SongSift
Original Product Concept, UI Design
Product Type: Web App
Company: Independent Project
SongSift is all-in-one platform for amateur music creators to gain exposure, discover new music, collaborate and elevate their work. With constructive criticism and peer reviews as the focal point, I designed SongSift to help music creators get better feedback on their original tracks.
In what began as a school project for an entrepreneurship course, I conducted market research, customer discovery interviews, ideation sessions, and proof of value analysis for a new product idea. After the school project ended, I remained invested in the concept and continued to manage it through strategy, design and development. I created the UI using Figma and worked with a software engineer for several months in an attempt to build the product. Though other priorities took precedence and we never carried SongSift to beta launch, the platform evolved from a seed of an idea to a comprehensive business plan with mockups to boot.
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One pain-point was consistent across many interviews with music creators: meaningful feedback is desired but nearly impossible to obtain in the amateur music space. Upon soliciting feedback on forums such as Reddit and Facebook, creators are left dissatisfied by the lack of responses. SongSift was designed to solve this pain-point.
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When a song is uploaded to SongSift, it is added to other users' Feedback Queues. Users then sift through their unique queue of music, leaving feedback on each song and, in turn, receiving feedback on their own. As users leave feedback on more music, an algorithm pushes their song higher in others’ queues, resulting in more exposure to generate more peer feedback. Users are also divided into tiers based on their feedback output and track ratings, meaning the highest performing creators are grouped together in a queue.
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My Role
Customer Pain-Point
Product Overview
Users can view their feedback in the Feedback Dashboard, where raw data is compiled and visualized.
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If I were to redesign this dashboard today, I would not segment the feedback into four separate containers; this is an ineffective use of space and might fall short in usability testing. Instead, I would list the song uploads in a dropdown menu and have the feedback expand vertically upon selection of a song.
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SongSift also contains the functionalities of a music streaming platform. Top-rated tracks are available for streaming and users can browse music similarly to Apple Music or Spotify.
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In the premium version of SongSift, users could save music to their streaming library and benefit from unlimited uploads.
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To view the complete set of mockups and user flow, click here. Note that these are conceptual mockups and some key pages and features are missing.
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Key Takeaways
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From music hosting, to the feedback algorithm and elaborate front-end, I had to quickly adjust my expectations of building the next Spotify and recognize the technical complexities involved. I learned to prioritize the most important features for an MVP, rather than trying to build anything and everything.
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I taught myself Figma and learned that an intuitive UX is paramount.
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I learned how to communicate with a software engineer to get buy-in and ensure my vision is conveyed: understand product requirements and use cases; speak concisely with visual aids when possible.