Music Matcher
Timeline: October 2023-December 2023 for Design,
Development ongoing
Organization: The Michigan Daily
Team: 3 Product Designers (1 of them is me!)
Software Development Team
Product Manager
Long-Story-Short:
The Michigan Daily serves as the media outlet for
The University of Michigan & Greater Ann Arbor
with over 230,000 average monthly readers.
The Arts section at The Michigan Daily wanted to
find a way to connect students via music and spotlight
local Ann Arbor artists.
We spent 3 months performing user research, ideating,
and designing the Music Matcher interface that is currently
under development as of February 2024.
The product is estimated to have an economic impact
of at least $10,000 over its lifetime and has a prospective
audienceo of 230,000
Music Matcher
Timeline: October 2023-December 2023 for Design,
Development ongoing
Organization: The Michigan Daily,
https://www.michigandaily.com/
Team: 3 Product Designers (1 of them is me!)
Software Development Team
Product Manager
Long-Story-Short:
The Michigan Daily serves as the media outlet for
The University of Michigan & Greater Ann Arbor
with over 230,000 average monthly readers.
The Arts section at The Michigan Daily wanted to
find a way to connect students via music and spotlight
local Ann Arbor artists.
We spent 3 months performing user research, ideating,
and designing the Music Matcher interface that is
currently under development as of February 2024.
The product is estimated to have an economic impact
of at least $10,000 over its lifetime and has a
prospective audience of 230,000
What's the Problem?
What's the Problem?
What is Music Matcher?
What is
Music Matcher?
Results and Impact
The Ann Arbor music scene is rich and varied, with a multitude of local artists across the spectrum of
genres & styles. However, there are very few ways for UM students and Ann Arbor locals alike to learn
about these local, up-and-coming artists. Therefore, The Michigan Daily decided to design, develop,
and deploy a product that could serve said need.
The Ann Arbor music scene is rich and varied, with a multitude of
local artists across the spectrum of genres & styles. However, there
are very few ways for UM students and Ann Arbor locals alike to learn
about these local, up-and-coming artists. Therefore, The Michigan Daily
decided to design, develop, and deploy a product that could serve said
need.
Music Matcher is a platform similar to dating apps like Tinder or Bumble, except for helping users
discover their music taste based on their existing artist + song preferences. The platform then
compares the user’s existing musical preferences based on their “swipes” to local Ann Arbor artists
and recommends the local artists that correspond to the user’s music taste.
Prior to end of design sprint — Sat down with Product Manager & Software Development
team (Backend & Front-End) to discuss which aspects of design were feasible for Engineers
to bring to life
Design Specifications <—> Product Specification <—> Engineering Specifications
Prospective target market is 230,000 monthly Michigan Daily readers
Prospective reach is UMich Student Body, Greater Ann Arbor Community, & Metro Detroit
Projected Financial Impact to be over $10000 for The Michigan Daily
Part of The Michigan Daily product portfolio which won the paper a Pacemaker Award,
dedicated to recognizing student-produced online platforms for rich multimedia storytelling
Music Matcher is a platform similar to dating apps like Tinder
or Bumble, except for helping users discover their music taste
based on their existing artist + song preferences. The platform
then compares the user’s existing musical preferences based on
their “swipes” to local Ann Arbor artists and recommends the local
artists that correspond to the user’s music taste.
User Research
We performed a competitive analysis on existing music
recommendation apps such as Spotify, Apple Music, and Shazam
in order to better understand how music content can be effectively
& recommended for users.
Interviewed 8 students around the UMich campus, Undergraduate
and Graduate, to get a sense of their music taste, music listening,
and music discovery habits.
Interviewed 2 students who produce music in the Ann Arbor area
to learn current ways in which music is spread for artists.
The main goals of User Research were:
Understand the current scene, pain points, and desires for
individuals who are in Ann Arbor and would like to discover
more music
Learn what issues are worth prioritizing when it comes to
designing a prototype that would be intuitive and easy-to-use
for University of Michigan students & Ann Arbor locals like.
Insights Discovered
All individuals — whether they produced music or not, were
active on the lookout for new music
But it is really difficult for said individuals to find new music
that directly suits their tastes at any given moment through
conventional music platforms
Even more — UM students and Ann Arbor locals often
don't have a clear picture for what is present in terms
of local artists
Many prefer to passively search for music (i.e. Algorithm
Recommended) instead of actively seeking out new artists
and songs
Many also prefer not to attend live shows due to time and
expense, unless it is an artist that they are incredibly
interested in
Link to Affinity Map: http://tinyurl.com/buabbk6n
Ideation
Based on the discoveries from our user research, we began
to ideate based on desired features:
Artist/Song Swiping (similar to Tinder or Bumble) based on
which famous artists and song samples they like.
Local Artist Recommendations generated from the user's
"right-swiping" and "left-swiping".
A Comprehensive List of Local Artist for the user to
index through.
Initial Lo-Fi Whiteboard Mockup
Information &
Product Architecture
Final Iteration
(Responsive for
Mobile + Desktop)
Results and Impact
Prior to end of design sprint — Sat down with Product
Manager & Software Development team (Backend & Front-End)
to discuss which aspects of design were feasible for Engineers
to bring to life
Design Specifications <—>
Product Specification <—>
Engineering Specifications
Prospective target market is 230,000 monthly Michigan Daily
readers
Prospective reach is UMich Student Body, Greater Ann Arbor
Community, & Metro Detroit
Projected Financial Impact to be over $10000 for
The Michigan Daily
Part of The Michigan Daily product portfolio which won the
paper a Pacemaker Award, dedicated to recognizing
student-produced online platforms for rich multimedia
storytelling
User Research
We performed a competitive analysis on existing music recommendation apps such as Spotify, Apple
Music, and Shazam in order to better understand how music content can be effectively & recommended
for users.
Interviewed 8 students around the UMich campus — Undergraduate and Graduate — to get a sense of
their music taste, music listening, and music discovery habits.
Interviewed 2 students who produce music in the Ann Arbor area to learn current ways in which music
is spread for artists.
The main goals of User Research were:
Understand the current scene, pain points, and desires for individuals who are in Ann Arbor and would
like to discover more music
Learn what issues are worth prioritizing when it comes to designing a prototype that would be
intuitive and easy-to-use for University of Michigan students & Ann Arbor locals like.
Insights Discovered
All individuals — whether they produced music or not, were active on the lookout for new music
But it is really difficult for said individuals to find new music that directly suits their tastes at any
given moment through conventional music platforms
Even more — UM students and Ann Arbor locals often don't have a clear picture for what is
present in terms of local artists
Many prefer to passively search for music (i.e. Algorithm Recommended) instead of actively
seeking out new artists and songs
Many also prefer not to attend live shows due to time and expense, unless it is an artist that
they are incredibly interested in
Link to Affinity Map: http://tinyurl.com/buabbk6n
Based on the discoveries from our user research, we began to ideate based on desired features:
Artist/Song Swiping (similar to Tinder or Bumble) based on which famous artists and song samples
they like.
Local Artist Recommendations generated from the user's "right-swiping" and "left-swiping".
A Comprehensive List of Local Artist for the user to index through.
Ideation
Information & Product Architecture
Final Iteration
(Responsive for Mobile + Desktop)
Initial Lo-Fi Whiteboard Mockup