About the Project
As an avid runner, I often get frustrated when I try to listen to music on my runs. It's hard to predict how a run will go until you're in the thick of things. Some runs I'll need a pick-me-up, while during others I need something more conservative to keep me in a groove to survive a longer mileage out on the road.
This led me to my initial what if question: what if there was an app that could match my music to my runs, while I'm running?
As i was in the midst of completing a professional certificate in Human-Computer Interaction, I decided to investigate.
Getting Started: Needfinding + User Journeys
As part of the initial needfinding process, developing personas helped to keep the design focused on potential users, preventing me from matching the design directly to my own needs. By considering different archetypes and personalities, the design cycle was informed by a variety of skill levels and preferences.
Initial Design Alternatives
After establishing personas and situational user journeys, brainstorming initial interface alternatives by hand helped to get ideas out of my head and onto paper. I felt that this was better than jumping straight into Sketch or XD - while ideally I'd like to start in a digital format in the future, I wanted to get the experience of thinking strictly about the flow of the user and what features they might want or expect.
Initial Sketches
Paper Prototyping
After selecting the most promising alternatives, prototyping on paper helps to keep the process fluid - allowing for more focus on the flow of the task and less on the interface itself. As in many design formats: form should be dictated by the actual function of a design.
Low-fi paper prototypes.
Feedback and Evaluation
In an ideal scenario, the prototype above could be used to test user flows through the task at a lower fidelity, relying on verbal cues and feedback. This would allow me to work out bugs, dead ends, and get a general sense of how my users feel about the app at this stage.
Reflection (and Regret)
As I was excited about my groundbreaking and innovative idea for an app, at this point I realized I had forgotten about what can be the most important step in design: research. While I had gathered a wealth of personal and anecdotal information from friends in the running community, I didn't check to see if others already had similar ideas... turns out: they did.
There are a number of apps that do what I had dreamed up - I now use Weav Run for all of my on-the-run mixing needs.