Audio industry professionals and hobbyists usually juggle various tools for asynchronous collaboration on their working audio files. We help these users achieve a more seamless, asynchronous collaborative experience.
I collaborated closely with the founder, tech lead, and developers. Together, we spearheaded the design and steered the roadmap. I brought the design of our solution from concept to development.
“Getting all the musical language understood at different levels of technicality between people is a challenge.”
Users were very focused on the way feedback was provided to their audio projects
Users needed ways to write down notes they wanted show to their collaborators
Reference tracks are crucial in the initial stages of an audio project
We identified a consistent need for users to share files remotely to collect feedback. Remaining participants weren't in a place in their projects where they wanted to collect feedback yet, but expressed a desire to do so.
We reprioritized the design to accommodate the space needed for an interface aimed at focused and isolated listening. We went from a single track file, to a track hosting multiple layers/“stem” files.
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Stems are layers of audio that professionals put together to form an arrangement of sound or music.
After conducting usability sessions with 4 users on our alpha build, we noticed that users began to struggle with building an accurate mental model once being asked to create a new version of their track.
The latest design iterations are continuing to be implemented into production, with small changes receiving exposure to our public beta users.
Update coming soon!
I'm currently in the process of adding in some of our latest design decisions to this case study! Stay tuned for more.
Our team is still chugging along, with many improvements to come. In the mean time, I've already overcome (and am still overcoming) multiple challenges and obstacles along this journey with Silver Audio!
With ambitious beginnings, we gave user utmost flexibility, but at the cost of clarity. Now we're sliding on a scale between the two, while also re-evaluating our actual user's current needs.
The entire team, including myself has limited time on the project, coupled with the learning curve involved with project complexity. This affects our velocity and frequency to experiment.
