Cadence App & Website

Case Study

Overview

Athletic research has found that listening to music during exercise improves performance and makes exercise more enjoyable. It improves motivation and is a distraction from tired muscles or labored breathing. Matching the beats per minute of a song to a desired jogging or cycling cadence amplifies these gains further. With the rise of Peloton and other at-home training, many athletes are recognizing these benefits. Cadence is an app and website for generating playlists that are tailored specifically for an athlete's desired pace, tempo and mood.

Figma prototype

Specific Problem

Endurance athletes benefit greatly from music that matches their desired pace. Peloton and other indoor, at-home trainers have taken advantage of this. However there is a distinct lack of products to allow athletes to take their music from the bedroom exercise bike out into the wild.

Initial Research - User Survey & Interviews

I sent out initial surveys to and then conducted 3 user interviews through task flow analysis of their current music curation habits and their integration of music into their athletic training. The main key takeaways were as follows:‍

Users want the ability to customize playlists with specific songs.
Users want to generate playlists that contain songs that match their desired playlists based on a genre.
Users want to be able to sync with their preferred music app.

Affinity Map

After conducting interviews, I categorized my findings. Each color represents an individual interviewed. The data synthesis led to two main goals for the app, and the creation of a persona to represent a key user of Cadence.

Personas

After gaining better insights into the needs and pain points of athletes and their music, I created personas to generate a deeper understanding of user needs.

Initial Research - Competitor Analysis

After hearing about users experiences with playlists and exercise, I conducted an analysis of existing websites and apps. What is lacking in existing apps?

It’s worth noting that this problem could also be solved via a simple addition of a filter on Spotify or Apple Music. Spotify already has this info embedded in their data, but doesn't allow direct access. Since these filters don’t exist, and since there was a variety of preferences for different music apps in the user research, I decided on designing a standalone website and app.

Goals

Create an app that allows easy generation of playlists based on BPM for specific athletic activities.
Create an app that feels at home with the aesthetics and usability of the ecosystem that athletes like Eric and Josie reside (Strava, Apple Music, Peloton, etc)
Create an app that allows users to custom tailor a playlist within a specific BPM range.

Site Map

I sketched out a site map to help me visualize where content lives within the app.

Wireframes & User Testing

I conducted some user testing on the Lo-Fi wireframes, and users were able to successfully complete the tasks that I asked of them. However in doing so they revealed that my design had largely become a music app, with a BPM feature rather than an activity focused, playlist generator. As I moved to the Hi-Fi prototype, I reoriented back to align more closely with my original goals.

Branding & UI

As I began developing high fidelity prototypes, I selected typography, created icons, and UI elements. Because there is a large amount of information available on the screen at once, I tried to keep designs minimal but also reflect the energy and spirit of endurance athletes.

Logo

As a fun side project, I created a variety of logos. User testers enjoyed getting to pick their favorite option - surprisingly they all picked the same one as their first choice! (this was different than my favorite)

High Fidelity Designs

Sign Up

On sign up users can select their preferred activities, set their cadence and sync their preferred music apps.
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Search

Users can search for specific songs, albums, artists or playlists and then add those to their 'Saved' collection or directly to a playlist.

Create Playlist

Playlists can be generated based on activity, genre, artist, and given a cadence parameter.

Responsive Design

My user interviews and surveys revealed that most people engage with music primarily on their phones. However there are some users, especially when editing or building a playlist, that prefer to be on a computer. I built the website to be able to be accessed on phones and tablets as well as desktops - although the preferred method on mobile devices would be utilizing the app.

Next Steps

Users commented that the social aspect is missing; a feature could be added to add friends to share playlists. Some other additional features that could be added to this app would be the integration with activity tracker apps like Strava to map a playlist onto a specific route. Or integration with Apple Watches, Garmins or other activity monitoring apps that would adjust the playlist on the fly.