Making Time Travel Possible One Song at a Time
Greg Gonzalez, WeiTing Huang, Max Harberg
Overview
Calling all music enthusiasts! Are you interested in learning about the origin of your favorite songs? Have you ever wondered what music they were listening to overseas in the 1960s? Do you just want a new way to discover your next favorite artist?
Introducing: Radiooooo, “The Musical Time Machine.”
Radiooooo isn’t just your typical, stale, based music discovery app. It places a twist on a familiar formula, adding gamification and social connection aspects. The program takes consumers on a journey around the world and through time with music. The program is also highly audience-driven, depending on user uploads to grow its library.
Whether you constantly upload content or simply click around and listen to songs, there are many ways people participate within the app. Users can freely click around a world map, filtering it by decade or ‘feel’ (slow, fast, weird) of the music. Users can also click on the computer-generated playlists or plan a ‘taxi’ route and have it take them on a pre-planned journey. With the wide variety of features and engagement opportunities, we found many possible motivations for why audiences use the program.
User Motivations, Intentions, and Activations
The most prominent motivators (Erin Reilly, Leveraging Engagement Model, and Gensler’s Experience Index) we found were: entertainment, discovery/exploration, pride, participation, and immersion. Entertainment and discovery are produced from audiences listening to and discovering new music. Pride and participation are produced by audiences uploading music (potentially from an era or country they are from and have a passion for sharing). Immersion is produced by the opportunity for audience members to get lost in the experience, whether by clicking around or taking a tour with the taxi feature.
When dissecting Radiooooo by the Four Stages of Activation: 1) The audience will include individuals of any age looking to discover new music or share their knowledge and passion of music history; 2) Users have access anytime, anywhere, and via any device–mobile or desktop; 3) As mentioned, users will have an agenda to either find new music or share their own; 4) many attractors are listed in the paragraphs above.
We chose to examine Radiooooo because its features are very relevant to the immersive experience we have begun creating for SXSW. In the research study we conducted across various archived, primary, and live mediums, we found that the loyal SXSW audience does a lot of preparation when preparing for the festival. The opportunity to take that fan on a journey through the “best of South By” is something unique and hasn’t been done before. Additionally, user-generated content capabilities, something Radiooooo does exceptionally well, is a feature we have been trying to figure out how to incorporate.
General Summary
Radiooooo describes itself as a “musical time machine.” It allows users to select curated music playlists by designated country(ies) and decade(s). The program is available via mobile (android/ios) and desktop.
There are three modes: basic mode, free member, and premium (paid) member. When first accessing, the user is greeted by a playful image of a boat floating on a sea of graduated bubbles with two buttons: “basic mode” and “join Radiooooo.” Most first-time users will participate in “basic mode” to see what the app offers. While signing up is free, there is a premium model with expanded features for a monthly or yearly subscription.
After selecting the basic mode, the user is introduced to the interface. The interface is the same whether using the desktop or mobile version. However, on mobile, the icons and options are squeezed, making it functionally difficult and less intuitive. The toolbars at the top and bottom of the screen take up large amounts of the visible area.
The basic layout is a map of the earth with countries delineated by borders, but no other information is provided (names of countries, continents, or cities, for example). Underneath the map is tabs representing every decade from 1900 until “Now.” Beneath this is a bar with the audio player, which features basic playback controls for play, skip, and a button to display song play history (which is only accessible as a member–free or premium)r. The left bottom corner includes a thumbnail of the song’s album cover currently playing with a heart icon for favoriting the song and a share icon to share the music to social media. However, these features are only included in the membership modes. To the right is a volume control slider and a round profile picture of the user who uploaded the, along with that person’s name and nationality. Finally, there is an option in the bottom right to follow this contributor and to explore what other songs they have uploaded.
Scanning the top of the screen, one can see more icons, tabs, and bubbles to “sign up” and “log in” for the unlogged or basic user. Three tabs in the middle of the top of the interface allow the user to choose the musical style (“slow,” fast,” or “weird”). These tabs can be selected individually or in any combination. Finally, the top left corner includes three round icons containing a planet, a taxi, and an island. These icons’ functions are not immediately clear, but clicking on them reveals that they represent a taxi, island, and shuffle mode (the planet icon).
Clicking on a country will begin playing a radio station with music from that country, the selected decade, and style. The selections are varied and become personalized as users favorite songs and uploaders. Favorited songs create a user history (for members only), which can reference previous usage or play as a playlist.
Returning to the three buttons in the top left (taxi, shuffle, and islands): these offer additional ways to interact with the application. Taxi allows a user to select multiple countries, curating a playlist with a range of sounds and musical styles. The islands icon accesses a group of playlists curated by the premium members, which is only accessible by premium members. Lastly, the planet icon shuffles the music, playing a random sampling of all music from any decade/country, and “exploration” mode, which is actually the default mode.
The UI includes three transparent social media buttons that link to Radiooooo’s Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, and a pink box with a big capital “R” prompts users to “Join the club.” These buttons can be hard to see, especially when using the mobile app. It is worth noting that there is additional functionality to be had by following and interacting with the social profiles associated with Radiooooo. However, there is no direct way to connect with the curators who populate the site with the music that is featured. It is worth noting, that any member can submit music for inclusion in the program, and all users are encouraged to do so. These music submissions are then reviewed and must be approved by the main contributors to maintain quality, uniqueness and to prevent unwelcome or offensive material from being included.
While the Radiooooo Music Map provides such an abundant music resource and innovative functions to its users, is it intuitive enough to create a joyful user experience? In the next section, we will be using eight different perspectives to discuss the strength and weaknesses of the Radiooooo Music Time Machine experience.
Discovery
During a user experience, users should be able to discover features when needed without making huge efforts.
The interface is presented as an illustrated style world map that enables users to click on different countries and choose different time periods to explore the music catalog. The way it visualizes music categories makes users easily operate the main function without instructions. Although the mobile app does not have the advantage of showing a description before actually clicking on it, users can still figure out how to navigate through the app.
However, users might find it more difficult to be acquainted with other secondary features that Radiooooo could provide. To illustrate, there are too many options appearing on the same page that makes the hierarchy of importance unclear. There is no tutorial or interactive guidance, which could confuse users who are experiencing the interface for the first time.
Additionally, the icons that connect to Radiooooo’s social media are transparent and difficult to recognize on the interface. While it might look well if viewed through an art design perspective, it does not necessarily serve its function effectively.
Affordance
The overall experience is easy to access by dragging the map and clicking on the different feature icons. Nevertheless, depending on different devices that users choose to have the experience with, they might take slightly respective actions to access the functions.
The most significant difference between the mobile and web page versions is whether it has a description feature. Web page users can read the description that shows up when the mouse hovers above an icon. The function makes them easier to understand how to operate the interface, while mobile users could only try clicking on every button to find the function they need.
Comprehensive
Although the interface’s art direction is worth being praised, some terms and icons are not self-explanatory, especially when mobile app users do not have the brief description function.
Firstly, shuffle mode, music journey, and thematic playlist are represented by earth, taxi, and island icons. These terms are slightly confusing.
Secondly, the color of the light representing on and off is uncommon and inconsistent. To illustrate, instead of using the general green and red to represent on and off, music filter tabs switch between blue and red when selected or deselected. Also, for the time period tabs, on and off are shown by yellow and blue.
Lastly, several grammatical issues were found in the text. Although minor errors, it could have limited users’ experience by misunderstanding the content.
Responsive Feedback
The interface is well designed with plenty of responsive feedback. Each button is clickable. Whether there is a color change, animation, or pop-up, all provide immediate feedback that helps users connect with the experience better by letting them get a sense of certainty in their actions. (Mogensen, C., 2020) For web page users, feedback is activated not only by clicking on icons but also by pointing at it with the cursor, which increases users’ delightfulness and fosters the experience even more. (Mogensen, C., 2020)
Predictability
As mentioned above, the web page users have the advantage of foreseeing the result before clicking on a function icon. Mobile users must click to see the result. However, since the basic functions are simple and repetitive, users can often predict how action would turn out after a few tries.
Additionally, some features are similar to other widely used apps. For instance, the Island mode provides a similar feature as Spotify that recommends thematic playlists to users. Also, the map functions are the same as some adventure online games that require users to navigate and click on a world map. Thus, users could predict most of the results by past experience and feel more power of control during the experience.
Efficiency
The overall interface is clean and easy to use. Most functions could be activated within one click, and users do not have to go through excessive steps to make an action. For example, after clicking on the map, music is immediately played without needing to click the play button again.
The app also doesn’t over interact with users. It is commercial-free for unpaid users during the whole experience, which is rare nowadays while every platform is trying to sell something or get attention through free online service.
Forgiveness
One of the weaknesses of the Radiooooo experience is that once you click onto another music, you can not trace back to the last track you were listening to. Even if you click back to the same category, it will switch to another music that is randomly suggested by the system. This might be frustrating for users who would like to replay the music but accidentally hop off to different tabs or forgot to like the track before it ends.
Explorability
This feature is saying that if users are able to use the interface without fear of getting lost or making mistakes. In this case, the Radiooooo experience does hold strength. Throughout the whole experience, the world map dominates most of the screen space, even when users are clicking on other functional features. This leads to a sense of stability for users which they always know how to come back to the main page anytime to start over their exploring process, rather than getting lost in other windows. Moreover, the functions are logically laid out, which helps users to trace back their exploring process to reverse their actions.
After exploring the strengths and weaknesses of this platform we see several areas for possible improvement and also ideas that are worth incorporating into a possible user experience that would cater to SXSW’s needs to engage its music fans in a unique digital offering.
After exploring the strengths and weaknesses of this platform, we see several areas for possible improvement and also ideas that are worth incorporating into a possible user experience that would cater to SXSW’s needs to engage its music fans in a unique digital offering.
First of all, we would suggest that Radiooooo offer more information about the music and provide avenues for exploration into the artists. We would recommend a way to access any bios or information of the musicians’ historical significance and the cultural context within which the music was created. It would also be tremendously beneficial to include lyrics where possible and multi-language translations for all of the application’s international user base. Also useful would be linked to websites or profiles of the artists when they are still active and also avenues to support the artists. This could include patronage, donations, email or booking links, as well as merchandise links to purchase the music both directly and secondhand.
Secondly, We would recommend an interactive tutorial walkthrough for first-time users. This could be a very quick animation or video describing all of the features of the application, or it could also just be a series of slides highlighting the functions to give users an overview before they start exploring. A reference guide would also be helpful in this regard for users who might want to explore any options that they could be unaware of or higher-level functions available at premium levels or in submenus and preferences. While there are questions about and contact sections, none of them offer much information about the actual functionality of the site.
Finally, we would urge the manager of Radiooooo to create avenues for users to connect through the app. According to a Crunchbase article, the site has 157,942 monthly visitors and has grown 103.23% U.S. users per month this year. This growth suggests that the appeal of this app is strong and that there is a passionate group of users. These statistics, combined with the user-sourced content which powers Radiooooo suggests a huge opportunity and desire for more user interaction. We would suggest incorporating user comments and a DM system so that curators and listeners can interact. It would also be good to allow them to follow one another on other platforms, suggest songs, trade personalized playlist “mixtapes,” or collaborate on curated musical experiences. This would further drive engagement with the platform and motivate more users to become active participants, co-creators, and evangelists for the application. As Rochow stated, “It is through sharing and exchanging musical compilations that the playlist, as a social form, serves as a vehicle or medium, facilitating new forms of association and communication…musical compilations take part in the self-construction process and can serve as a tool for the symbolic expression of the self,” (2012).
We feel that incorporating these features, along with the basic concept of a geography-based, time-dependent playlist creation platform such as Radiooooo with the historical and social cache of Austin and the SXSW music festival, could yield a very engaging platform. This would attract and engage new fans as well as legacy aficionados. By utilizing the geography of Austin and its music district, we can also place the festival and its devotees within a historical and cultural context. By encouraging engagement and contribution, legacy fans will overcome their resistance to digital engagement. By providing a unique digital offering, newer fans will connect with the previous iterations of SXSW and the city that has been its home.
Bibliography:
Radiooooo — Tech Stack, Apps, Patents & Trademarks. Crunchbase. www.crunchbase.com/organization/radiooooo/technology.
Rochow, K.(2012). Show me your playlist and I tell you who you are: An investigation of the social psychological foundation of musical playlists.
Mogensen, C. (2020,Nov 4). Feedback. SuperOffice.
