The Soundboard
Wiley Guitarworks, 2023
As a multi-disciplinary designer/maker, one of my passions is building hand-crafted, custom guitars. My customer base is scattered throughout the US so my engagement with clients is virtual. Clients who commission a custom guitar tend to be very engaged in the build process wanting constant updates - pictures, videos, and content about their guitar. This required sending messages in iMessage, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger. Additionally, the client was required to scour their list of messages from friends, family, marketing messages, etc. to find messages about their build. It also left the branding and experience to the app of choice for communicating with clients.
Research
UI Design
UX Design
Wire Framing
Prototyping
User Testing
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The Soundboard
Wiley Guitarworks, 2023
As a multi-disciplinary designer/maker, one of my passions is building hand-crafted, custom guitars. My customer base is scattered throughout the US so my engagement with clients is virtual. Clients who commission a custom guitar tend to be very engaged in the build process wanting constant updates - pictures, videos, and content about their guitar. This required sending messages in iMessage, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger. Additionally, the client was required to scour their list of messages from friends, family, marketing messages, etc. to find messages about their build. It also left the branding and experience to the app of choice for communicating with clients.
Research
UI Design
UX Design
Wire Framing
Prototyping
User Testing
Scroll for more
The Soundboard
Wiley Guitarworks, 2023
As a multi-disciplinary designer/maker, one of my passions is building hand-crafted, custom guitars. My customer base is scattered throughout the US so my engagement with clients is virtual. Clients who commission a custom guitar tend to be very engaged in the build process wanting constant updates - pictures, videos, and content about their guitar. This required sending messages in iMessage, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger. Additionally, the client was required to scour their list of messages from friends, family, marketing messages, etc. to find messages about their build. It also left the branding and experience to the app of choice for communicating with clients.
Research
UI Design
UX Design
Wire Framing
Prototyping
User Testing
Scroll for more
The Problem Clients have difficulty keeping track of all the content sent of the build of their custom guitar leaving the experience less than ideal making it difficult for clients to share images, videos, etc. of their build. Additionally, this is a lost opportunity to market Wiley Guitarworks to potential customers. The Solution The Soundboard is a native mobile app for Wiley Guitarworks that enables customers to engage and follow the build process in a branded environment enhancing and immersing the client in the experience of commissioning a custom guitar. The goal wasn't just to provide a commodity or a good for my clients but to create a hand-crafted experience.
Deliverables: Interaction Design: High-fidelity interactive prototypes for key tasks on mobile. UX/UI Design: Competitive analysis User surveys and one-on-one interviews Site map Personas UI kit Low-fidelity wireframes High-fidelity mockups and prototypes Usability tests and findings Project Specifications Duration: 6 weeks Tools: Figma FlutterFlow Firebase Lucid Chart Sketching Photoshop Illustrator
Interviews Interviews were conducted with present and past clients to understand the experience of client engagement during the process of building their guitar. I also interviewed other makers about their involvement with clients and other ways they engage with customers. My interviews revealed it was important for clients to engage because they wanted to feel a strong sense of ownership in the process. The current means of engagement was difficult to control and organize. And the way and types of content they wanted. The importance of ownership in the process aligned with my desire to not just provide goods for my clients but to create an experience centered around a custom bespoke guitar. Before working on my prototype, I conducted a survey through Google Surveys to determine what categories of information would be most useful for my audience. The most surprising findings were that clients wanted more educational content. The why’s and how’s of building their guitar. And, wanted to engage with other clients - to create a community of Wiley Guitarworks customers. To not be siloed and to see what was also being built and share their experiences of not just building a custom guitar but the ultimate experience of playing their guitar.
Preliminary Sketches In my lo-fi sketches, I created basic wireframes that helped me visualize the different categories of information I wanted to display for each section. I tested on users to verify the organization and architecture of the information of the app. High Fidelity Prototypes In my hi-fi prototypes, I explored refined screens that are consistent with WGW branding as well as iterating on the feedback of users from the lo-fi sketches. Additionally, did 10-second impressions with users to ensure how well they could navigate the prototype and understand its purpose without explanation. The final part of the design phase was the development of a UI Kit.
Final Takeaways After years of working with clients and listening to their desires and pain of how and the means of engagement and the organization of content on their build, I learned that there was an opportunity to enhance the client’s experience. Additionally, we live in an experience economy, and crafting engaging, educational, and entertaining experiences is crucial to customer retention. Both primary and secondary research, as well as multiple different methods of data collection, were crucial to learning about a problem and developing an appropriate solution. I found that both my initial interviews with clients and makers were extremely valuable in informing me what problems I wanted to further investigate and address. With more time, I would have liked to further develop the social aspect of the app and enable more user-to-user interaction that would encourage folks to play. Future versions will attempt to address this by offering a feature that allows users to post clips and images of them playing or of their guitars, however, I would have liked to do some user testing to determine if my audience would benefit from other forms of engagement, such as virtually challenging or inviting friends. Some clients even expressed a desire to include a Chat GPT feature inside the app so they could conduct their own research and discuss topics like guitar history, build features, wood properties, and countless other prompts that could be created.
The Problem Clients have difficulty keeping track of all the content sent of the build of their custom guitar leaving the experience less than ideal making it difficult for clients to share images, videos, etc. of their build. Additionally, this is a lost opportunity to market Wiley Guitarworks to potential customers. The Solution The Soundboard is a native mobile app for Wiley Guitarworks that enables customers to engage and follow the build process in a branded environment enhancing and immersing the client in the experience of commissioning a custom guitar. The goal wasn't just to provide a commodity or a good for my clients but to create a hand-crafted experience.
Deliverables: Interaction Design: High-fidelity interactive prototypes for key tasks on mobile. UX/UI Design: Competitive analysis User surveys and one-on-one interviews Site map Personas UI kit Low-fidelity wireframes High-fidelity mockups and prototypes Usability tests and findings Project Specifications Duration: 6 weeks Tools: Figma FlutterFlow Firebase Lucid Chart Sketching Photoshop Illustrator
Interviews Interviews were conducted with present and past clients to understand the experience of client engagement during the process of building their guitar. I also interviewed other makers about their involvement with clients and other ways they engage with customers. My interviews revealed it was important for clients to engage because they wanted to feel a strong sense of ownership in the process. The current means of engagement was difficult to control and organize. And the way and types of content they wanted. The importance of ownership in the process aligned with my desire to not just provide goods for my clients but to create an experience centered around a custom bespoke guitar. Before working on my prototype, I conducted a survey through Google Surveys to determine what categories of information would be most useful for my audience. The most surprising findings were that clients wanted more educational content. The why’s and how’s of building their guitar. And, wanted to engage with other clients - to create a community of Wiley Guitarworks customers. To not be siloed and to see what was also being built and share their experiences of not just building a custom guitar but the ultimate experience of playing their guitar.
Preliminary Sketches In my lo-fi sketches, I created basic wireframes that helped me visualize the different categories of information I wanted to display for each section. I tested on users to verify the organization and architecture of the information of the app. High Fidelity Prototypes In my hi-fi prototypes, I explored refined screens that are consistent with WGW branding as well as iterating on the feedback of users from the lo-fi sketches. Additionally, did 10-second impressions with users to ensure how well they could navigate the prototype and understand its purpose without explanation. The final part of the design phase was the development of a UI Kit.
Final Takeaways After years of working with clients and listening to their desires and pain of how and the means of engagement and the organization of content on their build, I learned that there was an opportunity to enhance the client’s experience. Additionally, we live in an experience economy, and crafting engaging, educational, and entertaining experiences is crucial to customer retention. Both primary and secondary research, as well as multiple different methods of data collection, were crucial to learning about a problem and developing an appropriate solution. I found that both my initial interviews with clients and makers were extremely valuable in informing me what problems I wanted to further investigate and address. With more time, I would have liked to further develop the social aspect of the app and enable more user-to-user interaction that would encourage folks to play. Future versions will attempt to address this by offering a feature that allows users to post clips and images of them playing or of their guitars, however, I would have liked to do some user testing to determine if my audience would benefit from other forms of engagement, such as virtually challenging or inviting friends. Some clients even expressed a desire to include a Chat GPT feature inside the app so they could conduct their own research and discuss topics like guitar history, build features, wood properties, and countless other prompts that could be created.
The Problem Clients have difficulty keeping track of all the content sent of the build of their custom guitar leaving the experience less than ideal making it difficult for clients to share images, videos, etc. of their build. Additionally, this is a lost opportunity to market Wiley Guitarworks to potential customers. The Solution The Soundboard is a native mobile app for Wiley Guitarworks that enables customers to engage and follow the build process in a branded environment enhancing and immersing the client in the experience of commissioning a custom guitar. The goal wasn't just to provide a commodity or a good for my clients but to create a hand-crafted experience.
Deliverables: Interaction Design: High-fidelity interactive prototypes for key tasks on mobile. UX/UI Design: Competitive analysis User surveys and one-on-one interviews Site map Personas UI kit Low-fidelity wireframes High-fidelity mockups and prototypes Usability tests and findings Project Specifications Duration: 6 weeks Tools: Figma FlutterFlow Firebase Lucid Chart Sketching Photoshop Illustrator
Interviews Interviews were conducted with present and past clients to understand the experience of client engagement during the process of building their guitar. I also interviewed other makers about their involvement with clients and other ways they engage with customers. My interviews revealed it was important for clients to engage because they wanted to feel a strong sense of ownership in the process. The current means of engagement was difficult to control and organize. And the way and types of content they wanted. The importance of ownership in the process aligned with my desire to not just provide goods for my clients but to create an experience centered around a custom bespoke guitar. Before working on my prototype, I conducted a survey through Google Surveys to determine what categories of information would be most useful for my audience. The most surprising findings were that clients wanted more educational content. The why’s and how’s of building their guitar. And, wanted to engage with other clients - to create a community of Wiley Guitarworks customers. To not be siloed and to see what was also being built and share their experiences of not just building a custom guitar but the ultimate experience of playing their guitar.
Preliminary Sketches In my lo-fi sketches, I created basic wireframes that helped me visualize the different categories of information I wanted to display for each section. I tested on users to verify the organization and architecture of the information of the app. High Fidelity Prototypes In my hi-fi prototypes, I explored refined screens that are consistent with WGW branding as well as iterating on the feedback of users from the lo-fi sketches. Additionally, did 10-second impressions with users to ensure how well they could navigate the prototype and understand its purpose without explanation. The final part of the design phase was the development of a UI Kit.
Final Takeaways After years of working with clients and listening to their desires and pain of how and the means of engagement and the organization of content on their build, I learned that there was an opportunity to enhance the client’s experience. Additionally, we live in an experience economy, and crafting engaging, educational, and entertaining experiences is crucial to customer retention. Both primary and secondary research, as well as multiple different methods of data collection, were crucial to learning about a problem and developing an appropriate solution. I found that both my initial interviews with clients and makers were extremely valuable in informing me what problems I wanted to further investigate and address. With more time, I would have liked to further develop the social aspect of the app and enable more user-to-user interaction that would encourage folks to play. Future versions will attempt to address this by offering a feature that allows users to post clips and images of them playing or of their guitars, however, I would have liked to do some user testing to determine if my audience would benefit from other forms of engagement, such as virtually challenging or inviting friends. Some clients even expressed a desire to include a Chat GPT feature inside the app so they could conduct their own research and discuss topics like guitar history, build features, wood properties, and countless other prompts that could be created.