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Tiny Desk Concerts

USER RESEARCH // PRODUCT DESIGN

Timeline: 6 weeks
Role: Visual Designer, Lead User Researcher
Team: Clark Tanquerido, Ethan Allwood,
Jeff Orsino, Maxwell Chen

Timeline: 6 weeks
Role: Content Strategist, Visual Designer
Team: Clark Tanquerido, Ethan Allwood,
Jeff Orsino, Lynnsey Ong

Timeline: 6 weeks
Role: Content Strategist, Visual Designer
Team: Clark Tanquerido, Ethan Allwood,
Jeff Orsino, Lynnsey Ong

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Tiny Desk Concerts is a video series of live performances hosted by NPR Music. Its goal is to expose listeners to new artists. With over 1,000 concerts and little reason to engage with unfamiliar artists, TDC fans miss out on what Tiny Desk has to offer.

Our intervention serves to provides that comfort and excitement in discovery through a new and memorable experience for finding new favourites through artists they already know and love.

Tiny Desk Concerts is a video series of live performances hosted by NPR Music. Its goal is to expose listeners to new artists. With over 1,000 concerts and little reason to engage with unfamiliar artists, TDC fans miss out on what Tiny Desk has to offer.

Our intervention serves to provides that comfort and excitement in discovery through a new and memorable experience for finding new favourites through artists they already know and love.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Tiny Desk Concerts is a video series of live performances hosted by NPR Music. Its goal is to expose listeners to new artists. With over 1,000 concerts and little reason to engage with unfamiliar artists, TDC fans miss out on what Tiny Desk has to offer.

Our intervention serves to provides that comfort and excitement in discovery through a new and memorable experience for finding new favourites through artists they already know and love.

PROBLEM SPACE

“If we can turn people on to someone they’ve never heard, that’s always been – in my 35 years at NPR – that has totally been my goal.”

- Bob Boilen, creator of NPR Tiny Desk Concert

Leveraging the comfort in existing music taste to find new music

Leveraging the comfort in existing music taste to find new music

As part of our initial research, I led user interviews to discover that music enthusiasts often find new music through artists they know over those they do not. We use that familiarity as an entry point to encourage existing listeners to discover more concerts through a catalogue audio and visual previews of similar artists .

To reinforce the impressiveness of each crew and craft, I led the content strategy by creating a tone that expresses grandeur in four categories: “Maestros” for directors and writers, “Sound Prodigies” for the sound crew, “Visual Virtuosos” for props and camera crew, “Masters of Disguise” for make-up and costumes.

The discovery experience adopts new routes across the interface

The goal was to keep music enthusiasts curious and listening. We connected multiple entry points like the landing page, filter, and artist page to foster novelty and continuous discovery

Artist page features:

  • Setlist Preview

  • Artists' favorite concerts

  • Behind the concert

Discovery through the mood filter

As humans, we feel things. Recent studies at Tufts University reveals that people classify music not only based on genre but also based on emotion. Using their study, we design our filter based on energy and stress levels.

Bridging the physical experience of crate-digging

Since Tiny Desk Concerts are so strongly linked to NPR's physical space, we create a digital experience that is both memorable and relates to the physical experience of crate-digging for vinyls. We redesign the user interface using hand-drawn illustrations and the fun colours of NPR’s existing identity.

Since Tiny Desk Concerts are so strongly linked to NPR's physical space, we created a digital experience that is both fun and memorable to use and also relates to the physical experience of crate-digging for vinyls. We redesign the user interface, reviving the hand-drawn effect and fun colours of NPR’s existing identity.

FUTURE CONSIDERATION

As the lead user researcher, it was sometimes a challenge to negotiate between design decisions with the team and what the user thought would be more desirable. The filter icon and some words used were confusing to some who wanted something more convetional but made sense to others. Going forward, more testing is necessary to make a clearer decision on the appropriate icon design and wording used.

As lead user researcher, I conducted most of the user tests. The feedback on some of the language used and icons were conflicting. Some users preferred "behind the concert" and a more traditional filter icon while others misinterpreted what they meant. Going forward, more user research should be conducted to clarify the best course of action

REFLECTION

Speak more confidently with research

This project was an opportunity as the sole woman on the team and as teammate and decisoin maker to advocate for myself. Through extensive interviews and testing, I was able to more eloquently share my thoughts and make research-backed changes as we designed our experience.

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