melodymap

This was our opportunity. We wanted to create a way for people to experience each other’s music in real time, rooted in place, to deepen relationships and build new ones through shared soundtrack moments.

Over a 9-week project (Oct–Dec 2024), we conducted user research, prototyping, and testing.

• Interview & Survey: We spoke with young students and adults to understand how they listen to music, share it with friends, and feel about location-based social apps.

• Key Insight #1: People are curious about what others around them are listening to — but don’t have a simple, private way to share that.

• Key Insight #2: Location-sharing has become more socially acceptable, but it’s often limited to “where I am,” not “what I hear.”

• Design Question (“How Might We”): How might we help users discover, share, and connect through music — without compromising privacy — based on where they are?

From our research, we developed a few core personas:

• Campus Maria: A student who loves walking around campus with friends, sharing tracks, and making spontaneous playlist moments.

• Commuter Raul: An office worker whose playlists change depending on which subway stop he’s at, and who wonders what his fellow passengers are tuning into.

• New-in-Town Zoe: Someone who just moved to a new city and wants to explore local music through the lens of community.

These personas helped inform design decisions like map-based discovery, privacy settings, and the social sharing model.

Ideation & Design

• Brainstorming & Concepting: We generated multiple ideas — from proximity-based listening “rooms” to map pins that show live song snippets — and pitched them in a concept deck.

• Feature Prioritization: Based on user needs, we prioritized: location-aware music discovery, a feed of what others near you are listening to, and the ability to “drop” and save songs as place pins.

• User Flows: We mapped out key journeys, such as “discovering music nearby,” “sharing your current song,” and “saving a song to revisit later.”

Prototype & Testing

• Low to High-Fidelity Prototypes: Using Figma, we built interactive prototypes that included map screens, user profiles, music pins, and feed interfaces.

• Usability Testing: We conducted testing sessions with participants from our target demographics (students, commuters, etc.) to validate flows and refine interactions.

• Feedback Highlights:

  • Users loved the concept of seeing what others around them are listening to — it felt “magical” and surprising.

  • Some expressed privacy concerns: How public is my music? This made us iterate on visibility controls.

  • Map-pin interactions needed to feel intuitive, so we experimented with different UI affordances (pin shapes, animations, and placement).

Final Design

• Home / Explore Screen: A live map showing “music hotspots” around you, represented by pins that symbolize tracks or users.

• Music Pins: Users can drop music pins in locations, which invite others to tap and listen to that track.

• Feed: A curated feed of what nearby friends or strangers are listening to, plus a way to “like” or “save” songs for later.

• Privacy Controls: Users can choose whether their listening activity is public, friends-only, or private — giving flexible sharing options.

• Profile & Connections: Profile views show users’ most dropped pins, listening patterns, and links to connect with others through shared music tastes.

Impact & Significance

• Deeper Social Connection: By combining geolocation with music, MelodyMap offers a fresh way for users to bond — not just over what they listen to, but where they listen.

• Serendipitous Discovery: Users can discover both new songs and new people, creating meaningful connections grounded in shared sound.

• Modern Relevance: In a world where digital presence often feels disconnected from physical space, MelodyMap bridges that gap — making music a conduit for real-world social interaction.

• Cultural & Emotional Value: Music is deeply tied to memory and place. MelodyMap taps into that emotional resonance, turning every walk, every city corner, and every shared location into a potential moment of connection.

Reflection & Next Steps

• What We Learned: Research was the backbone of our design — user interviews revealed privacy is as important as sharing, and that location-based features must feel safe, not creepy.

• Challenges: Balancing live sharing and user control took careful iteration. Some users wanted live “listening rooms,” but others preferred more personal, passive discovery.

• Future Enhancements:

  1. Social Features — Add chat or comment threads on music pins to encourage conversation.

  2. Live Listening Rooms — Real-time shared listening sessions in physical or virtual “spaces.”

  3. Event Integration — Map music pins to live local shows or concerts, allowing users to connect over both playlists and people.

  4. Accessibility Options — Include options to filter by genre, mood, or “safe listening” mode for shared spaces.

Takeaway

MelodyMap isn’t just a music app — it's a social canvas, a way to sync with the rhythms of the people around you. By grounding connection in place and sound, we create something beautifully human: a platform where every location becomes a memory, every song becomes a story, and every user becomes a part of someone else’s soundtrack.