What is Musal? 🤔

Musal is a music journal and planner app built to help musicians set better goals and achieve them.

Users input time frames and steps for their goals of which they are prompted to complete via notifications. It also includes a weekly overview and editable note sections.

Skills: Prototyping, competitive analysis, UX research, interviews, trend analysis, user journeys, problem solving, colour psychology, branding, creating design systems, prototyping, wireframing

Design Tools: Figma

What type of project is Musal?

Musal was completed as a solo project, design sprint over one week.

Why did I design Musal?

The original concept was created in 2020 when I wanted to track my progress on Clarinet. I used a physical journal. I did not maintain the journal for long as I did not enjoy drawing up the framework each time I practiced. If I had a digital music journal at that I would probably have stuck with it longer.

Original concept from 2020

Initial problem discovery

I noticed that I typically practiced my instrument with the intention of getting my band music learnt for the next week or preparing for my exam in a few weeks. All short-term goals. I now have plans for what I need to do in each practice session for both the short-term and long-term.

Design Process

Empathize 💖

Competitive analysis

I wanted to see what was already in the market and what I could do to set Musal apart from the rest in the best way possible.

Instrumentive App

• Very structured
• documentation of each step
• Recording feature
• Built in metronome

Andante App

• Statistic focused
• Streak feature
• Inviting interface
• Tracks notes and focus

I noted that

• Instrumentive has a "playlist" option which restricts users to time and involves users to be using the app a lot during their practice sessions
  • I don’t want users to be on their phone constantly whilst practicing as it breaks focus.
• Andante is more focused on statistics including streaks, mood and focus which I don’t believe is as important as the content of the practice session.
  • Goals should be the main priority for the app.
• The notes were general in these apps and not in categories. Categories would be more useful for sifting through information.
  • Having categories for notes helps the user find what they’re looking for better.
• There wasn’t much option to compare progress on multiple instruments.
  • Many people play multiple instruments so having a multiple instrument integration would be a feature that sets Musal apart from the competition.

Interviews

I talked with some other musicians about how and if they they track their progress with their instruments and I noted down the findings that:

Notable trends with the interviewees were:

• Most participants didn’t track their progress or goals as they believe that they are proficient enough on their instrument that they have solid understanding on technique.
• Participants practice frequently enough that they don’t need to structure their practice sessions as they know they will have all their music learnt in time for when they want to have it learnt.
• For some participants music isn’t their primary focus as they attend university or work jobs so practicing is something fun for them rather than something they actively strive to get to a professional level.
• Irrespective of music not being their primary focus most participants say they would give a music journal app a try.

Needs

• To have a way to easily plan out a goal and not have to keep altering their plan or consciously thinking about it all the time. Have something there to remind them of the goal.
• A place to store all of their recordings they listen to as they learn a piece

Pains

• Having to go through a lengthy process to set goals including setting reminders on their phones, planning out the whole structure and actually sticking to their goals.
• Having to juggle practicing multiple instruments and not having time to set goals as they are too busy practicing.

Desires

• A way to see how their progress on their instrument is going so, even though they don’t need it most of the time, they get extra motivation to practice.
• Not having to worry about what they need to practice. Instead having a plan already laid out for them.
• A centralized place for all musical related things including notes, music calendar and goals so they don’t need to access their notebook and calendar separately.

A limitation of the target group of interviewees is that they were all of the same relatively high level of their instrument. Taking a sample group of beginner, intermediate, advanced and professional instrumentalists would enhance the validity of my findings.

Define 🤔

Main themes of interviews

Theme 1: Performance tracking

Theme 2: Planning

Theme 3: Motivation

Performance is directly related to planning and taking action on the plan. Motivation is related to a successful performance which can be ensured through planning.

Identification of Problems

1. Musicians fail to accomplish and/or set long-term goals.
2. Musicians focus their energy on being able to play pieces rather than building on their technique.

User Journey

I created two user journey in relation to a musician who does use Musal and one who doesn’t. I created these to get a better understanding of what roadblocks would be encountered and to get into the mindset of someone who does and doesn’t use Musal so I could tailor my app design to user needs. The user journey is tailored to two main target groups: Users who don’t plan their practice sessions and those who do plan.

User Journey before Musal

Predicted User Journey Whist Using Musal / Whilst Setting Purposeful Goals

The implementation of creating more SMART goals changes the trajectory of success significantly and instigates motivation.

Ideation 💡

Design ideas

For each of the main problems I propose these features to help aid users:

Problem 1:

Musicians fail to accomplish and/or set long-term goals.

Problem 2:

Musicians focus their energy on being able to play pieces rather than building on their technique.