Helping the Odisei team design the new app for the Travel Sax 2.
2 minutes read
Odisei Music is a startup that is reinventing the way saxophone is played. They invented Travel Sax, a light and portable saxo that could be played anywhere. The Travel Sax uses a midi-controller and can be connected to your phone through their app.
Odisei was building Travel Sax 2, and they needed help designing their new app functionalities. That's why they contacted me to help them get the best solution for their users. The new version of the Travel Sax had new features and those had to be implemented in the new application.
Odisei had to build their app from scratch. The previous version of the Travel Sax limited the potential of the previous app, which was really basic. The new Travel Sax 2 enabled new possibilities, so a new app with a whole new experience had to be designed.
I was the person in charged of designing the whole experience, supervised by Jaume Batllori, the Operations manager of the company. Furthermore I had to be in close contact with Arnau Marzabal, the full stack developer that was going to develop the app in React Native.
The research of the different features was done by Jaume, as they had to be linked to the physical product. This research was previously done to my design, as the Travel Sax 2 had to be designed and developed beforehand.
I adapted their way of working to my routine so we could be aligned.
The first thing I did was to know better the company, the product and their users. We made a meeting with the employees and the CEO to know how they worked, which programms were using and their philosophy. I asked lot of questions to learn more about the Travel Sax and their users.
I was able to see their user persona and how their clients were using the saxo as they had direct communication with their customers. The employees even played the new Travel Sax 2 for me so I would be able to see all the new features from their previous product.
We defined the priorities and all the user stories with the help of a kanban board (they used Trello). Once I had all the information, I was ready to start designing the new app.
Knowing what the different features would be, I had to create the arquitecture of the new app so the user would understand how to use it. Some of the new features were:
1. Being able to play more than 70 new sounds.
2. Adding to favorites the new sounds.
3. Add effects to the Travel Sax 2.
4. Edit the fingerings.
5. User profile with playing data.
One of the most difficult challenges was to create the sitemap and the wireframes. I divided the flow in 4 different sections:
Sounds, where the user would find all the different sounds to play in the travel sax. The user could add its favourite sounds so he could have an easier access.
Travel sax configuration, where the user could control different aspects as editing the fingerings, settings, effects and travel sax connection.
Learn, a section that was in the current app. The user can find here tutorials and information that could be useful for them . Due to the timing issues of the developing team, it was not possible to iterate the screen. But I suggested for the future to add a community section where users could share what they learnt and engage with other musicians.
Finally profile, where the user could edit its profile information, check its statistics, set reminders and contact the team in the case of any question.
I focused on the navigation of the app, as it had to be clear for the users to understand. Furthermore, I developed a small design system so the experience would be unified throughout the sections.
I created all the screens, including the error and empty states. Once all the features were built, a prototype was created for the next and more important step: the user test.
We wanted to check if the users of the Travel Sax 1 would understand the new concept and the app navigation. To do so, I prepared a script with key questions and ideas for the user test. The test was done to 3 users that were already using the Travel Sax 1 and were interested in purchasing the new version. We used lookback to record the session and Jaume helped me introduce the comments in the software as I was the moderator.
The session was held with a smartphone and the Travel Sax 2. Even though it would not be connected to the device, we could see how the users would try to use it together.
Most of the questions were related to the navigation, as "Where do you think this button will lead to?" or "Where would you find the travel sax configuration?". The questions had to be done in the proper time as there was the possibility to bias the user.
The general impression of the app experience was positive. They though of it as something that added value to the current product and made it customizable.
I analyzed and studied another time the tests' recordings and completed the feedback in the tool. With all the information gathered, we were able to cluster the positive and negative insights. We saw that the concept was understood but there were small modifications that had to be performed to get a better comprehension.
One of the adjustments was the way the fingerings of the sax were edited. Users understood what was the feature about, but they did not know how to exactly perform the task. We solved it by adding clear instructions in the screen with the steps to follow.
This project was the first professional project I designed for a company that was going to be built. My main learning was how to communicate properly and work with other departments to get a successful result on time.
