The goal of this project was to build community through urban interactions. We designed a way for commuters to connect through a community-driven music sharing experience.
My role
I contributed to the overall design process including user research, ideation, prototyping, and user testing. I was primarily responsible for the interface and card design.
Project scope
Two UX designers, one industrial designer
March 2022 - May 2022 (8 weeks)
Tools
Figma, Illustrator, Photoshop, Rhino, Solidworks, Keyshot
The daily commute can be a boring and lonely experience.
The project goal was to create a community experience in urban interactions. Public transportation is both a shared, but also isolating experience. Commuters sit alongside the same people every day, but rarely interact with those they share their daily commute with. The daily repetition of motion can make the experience feel mundane, boring, and tiring. We wanted to investigate ways to spark joy in people's daily lives. How can we bring new value to the daily commute?
HMW bring new value to people's daily commute?
Tracks
Music from everyone to you
Bringing you new music during your commute by connecting you to fellow commuters
Tracks is a public transit music sharing experience that connects commuters through daily music prompts and provides curated playlists using music pulled from their shared commuting community. (community drivern)
1. Answer the daily song prompt
Every day Tracks provides a fresh new song prompt for commuters to answer. To add a song, users can either scan the song's Spotify code or manually type it in.
2. Get a playlist of songs recommended by like-minded commuters
Based on the user's song choice, Tracks' algorithm will find commuters who have added songs that match their song choice and compile their songs into a personalized playlist, printed on a physical artifact.
3. Enjoy your customized playlist on Spotify while you ride!
On the Track Card is a QR code that directly opens the customized playlist on Spotify. Simply hit play and enjoy the 20 minute playlist while you ride.
More than just a music sharing machine
Tracks is designed to spark joy and fun during one's daily commute, but it can do more than that: Tracks is designed to bring people together, share experiences, and spotlight communities.
Understanding our starting point: what are the current dynamics between commuters on public transit?
We began our research process by getting a baseline understanding of the level of interaction people feel comfortable sharing with the strangers on their commute.
People don't interact with other commuters because...
1. It's not a part of social culture
In the United States (at least in New England), it's not common practice to strike up conversations with strangers.
2. They're engaged in personal entertainment
Most people during their commute keep to themselves on their devices, expressing that they don't want to be approached.
Probing deeper into root causes of positive interactions
Since our goal was to create positive interactions between strangers on a commute, we asked people to tell us their stories about when they felt a positive interaction with a stranger.
Positive interactions between strangers are caused by...
1. Bonding over common interests
It's easier to strike up a conversation with someone when they share a common interest because it's an easy icebreaker.
2. Sharing something personal
A little honesty and vulnerability goes a long way when creating a meaningful interaction with someone else.
HMW engage commuters with each other on daily commute?
💡 Music might be a suitable medium to bridge gaps between strangers.
Based on our insights from our surveys, we hypothesized that music might be a good gateway to bond people who are unfamiliar with one another since music is such a universal media and gives the right level of personal exposure without invading privacy.
Field study confirms hypothesis
To explore the potentials of using music to connect a community, we conducted a field study where people recommended music to 6 people who created playlists. In the span of 2 hours, we had a turnout of over 260 responses.
Excited
🤩
Many people didn't want the donut — they were just happy to share their favorite songs.
Curious
🤔
Both parties were curious about the personality and characteristic's of the music sharer and receiver.
Fulfilled
🫶
Recommenders felt satisfied of their contribution and receivers were grateful for the recommendations.
How people felt...
Field study results led us to ideate two main directions
We then began ideating some potential ideas and brought to the table sketches and wireframes. We came up with both physical and digital solutions, and ultimately settled on two main possible directions that we could take.
Simple concept testing of idea 1 yields unsuccessful results and causes us to pivot directions
We wanted to test people’s reactions to the interactions we were facilitating in our first idea. To do so, we used google slides to create deck of music profiles and google forms to moderate the likes, recommendations, and comments being sent.
👎 Our idea didn't work because...
1. Forcing too much of a connection
It's easier to strike up a conversation with someone when they share a common interest because it's an easy icebreaker.
2. Too high of a commitment
A little honesty and vulnerability goes a long way when creating a meaningful interaction with someone else.
Testing idea #2: A physical artifact aligns with user needs and our goals
To test our second idea, we created a works-like model and took to campus to test with students. We used an arduino, receipt printer, and Google form to simulate the action of inputing music into the machine and receiving a musical artifact, which was the receipt. After, we asked each person to fill out a survey about their experience.
Physical artifacts hold more value
🧾
Users enjoyed receiving a physical token of their experience.
The right level of "community"
👭
Users felt that the information they shared and received were an appropriate level of personal.
Efficiency is key
⏱️
The line moved more slowly than expected; the more succinct the kiosk is, the more users it can reach.
What made it successful...
Storyboarding the user experience to clarify design goals
Based on the feedback we received, we created a storyboard to reflect our refined design goals.
Establishing product identity: Playful, tactile, and nostalgic.
There are so many ticketing kiosks at subway stations already. We wanted to avoid our design getting visually lost in the environment. We heavily leaned into the playful identity and drew inspiration from retro arcade games interfaces.
Tailoring interface touch points to be tactile and efficient
BCreating a speedy form was crucial for to the level of outreach, so we refined the user flow to be as succint as possible. But sticking with the retro theme, we opted for arcade controls as opposed to a touch screen, which was a good design restriction when it came to making the interface as simple as possible.
Receipt design considerations
BCreating a speedy form was crucial for to the level of outreach, so we refined the user flow to be as succint as possible. But sticking with the retro theme, we opted for arcade controls as opposed to a touch screen, which was a good design restriction when it came to making the interface as simple as possible.
User testing a works-like model helped us focus on making the experience even more efficient!
Based on Grabbit's system map and our persona, we determined what the most common use case of the app would be and built our system architecture around that. We believed that the app's main use case would be its pay in store feature.
What we heard...
1. Manually entering song is time consuming
Manually type in their song choice often caused typing and selecting errors, making the process longer.
2. Jump from kiosk to card too big
Some people struggled to understand how the card related to their experience with the machine
3. Too much manual labor to type songs into phone
Not having the autonomy to choose your own foods is a less dignifying experience.
Takes too much time to type song in → Incorporating Spotify technology to make experience more efficient
Based on Grabbit's system map and our persona, we determined what the most common use case of the app would be and built our system architecture around that. We believed that the app's main use case would be its pay in store feature.
Some confusion about how the card works → Adding this information to the interface without adding bulk
Based on Grabbit's system map and our persona, we determined what the most common use case of the app would be and built our system architecture around that. We believed that the app's main use case would be its pay in store feature.
Too much manual labor to type songs into phone → Adding QR code to card to jump to spotify
Based on Grabbit's system map and our persona, we determined what the most common use case of the app would be and built our system architecture around that. We believed that the app's main use case would be its pay in store feature.
Tracks machine + Track Card details
Prompt of the day + adding name
Adding your song choice (with Spotify + manually)
Printing out your Track card
Other possible prompts and Track Cards
Renderings and photographs
Explore creative user research methods
This project was such a fun learning experience because
If I could redo this project, I would change...
1. Test the more creative option first
2. tackle it from a business standpoint: spotify collaboration
2. furter prioritize efficiency: we identifies that the piec of the experience that people liked the most was the printing and receiving on a tracks card, if we can make the adding sog process even more efficient i would go back and do that (identifying the key feature of the product and maximizing it's reach)