StickIt

A drummer’s dream tool that helps them make the most of their practice time.

What gets in the way of musicians pursuing their dreams? What could make the path towards musical success clearer and more meaningful?

After multiple iterations of problem identification, I was able to confidently design a mobile app solution called StickIt that helps drummers decide what exercises to practice when they sit down at the drum set. This app also gives the user the ability to create their own exercises, routines, and goals. This concept project demonstrates that the design process is not linear and that it’s important to be able to pivot when working with imperfect data.

Problem

Drummers need an easy way to overcome decision paralysis when sitting down to practice.

Solution

A mobile app that offers drum set players a curated list of exercises based on their interests, goals, and time constraints, eliminating the problem of deciding what to practice.

Role, Method & Tools

As the sole UX/UI Designer and UX Researcher, I was responsible for all aspects of the design cycle, including project scoping, researching, ideating/designing/prototyping, and evaluating. I used directed storytelling, love letters, MosCoW sorting, Kano survey & analysis, personas, concept evaluations, usability tests, presenting, Zoom, Miro, Sketch, InVision, and Google Suite for this project.

Process Overview

Problem Scoping

As a professional musician, I’ve noticed that many adult musicians lack confidence in knowing how to pursue their craft in a way that feels productive, healthy, and inspiring. Since most musicians depend on a smart phone for networking and social media, I was curious if there might be a way to design a practice app that provided this confidence to musicians?

Understanding the Space

What practice apps already exist, and what do they offer to musicians? I did a competitive audit with the top 7 rated practice apps for musicians in Apple’s App Store. I learned that these practice apps mostly focus on tools rather than process; tracking practicing time, metronome, and a journal/notes section were common features.

View Competitive Audit

Do these features provide musicians with the confidence they need? While scheduling interviews with six musicians, I dove into secondary research. I learned that goal setting and tracking, among other methods, was a common technique used to provide direction and confidence for creatives.

Only one of the apps I audited had a goal setting feature. If goal setting is an important part of instilling confidence and staying motivated as a musician, I saw a market opportunity worth exploring. I formed the following hypothesis:

If adult musicians had an accessible place to keep track of their goals and aspirations, they would feel more inspired to continue pursuing their craft. 

Interviews & Hazy Data

Through a series of six interviews with musicians at various stages in their music careers, I learned that my hypothesis was only half true. Most participants agreed that goal setting is important to them, and discovered that participants believe this feature should be included in this app through a MoSCoW sorting activity. Many participants also mentioned tracking their goals in the Love Letters I asked them to write about their imaginary, perfect app.

I also learned that there are an infinite number of types of goals one could set, with an infinite amount of qualifiers, depending on the individual’s personal values and priorities. Some of these qualifiers included:

• tempo tracking

• emotional quality of a performance

• number of performances

• types of gigs

• number of songs released

• annual income, etc.

These different goals were important to different musicians, and each musician already had their own personal method of keeping track of their progress. 

Pivot in Approach

I decided to pivot my approach at this point for two reasons:

1. My interviews left me with more questions than insights. Goal setting is important but I was unable to discern meaningful insights as to how I could make a meaningful solution to users. 

2. The limited time frame of this project. I was almost halfway finished with the project without any clear indication on how best to move forward.

I narrowed my user group to drummers since I could leverage my professional experience to make educated guesses as to what features would be most meaningful in an app that increases one’s motivation and confidence. I knew I could use my broad network of drummer friends and professionals to get their input as well.

Kano Method

I ran a Kano survey of a few wireframed features, some of which I included based on my interview participants’ preferences, some included from my competitor audit, and some that I ideated myself. I wanted to learn which of these features would be most helpful to two types of drummers:

1. those that identify as struggling with knowing what to practice, and

2. those that do not identify with being satisfied with their practice routine.

I evaluated these concepts with 40 drummer participants and was surprised to learn how meaningful the “suggested exercises” feature was to both these user groups. This feature offers drummers a list of exercises to practice based on their focus areas and interests. 

User Need Statement

Because no other apps on the market offer this type of feature, and it was rated across all drummers as “attractive”, I decided to make this the main feature of my solution. The Kano analysis allowed me to narrow a user need statement:

Drummers that struggle with knowing what to practice need to be offered exercise suggestions based on their interests so that they can feel confident and inspired knowing that the exercises they’re doing will help them move forward in their craft.

Refining the Solution

I honed the concept of this Suggested Exercises feature by sketching out two possible directions: a one-and-done flow, where the user goes through a short filtering process and is offered a one-time list of exercises, or a more long-term routine approach, where the user would stick with certain exercises for a while at a time. 

I evaluated both of these options with four drummers of varying skill levels and learned that both options are useful in different scenarios. Could it be possible to include both user flows in the same app? My evaluation participants thought so.

Two Meaningful Flows

I moved forward by creating a “Quick Session” feature and a “Smart Routine” feature to my concept.

Quick Session: for drummers that happen to have some unexpected practice time and would like to make the most of it, or drummers that work best by changing their practice each time they sit down. 

Smart Routine: for drummers that want to build practice habits but are unsure of which exercises to practice.

User Personas

I created two user personas based on my research findings and survey results. These personas helped ground me in my decision-making as I continued iterating the two main features of this app.

Testing Usability of Main Features

After doing five usability tests with volunteer drummers, I made some small adjustments to the placement of icons and wrote some notes to consider for future iterations of my concept. Overall, the concept of the product was well received:

Five of five participants indicated they would use this app in their own practice, and asked to be notified when the app was on the market to use! 

Presentation

I presented this concept product in a 6-minute virtual presentation: