Synax - music App
UX and UI Design
Client: Synax Project: ios & android App Role: UX/UI Designer
Synax is a music streaming, events management and social network app for unsigned artists and music lovers. Is a platform where music creators and music lovers around the world can engage with each other through a shared love of music.
The clients of this project had as an objective to create an app to help unsigned artists to share their work. They have identified a need for these artists to have a space when they could make their music available with fees that they could afford and the need for non-commercial music lovers to have a dedicated space where they could find it.
As non-commercial music lover themselves, the clients wanted to create a solution that would fill the gap on the market for a music streaming service dedicated to unsigned artists.
Unsigned artists – needed a place with affordable fees where they could make their music available for streaming.
Music lovers – have a space where they could find non-commercial music, discover new artists, and listen to their music on the go.
Despite of identified the main problems for both artists and music lovers, the client wanted to include a vast list of features as for example a social area on the app allowing artists to share experiences as an e-commerce area when artists could sell their albums and merchandising.
The challenge was to keep focus on the users’ problems that we would be trying to solve as well as include meaningful features and at the same time manage the client’s expectations.
The best way to solve this was to research, speak with music artists and music lovers and understand their needs in terms of what the app should do and finally will a clear view of the features, start prioritizing them by essential and good to have.
Synax branding was also created as part of this project.
The logo was inspired by music symbols and notes featuring curves and dynamic shapes.
Red was the colour chosen to the branding due to the association with excitement, passion, danger, energy, and action.
Due to the complexity of have 2 types of users and distinct features, an effective definition of the app architecture and navigation was essential. The navigation is seamless for all users – artists and music lovers.
The main navigation is made on the bottom bar, being the home screen at the centre of the menu and identified by the logo. Users have easy access to feeds, profile, discovery, and settings are from the main navigation.
On the home screen, the music genres were organized by categories to make it easier for the user to find what is looking for.
On this project my role was UX & UI Designer and I started working on it on an initial phase where the client was still refining the concept and evaluating different companies. I was involved from project and product conceptualization, branding, UX and UI design stages.
I helped the client to understand and visualize what the product could be with the help of competitors and industry analysis and well as with concept boards.
The research phase was complex, I worked on the competitors, industry, market, and user research. Identified innovative ideas for the product, features, requirements, user stories, scenarios, user journeys and the main users from musicians to fans personas.
The Design stage, started with the definition of mood boards and sketches from the begging of the project and evolved into wireframes and low fidelity prototypes to test with users and get the feedback needed to refine the user experience and get ready for the UI Design and high fidelity prototypes.