Prototyping Lead - conceptualization, research, analysis, wireframing, live prototyping, branding (logo, design system), hi-fi design
Music Hive was developed as part of the COGS 123: Social Computing course to create a social platform for concert lovers. The app allows users to virtually attend live concerts and engage with others before, during, and after events through interactive features like live chats, posts, and shared experiences. Our team presented the project prototype twice in front of the class and the professor, receiving valuable feedback that helped refine the design and functionality. The platform aims to make concerts accessible and socially immersive for all, overcoming barriers like cost, location, and physical accessibility.
Live concerts offer unique joy and connection, but many fans face barriers such as high costs, geographic constraints, and limited physical accessibility, preventing them from experiencing these events firsthand.
We conducted an online survey to understand how people connect and the challenges they face in attending concerts. I assisted in writing the questions and distributing the survey. Out of 30 respondents, the survey results reveal a strong interest among concert-goers in features that enhance both live and remote experiences. While live attendance is preferred, many are open to live-streaming options when barriers like cost, location, or health concerns arise. There is demand for high-quality, interactive live-streams that replicate the excitement of live events and foster community. A platform combining concert discovery, streaming, and social features could appeal to fans by offering a convenient, affordable, and engaging alternative to in-person attendance.
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To better understand the effects and benefits of certain features, we conducted research on recent literature on livestreaming features. These insights guided our feature designs for the prototypes.
To better understand the novelty of this service, we analyzed apps related to the concert experience or livestreaming. This process affirmed us of the novelty of our idea. We found that current apps on the market usually fall into one of two categories:
One of the main platforms dominating the live music and entertainment space is Ticketmaster: a widely recognized, functional system for purchasing event tickets and accessing occasional live-streamed performances. However, analyzing competitors like Ticketmaster revealed a common trend—companies prioritize operational efficiency and ticket sales over creating a truly immersive, engaging social experience for users. We would like to build on the existing products that do highlight the social experience at concerts by expanding real-time interactions between people.
“How might we create a seamless and engaging concert experience to facilitate social interactions between concert-goers?”
While everyone contributed to early brainstorming and sketches, I led the early conceptualization of the app’s features. I focused on the main concept of viewing and streaming concert livestreams as well as the community features between friends and strangers. These are the early visualizations that I worked on:
The app is centered around live concert events. Users can utilize its community features such as servers and chatrooms to connect with friends and strangers with similar music tastes. During the concert, fans that attend can livestream the concert to fans back home, who will have a range of streaming perspectives to choose from, as seen from the concert seating map. After the event ends, users can share their videos and pictures on the app, creating a centralized hub of concert content that allows users to easily rewatch and relive the moment. Together, these features comprehensively enable interaction before, during, and after the concert.
To simulate the user experience of Music Hive, I led two 25 minute roleplays in front the lecture of 60+ students and faculty, where participants explored the app’s features from pre-concert interactions to livestreaming and post-concert engagement using Google Sheets, Padlet, and Zoom.
Before the concert: Participants browsed a Google Spreadsheet of upcoming concerts, joined a community via Padlet.
During: Simulated livestreams on Zoom featured multiple angles of a performance. Participants engaged through live comments, polls, and reactions.
After: Participants shared clips/screenshots on Padlet and interacted with others’ posts
Through the responses to our feedback survey, we found that the features that worked the best were live chat and interactions, multiple angles and perspectives, and post-concert sharing. We also discovered potential problems:
Based on the feedback that we received, we iterated on our features for the second round of prototyping.
Focus on viewer-to-viewer interaction
Incorporate non-verbal interactions
Conduct Usability Testing
Sometimes it is very contradictory to consider design from users' perspectives when doing the prototype. For example, we wanted to encourage more interactions during the concert experience, but what we did might not actually satisfy users' needs. While we aimed to create a highly interactive concert experience based on user feedback, we found that implementing every suggestion sometimes conflicted with our overarching design vision and technical constraints. So it’s important to strike a balance between listening to users and maintaining a coherent design strategy. Not all user suggestions will align perfectly with the product’s goals or technical feasibility