Apple Music For Artists Extension Project
With the rise of independent music in mainstream media and consumer culture, Apple Music and Spotify have both developed and released apps that allow their artists to have access to their profiles and statistics. Both apps have been used and loved by artists for their usefulness in assisting with marketing and promotion / growth. However, in terms of the users’ best interests, Spotify has seen to have done a considerably more in depth job that Apple Music. With more options for customization and more features that allow artists to have more control in the way that they are seen by users, Spotify has overtaken Apple Music as the premier utility for artists. In order to catch up to Spotify, Apple Music started the “AMfA Extension Project”, which would add new features for artists in order to allow for more flexibility, customization, and self-marketing.
Overview
As Apple Music for Artists is a very barebones application, it misses a lot of the key functions that artists need in order to fully manage their own artist experience. Such functions as submissions for playlists, artist playlist management, and event management are missing from the application, and were determined to be necessary for design and implementation.
Design Process
Research
The project would begin with the research phase conducted in two parts: market research and individual user interviews.
2. Design
The purpose of the design phase is to flesh out the ideas and features that come from the research phase. Looking at the overall goal of the project, as well as the adjusted goals and needs of the users, the new features for Apple Music for Artists would be created and implemented accordingly.
3. Prototyping
The new page designs would be consolidated into a working, interactive prototype.
4. Testing
Testing is exactly as it sounds: testing. The prototype is used to see if the new features and designs are functional, helpful, and aesthetically in line with Apple Music for Artists’ original UI.
Research Phase
The research phase consisted of two separate parts: market research and individual user interviews. Market research was conducted on the main competitor, Spotify for Artists, in order to determine what exactly was lacking in AMfA as opposed to its counterpart. Individual user interviews were conducted with three different users of both AMfA and SfA in order to determine what the users’ pain points, needs, and goals were from both apps. Market research was compiled into a document that listed the main points of difference from both apps, while individual user interviews were compiled into a document that listed all of the users’ experiences, as well as into a persona that compiles all pain points, needs, and goals, as well as a projected demographic.
Information Architecture: Sitemap
In order to begin developing and designing the new features for implementation, a bare-bones sitemap was made using screenshots of the existing pages of Apple Music for Artists as a baseline. This sitemap would be the basis for all of the navigation and interactions that would be designed during the design phase of the project,
Designing the New Features
As Apple Music for Artists already has a fully developed brand UI, as well as app layout, only wireframes for the new pages were made using pre-existing Apple brand guidelines. A playlist feature, event feature, and submission feature was made.
A prototype on InvisionApp was made in order to conduct usability testing with three different users of Apple Music for Artists. Usability testing tested the application’s ability to assist in navigation and the functionality of the new features.
Prototype
Results from Usability Testing
Usability testing yielded resoundingly positive responses. All of the participants were satisfied with the implementations of the new features. None of the participants had any negative comments to give about the prototype.
Final Thoughts / Learnings
While working on the new features for Apple Music for Artists, I was able to learn quite a lot about the way that different companies and businesses handle their respective brands / needs of the users. The differences between Apple Music for Artists and Spotify for Artists mainly came down to the way that each brand valued user needs over brand consistency. Spotify for Artists, while a bit lacking in the simplicity of its UI, focuses more on the needs and concerns of the user base, while Apple Music for Artists focuses more on the functionality and minimalistic nature of the app in terms of both visual design and funcionality.
