BandMates

Inspiration

Our initial inspiration comes from our real life experiences of looking for bandmates. While a lot of friends around us play instruments, it’s still hard to start a band due to varying music tastes, skill levels, geographical proximity etc. Connecting with more musicians in the Boston area often requires a bit of luck and serendipity as well. This concern was also mentioned by a lot of musicians we encountered on social media. To address this common challenge, we decided to build a network for musicians to look for like-minded people to either start a band or simply find some time to jam together.

What it does

This platform assists musicians in discovering like-minded local artists to form bands, fostering connections based on shared music tastes and skills. Additionally, it features a blog section where music enthusiasts can freely express and share their thoughts.

How we built it

We used figma to build the prototype. Our project starts from brainstorming ideas of what a musical app looks like and what major sections in the app would be. This process mostly drew upon our own experiences as musicians and insights gathered from posts by fellow artists. We wrote our goals down on a paper and started comparing them to the existing products in the market. Once we identified the strengths and shortcomings of the existing products, we decided on which feature we wish to incorporate in our prototype. Then we transitioned to sketching preliminary drafts on paper, providing a foundational structure. These initial sketches were then translated into Figma, where we refined our designs with detailed planning and aesthetic considerations.

Challenges we ran into

The primary challenge we faced was the lack of experience of Figma or Designathon. Neither of us has had experiences of using figma before, so all of our knowledge came from the workshop Figma101 hosted by Rita and Youtube tutorials. A technical issue we ran into was to incorporate a live map in our prototype. Though it turned out to be not compatible with our prototype, we still inserted a non-interactive map to show the location of rehearsal rooms and their basic descriptions while tapping the pins.

Market Analysis

Before designing our prototypes, we investigated several existing products in the market that seek to address the same issue, including BandMix(website) and the Vampr(software). We hope to learn in what aspects they do well and what other parts need improvement based on our user experiences.

What sets our product apart is our exclusive focus on cultivating networks and offering a dedicated platform for musicians to connect and share advice. While platforms like Vampr incorporate features such as showcasing performance videos, selling vinyl records, and offering music lessons for commercial purposes, we remain committed to our core mission of providing a straightforward networking platform for musicians. The only commercial-related function in our design is the Store page, on which people could sell and buy second-hand instruments. This could not only benefit musicians but also generate some revenue for the app.

Another unique feature is the ability for users to sign up either as a band or as an individual musician. This mirrors real-life scenarios where individuals may be seeking bands to join or bands may be searching for additional musicians. This flexibility allows users to filter artists more accurately based on their specific needs. Additionally, we provide a map feature to assist musicians in locating rehearsal spaces within their area, further enhancing the platform's practicality and usefulness.

What we learned

Firstly, mastering Figma for prototyping was a significant learning curve, and we learned how to overcome technical challenges by ourselves. Secondly, the competition fostered a deep understanding of user-centric design principles, emphasizing the significance of crafting layouts that are not only visually appealing but also intuitive and user-friendly. This focus could ensure our solutions were tailored to address specific needs in our daily lives and enhance user experiences. This experience of designing a practical application in solving real-world problems is really rewarding to us.

Built With

• figma