With the present being a bit unknown due to COVID-19 and the team split up physically, we are all very excited and optimistic for Summer. Not only to hopefully reclaim the outdoors together (safely), but to package our music studies thus far for Amazon Music and step into new territories. We hope you stick around ‘til’ then!

The “new” normal meeting, for now.

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more updates from our team! 💖🎵👏