My Role
Lead Designer- Led the redesign of the Livemixtape website redesign. Participated in creating and performing user interviews.
Skills
User Testing - Think Aloud & Retrospective Think-Aloud, Interviews
Heuristic Evaluations
Prototyping
Information Architecture
Team
Corinna Gross
Taylor Alexander
Andy Pannelli
Melina Hamblin
Outdated websites pose significant usability challenges, rendering them confusing and nearly unusable for visitors. Navigational issues, poor information architecture, and outdated designs make it challenging for visitors to understand its interface and locate desired information. Consequently, the declining user experience diminishes the website's popularity, ultimately impacting user engagement and retention.
To conduct a comprehensive usability analysis of a selected website and propose effective strategies for improvement. Given the growing traffic on music distribution platforms and their prevalent outdated structures, they serve as excellent subjects for a usability study. My team chose to focus on "Livemixtapes.com," aiming to comprehensively analyze the target user demographics, purpose, and goals and craft a redesigned interface that aims to ensure ease of comprehension, elevate user enjoyment, and better align its functionality with its intended objectives.
A redesigned music discovery platform, to combat cognitive overload and ineffective information architecture. The new design prioritizes user-friendliness, making it intuitive and simple to find and save music. Additionally, I incorporated features that foster user connection and music inspiration, ensuring the platform remains engaging and maintains market relevance.
Keep scrolling to explore the design journey or
click to skip to the final design!
Images of Livemixtapes.com prior to our redesign.
1We established a persona as a representation of our key audience. We used this persona to determine tasks that our users might use the Livemixtapes website to accomplish.
2We performed user tests to determine the opportunities and challenges the website has in helping users accomplish these tasks.
These tasks are essential actions that users would likely expect to be able to perform when interacting with the Livemixtapes website. We identified key user tasks to guide our efforts in discovering user pain points and challenges when completing these tasks. Our primary focus was to optimize these user tasks to be more accessible and intuitive.
1Navigating the Website
Steve has an idea the music he wants to find. He uses the site's search function to find certain styles and songs by specific artists which have been released in the last year or two and may not be well known.
2Finding New Music
Steve wants to find music that may not have been heard by the general public yet, that could be the next hit. He is interested to see how long a song is available before it becomes popular. The LiveMixtapes site has a banner that highlights weekly, daily, and upcoming new releases. Steve can find the most popular songs by checking the song or album's rating determined by user votes.
3Creating a Playlist
Steve needs to create a free account to access all the features of the site. He can then create a playlist of songs and be able to follow and add to it.
4Sharing a Playlist
After creating a playlist and following the artists, Steve wants to share the tracks with his classmates. He is hoping to share a simple link to the playlist that his classmates can follow if they sign up for the service.
I created tasks for the user to perform that would test their ability to achieve the four goals/user tasks listed above. I relied most heavily on the think-aloud method for usability testing to discover the user's pain points and experiences with the current Livemixtapes website.
Think-aloud Method
Gave me the best opportunity to understand the perspective of my user given the available time and resources.
Enabled me to listen to the user's thought processes during testing, pose questions, and capture any post-testing reflections not initially verbalized by the user.
Facilitated a real-time understanding of how the user was actively engaging with the system.
After performing round one of user tests on the original Livemixtapes.com, my team combined our individual testing results and gathered valuable user insights.
1
Many of the users experienced confusion due to the multiple menus and search bars.
2
There was a lack of understanding of the functions offered on the website.
3
Scrolling down the page to find information was not intuitive to many users.
4
Users were overwhelmed with the amount of information.
The initial phase of the design process involved ideating and wireframing to create a better experience for users interacting with Livemixtapes.com. We prioritized user feedback and iterative testing to address the key usability concerns and set the groundwork for subsequent testing and mid-fidelity design iterations.
Streamlined Onboarding Experience
The redesigned sign-in page provides a comprehensive introduction for first-time users, offering a clear understanding of the website's purpose and offerings without needing to explore additional pages.
The added option to enter the site as a "guest" facilitates easy and efficient entry.
Enhanced Homepage Functionality
Upon signing in, users are directed to a user-friendly, home page, ensuring a comfortable and simplistic space.
Features prominently display featured music and mixtapes, centralizing content accessibility.
Simplified Search Navigation:
Consolidated multiple search bars into one, improving user clarity during searches.
Implemented a feature to save search results for easy retrieval, enabling users to create and share mixtapes and playlists effortlessly.
Personalized Library Experience:
Revamped the library to prioritize playlist items, ensuring a personalized and organized user experience.
Users can now conveniently access a wide range of their playlist information from a single location.
After another round of user tests and yet another redesign...
Watch the video to view the final result!
The importance of prioritizing user testing results over personal opinions became increasingly apparent throughout this project. By observing their interactions and listening to user feedback, I discovered the power user testing holds in driving successful outcomes.
Understanding user searching patterns was another key aspect of my learning journey. I recognized the contrasting behaviors between users browsing for a song and those arriving with a specific song in mind (exploratory browsing method/berry-picking model v directed browsing). This knowledge enabled me to provide tailored search functionalities and relevant recommendations, catering to both exploration and targeted needs.
Although the class project concluded at this stage due to time and resource limitations, given additional time and resources, I would eagerly pursue further testing and iterations to refine and enhance the user experience.