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?
- is a musician, but not so much of a songwriter
- "the only music I've played has been stuff where people are telling me what to do"
- does use the Notes app and Voice Memos app to put ideas down
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?
- loves the dark mode
- likes purple and orange colors, seems "edgy and cool"
- doesn't like to sign up for things with other accounts, would like to just use email
- likes the visibility of Terms of Service and Use on the first page
- 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.
- met with a "nice message", "tells me I'll be inspired if I just follow the steps"
- not sure why she'll need camera access but microphone access made sense
- (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?
- had trouble seeing some of the smaller text on the "View Project" page, wanted to zoom in
- expected to be able to tap the red Record button to start recording
- likes that there's a place for lyrics on the same page as tracks
- wasn't sure right away whether "tracks" meant different songs or different instruments
- also couldn't read "Add Audio" and "Add MIDI" very well
- wanted to make a MIDI track first
- had a bit of trouble getting through this one
- overall, the flow "made total sense to me"
- still unsure whether the tracks are different songs or the same song
- 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 right away, then Add MIDI quickly as well
- wanted to tap keyboard first
- enjoyed the MIDI animation
- 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.
- likes that the lyrics page is similar to the Notes app
- likes that the title is bigger and bolder than lyrics font
- Awesome! At this point, imagine that you are interested in editing your tracks to sound better together. Show me how you'd do that.
- wanted to click the track itself, rather than the Mix button
- then went Home, to find recent projects and recent albums
- liked that those sections were draggable
- was a little confused during this task, mainly because of the name of the tracks - "Vocals" was confusing
- mix panel itself made sense
- 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 quickly
- also found existing projects in the recent projects section very quickly
- home page - very familiar to her as a Spotify user, loves the horizontal scrolling of images
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.)
- "Everything looks like apps that I'm familiar with, so that felt straightforward. It was just those two tracks that I wasn't sure what they meant - everything else seemed very clear, and like it made sense to me right up front."
Do you have any questions before we wrap up?
Takeaways