Problem
Musicians dread traveling with their musical instruments. They are not only bulky but there is a damage scare associated while traveling with them.
Solution
Undertaking the role of a UX generalist, I designed a peer-to-peer rental marketplace for musical instruments, with rental pricing and quality control.
Overview
Instrurent is a musical instrument rental platform. It focuses on a peer-to-peer rental model, where users can rent or rent out their spare instruments.
Duration
3 months
Team members
Solo UX Designer
Key responsibilities
UX Design; UX Research; Usability Testing
Problem to Solution
The journey from defining the problem to brainstorming and crafting solutions was bumpy and uncomfortable, much like musicians’ experience of traveling with their musical instruments.
User Research
I moved to my parents’ house for six months during the nationwide lockdown. I thought of carrying my guitar along with me but was scared of damage to it while traveling. I wanted to find out if this was a common problem.
I conducted 10 user interviews with musicians to gather insights from them. Online surveys were responded to by 30 more musicians.
Their words, not mine!
“I had to shift to another city, and couldn’t take my keyboard along with me! I purchased a secondhand keyboard there. I spent 6000 INR on it, but it had lesser features.”
“I travel via flight for performances. Once, I had to argue with the airline staff regarding the safety of the instrument.”
“I thought of renting a guitar once, for a trip. Enough options were not available. Ended up purchasing a cheap guitar from OLX for 1500 INR.”
So what did I learn?
User Interviews and surveys unearthed three core insights.
01.
People travel to all sorts of places, revealing a market opportunity everywhere.
02.
71.4% of respondents wished they had their musical instrument with them at their destination.
03.
91.7% of the respondents found that there were no services available to solve the transit issues associated with musical instruments.
OPPORTUNITY SPACE
How might we?
Reduce transit issues, to provide musicians with an affordable and scare-free travel with their musical instruments?
Ideation
To help out musicians, I brainstormed ideas through the ideation process, to figure out what features and design elements work to solve the user pain points and help fulfill their goals.
Sketching
I created some sketches to know what kind of design elements will go together and work well to solve the problem statement.
'Evaluate Price' feature according to the details of the instrument provided, aims at ensuring a fair rental price.
Upload sound clips and 'Play Sound' is aimed at ensuring renters of the quality of the musical instrument, before renting.
Low-Fidelity Prototypes
By aggregating the data through the design process, I created low-fidelity prototypes and performed usability testing with these prototypes.
Martin Acoustic Guitar
150 per day
Fender Acoustic Guitar
150 per day
Martin Acoustic Guitar
150 per day
Cort Acoustic Guitar
150 per day
Martin Acoustic Guitar
150 per day
Fender Electric Guitar
150 per day
Martin Acoustic Guitar
150 per day
Ibanez Acoustic Guitar
150 per day
New Listing
Category
Search
Jamming in
Pune
Home
Listings
Chats
Profile
Rentals
(121)
Play Sample Sound
Chat
Rent Now
623 Still Street, Marion Township
Ohio - 45840
Reviews
Owned by
Shrey
₹ 150/d
Navigate
₹ 700/w
₹ 2500/m
₹ 150/day
Martin Acoustic Guitar
+ ₹ 1500 Refundable Deposit
Location
Johnny Heath
Amazing guitar! Owner is polite & cool.
Finish
Back
Example: Martin Acoustic Guitar
Display Name
Example: 20th Anniversary Signature
Guitar with a Rosewood fretboard and
22 frets.
Description
Images
Sample sound clip
Upload
Enter refundable deposit amount
Refundable Deposit
Provide Instrument Details
2
The Evaluated Price is
₹ 150/day
Home
Listings
Chats
Profile
Rentals
Add Listing
List out your instrument for rent to earn a
few bucks !
Usability Testing
To make a user-centric solution, I conducted usability testing on the low-fidelity prototypes. Here is the feedback from the usability testing.
01.
The users did not make use of the ‘Listings’ and ‘Rentals’ pages from the bottom navigation bar.
02.
Users found the flow of renting out their instruments boring and cumbersome to complete.
03.
Some people thought that asking about the ‘type of musical instrument’ would be better than asking about the ‘category’ of musical instrument in the ‘Add Listing’ flow.
04.
Users liked the ‘Play Sample Sound’ and the pricing control features of the application.
HIGH FIDELITY PROTOTYPES
Key Features
Usability testing helped a great deal in figuring out what aspects of the solution fall short of providing the users with a good experience. Iterated and improved designs are shown here.
Product Page
Musical instrument listed for rent by a local person, ensuring low rental price, and ratings and play sample sound to ensure the quality of the instrument.
Explore Page
Musical instruments listed for rent by local people, ensuring low rental prices.
Renting Out
Evaluation of rental price according to instrument details provided by the owner.
WRAPPING UP
Reflections
01.
I was initially apprehensive about conducting user interviews, and my first one didn't go as expected. However, my confidence grew with each subsequent interview.
02.
Structuring UX research interview questions proved challenging due to the need to avoid leading the interviewees to specific answers.
03.
I learned the importance of user testing as it revealed flaws I was unaware of, helping me avoid potential later-stage costs.
Other Projects
Instrurent
Finding out how to mitigate travel issues and minimize damage when musicians travel with their musical instruments.