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?

• mostly records on his phone using the camera app, so he can hear and see what he's playing
• most lyrics are written by hand, sometimes he'll write them up on Finale (?)
• biggest problem with using camera app and notes app is that ideas easily get buried, so he has to listen through everything he has to find ideas

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.

1. 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?
   • likes the animation, "very smooth"
   • likes the colors, thinks it looks clean, likes dark layouts
   • wasn't sure if the colors signify anything in particular or are just visual
2. 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.
   • normally signs up with Google
   • went with email though to see some more information
   • likes that it doesn't take too much info to sign up
   • normally wouldn't give access to the camera
3. (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 quickly
   • went to record button first instead of "Add Track"
   • found "Add Audio" quickly
4. Now imagine you have an idea that you'd like to use a virtual instrument within the app for. How would you do that?
   • did this task unprompted after completing Task 3
5. 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.
   • also completed this task unprompted after finishing the last two tasks
   • he would maybe use the different features in a different order, would probably use a MIDI instrument first to find the key, then move to audio recordings and lyrics
6. 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" button quickly, changed some things then found "Save" quickly as well
   • wanted to see where "Effects" leads, mentioned reverb as a possible effect
7. 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 button again very quickly
   • found "Recent Projects"
   • also would use "View all" or the search icon to find existing project sessions
   • thought that "Recent Albums" was previously released albums, and was possibly attached to a social media aspect of the app

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.)

• while clicking around the app, mentioned including some sort of count-in in the project page, especially since there's a count-in toggle in the settings
• asking about "Recent Albums", he re-confirmed that he thought that section was past releases, or albums I'm listening to as inspiration

Do you have any questions before we wrap up?

• nope!