Pre-Task Questions
Before we get into the tasks, could you remind me of some of your songwriting habits? How about apps, do you or have you used songwriting apps before?
- sings to themself, using the voice memos app to record melodies, uses Notes app to write lyrics, uses voice memos app again to record a fuller version, then uses Google Drive to share the chords and lyrics with bandmates, also texts them the recordings
- that process works for them, but it would be better if it was all in one place
Tasks
Alright great, thanks so much. Let's get into some of the tasks now. Remember, it will help me a lot if you talk through your thought process as we go through the tasks. Go ahead and open up the link I've sent you, and start sharing your screen.
- First I just want you to tell me about your first impressions of the app. Go ahead and hit the 'r' key to restart the prototype, but after that, don't click or tap anything yet. What stands out to you? What are your thoughts?
- thinks the logo is "cute"
- also thinks it's kind of small on the first screen
- Thanks! For this first set of tasks, I'd like you to imagine that you're a songwriter who's browsing the app store, and you've found this app and downloaded it. Your first task will be to sign up. Tell me your thoughts as you make your way into the app.
- wanted to sign up with Google first
- hesitated on saying "OK" to allow access to the camera
- no thoughts during sign up process
- (once they make it to the home page) Great! Now that you're here, imagine you have a new song idea on guitar that you'd like to record. How would you go about doing that?
- found New Project button right away
- wanted to use the record button first, wouldn't want to have to add a track
- is often stopped at a stoplight when they take quick recordings, so wants to be able to record right away
- too many clicks to get to recording
- was also confused that when the recording stopped, they still have to click the back button, they would expect it to just bring you back to the project screen
- doesn't often start a recording, pause, and then record more - often just deletes a take if it's not right
- does like that more tracks can be added to a project
- Now imagine you have an idea that you'd like to use a virtual instrument within the app for. How would you do that?
- found "Add track" and "Add MIDI" quickly
- same thing, expected it to just go back to the project page after stopping the recording
- also would expect existing tracks to play while recording
- a count-in would be nice once you already have tracks, because if you want to start right at the beginning of an existing track, you would want to have some sort of count-in
- Now that you have some recordings down, you'd like to write out some lyrics or notes for this song. Show me how you would accomplish that.
- found how to add lyrics very quickly
- Awesome! At this point, imagine that you are interested in editing your tracks to sound better together. Show me how you'd do that.
- found mix panel quickly, placement of "Mix" icon made sense
- likes that it doesn't pull up a whole new screen when you enter Mix mode
- would expect "Effects" to take you to a whole new screen where there's more options, or it could just slide over in the existing track space
- Great. Head back to the home page. From here, how would you start a new project? How would you get back into a project session? (after they find another way back to the project) Tell me a bit about your impressions of the home page. What stands out? What do you expect to be able to do here?
- found New Project very quickly
- clicked on Recent Projects right away
- likes that you can search for ideas as well, but would just click on Recent Projects
- about the Recent Projects section - doesn't think the image for these is helpful, won't help differentiate between each other. a list or something similar would be more helpful
- likes the images for Recent Albums, that makes sense, but could reduce the size of the Recent Projects images or rework them to fit more on the screen at a time
- would definitely use the collections feature, "This is what I would want"
- also thinks that the homepage, and the app in general could use more color - other than the purple New Project button, nothing else catches their eye
Follow-Up Questions
Thanks so much for running through those tasks! (ask any probing questions here - for example, if they got hung up on recording a MIDI track, ask more about what was confusing there, what in particular was blocking them from completing the task, etc.)
- reiterated that the recording flow is too long currently
- everything else is where they would expect it to be
- name of "Recent Albums" was maybe a little confusing, could maybe be renamed to something like "Recent Collections" or something else
Do you have any questions before we wrap up?
Takeaways
- In general, tasks were completed relatively easily. "Everything was where I expected it to be."