Duration: April 2021 - August 2021
Course: Google UX Design Certificate
My Role: UX & Visual Designer
Joyful App
Mobile App: Joyful is a dance learning app for dancers at all levels, especially beginners.
Problem: Dance beginners often come to learn at the studio with varying backgrounds in music theory and visual learning.
Goal: Joyful dance app will help users learn and improve in dance through visual and music guides that enhance their pick up.
User Research
In my research goals, I wanted to understand dancers’ motivations, their end-to-end dance process, and common challenges they face in growing their craft.
I conducted interviews with 8 participants, and synthesized the data through an empathy map. Here I discovered the primary user group to be avid beginners with challenges in learning a new dance.
Pain Points
-
Musicality
Dance beginners feel confused when the instructor teaches by counts.
-
Full Class
A popular studio class fills up quickly, and if they’re not standing up front, it’s hard to see the instructor’s moves.
-
Not Getting Moves
It’s a challenge picking up new dance moves they haven’t done before.
-
Too Fast
Beginners need a way to learn at their own speed.
Melody - Avid Beginner
Problem statement:
Melody is an avid beginner who needs different ways visualize dance and comprehend music because they might have varying levels of understanding in visual learning and music theory.
Persona
Wireframes
Mockups
In the lofi prototype, almost all users had difficulty finding a specific class.
So I made a few changes:
added search
exposed levels tabs
replaced “Classes” icon with a universal search icon
In the hifi prototype, almost all users expected magnify by pinch-to-zoom.
So I made a few changes:
Instead of requiring users to drag the focus box, dragging or double-tapping anywhere leads to zoom.
Refined Mockups
Takeaways
Impact
Joyful dance app works to add the joy back into learning a new dance.
“This has a lot of detailed features in it like the different sections, eight counts, instructions, and I think it’s pretty well organized for a beginner like me to learn from it. I like the simplicity of it.”
- Usability Test Participant
What I learned
In designing Joyful dance app, I learned so much! I learned design always improves when you put the user first, when you actively work toward inclusion, and when you focus on accessibility. I’ve also learned that design thinking should be prioritized over pure aesthetics, but if you can balance both, it’s a win-win.