PledgeMusic
Andy Foster & Martin O’Dea
PledgeMusic
OUGD603
Background: PledgeMusic is a company that facilitates crowd funding for musicians to allow them to finance the recording and production of their music. This allows users to be part of the creation of the album. In exchange for pledging money to the artist, they receive constant updates throughout the campaign and an eventual reward which is dependant on the amount pledged. This aims to involve fans more transparently in the ‘music industry’, altering the fan-musician relationship in a way that hopes to bring them closer together for mutual benefit. Concise Brief: Help pledge to realise its full potential by updating its design and usability, allowing it to compete more effectively in the digital market. Brief: Use design to help PledgeMusic become a thriving modern solution to the necessity of record labels within the music industry. Its full potential is to allow musicians to independently release music, funded instead by their own fans.To do this we need to vastly improve its design and usability, allowing it to compete more effectively in this market. Competitors in the field, such as Kickstarter, are much more design orientated and this could be a barrier for potential new users. Clarity is key, and pledge could be doing more to better communicate its model to both artists and fans. Concept: Create a user-friendly interface for pledge that uses simple, clear design. There should be a particular focus on mobile users and the ways that pledge can communicate their model clearly to users. Tone of Voice: Clear Friendly Welcoming Influences: Kickstarter Mixlr Mixcloud Twitter Music Hype Machine Soundcloud
Andy Foster & Martin O’Dea
Brief
OUGD603
Research For this project, we used an adaptation of the Google Design Sprint, which is used by the company to find solutions to product design challenges. This format has been altered to better suit graphic design. Using this methodology, we aimed to gain a broad understanding of PledgeMusic, it’s users and the context in which it exists. By timing 10 minute research ‘sprints’ on a range of topics and repeating until sufficient knowledge has been gained, we were able to understand the different factors that would have to be conisdered in a redesign. Refined research topics 1. Competitors - Who are they? 2. Pledge’s Vision 3. Experimental Web Design 4. Usability in Web 5. Problems with pledge 6. Crowdfunding competitors - How do they communicate their ideas?
Andy Foster & Martin O’Dea
Research
OUGD603
Analysis After researching the crowdfunding market and the comapny vision of PledgeMusic, we were able to apply these ideas to examine the problems with the current site and identify areas where it could be doing more to engage with its audience. Positive areas to promote: The most creative and exciting way to get your music to your fans. A team that will guide you through the process. You invest in the future of music. If you don’t see you favourite artist on pledge, contact them. Invite your fans into your journey . Each project is personally asses by a team member Partnerships with major players iTunes for the super fan Negatives aspects of the current site: Ugly colours Gradients Garish colours Bad style Full bleed boxes Too crowded Not clever enough - not using website potential Not many projects shown on front page Scroll glitch Social brand inconsistency To much profile Boxed in - responsive websites look better ! Confusing to navigate Uninviting Too much body copy
Andy Foster & Martin O’Dea
Analysis
OUGD603
Development By breaking down the project into smaller areas, we were able to take each aspect of site and put it through a rigorous development process. Our focus here was to refine the design in detail entirely on paper to allow us to focus on usability as opposed to aesthetics and avoid being too precious over ideas at this stage. Due to the way we approached this stage of the project, we spent less time making visual design choices later on and were able to focus on building a functional site design.
Andy Foster & Martin O’Dea
Development
OUGD603
Pledge is the most creative and exciting way to get your music to your fans. By reimagining PledgeMusic, the service is able to realise its potential as the world’s leading direct-to-fan music platform
Andy Foster & Martin O’Dea
Features
OUGD603
Introducing Pledge Cards All you need to know about a campaign at a glance. Pledge Cards utilise large imagery, pefect for album artwork. Clean, colourful, simple.
Andy Foster & Martin O’Dea
Features
OUGD603
Make it a Feature Projects can now stand out from the crowd on the front page by double-sizing. Double content boxes draw attention to a project through large artist imagery and an instant description.
Triple-size for video Videos can now be embedded in the home page with triple content boxes. Allow artists to tell their story directly in the Pledge Card.
Andy Foster & Martin O’Dea
Features
OUGD603
Reward your pledgers Expandible reward cards give fans a better Pledge experience. Cards flip to reveal additional images, descriptions and videos. Gold cards highlight rewards that are exclusive to PledgeMusic.
Andy Foster & Martin O’Dea
Features
OUGD603
Introducing the Pledge Journey Bar Have access to all project updates in one timeline Users can transport to any milestone of the project Shifts the focus away from individual updates and towards the artist’s journey.
Andy Foster & Martin O’Dea
Features
OUGD603
Andy Foster & Martin O’Dea
Final Design
OUGD603
Andy Foster & Martin O’Dea
Final Design
OUGD603
Mock it up We created an interactive prototype to allow us to send a working model to PledgeMusic for feedback. This prototype can be found on our blogs.
Get responsive We also demonstrated how the Pledge card format could be applied across mobile devices. Swiping between cards would allow the user to browse rows of content and get information at a glance.
Andy Foster & Martin O’Dea
Final Design
OUGD603