Redesigned tool that achieved zero human errors in music release process
Year: 2018
Skills: User Research, UX/UI Design, UI Development
Company: Audio Network
Amplify is an internal music management tool at the core of the business, enabling Audio Network music team to add and maintain data for every track, mix, and album in the company’s extensive music catalogue.
There is no need to elaborate on the burden of legacy software. It’s almost inevitable, sometimes manageable, and definitely not fun to maintain. Eventually, the backlog of "shortcuts" and tech debt catches up with reality and begins to stall the progress.
The aim of this nine-month project was to finally replace the legacy music database solution, which heavily relied on manual tasks, custom scripts, communication between specific individuals, and sometimes magic. It was a burden to support internally, a pain to use, and a significant bottleneck in the fortnightly music release process, often resulting in delays and errors.
The biggest challenge was in finding a balance between replacing the existing functionality and introducing an improved workflow without disrupting users’ daily tasks. Many processes were complex and slow, but the software was still operational, and it was in use for over 15 years which resulted in internal users developing their own patterns and habits. The complexity was not just in replacing the old software with a new application written in Angular.js and a shiny new UI, but in thoroughly understanding user behaviour and motivations to later drive organic adoption of UI and UX changes.
For such a complex task, I followed a well-established UX process to define the problems, uncover the unknowns, ideate and experiment with both functionality and visual aesthetics, and, last but not least, validate those assumptions with users and stakeholders. It wasn’t a straightforward path, but it brought structure to the team’s ways of working.
Firstly, I identified and validated core scenarios that users followed. Scenarios included adding new music to the catalogue daily, maintaining over 160,000 tracks and 3,000+ albums, and occasionally suspending tracks that were no longer in use.
Then I documented the entire process, meticulously identifying all the steps where specific checks needed to be implemented to prevent errors. This was done in a way that avoided constantly nagging the user or distracting them from their tasks.
To describe the workflow simply: every track and album has its own set of metadata—information describing the track in various ways—added in particular order which then connects it smartly with the rest of the catalogue, which, ultimately, allows Audio Network customers to easily browse through playlists, search for music, and find a perfect track for their projects.
I spent a significant amount of time prototyping and testing ideas with different users, understanding their needs and pains and receiving constant feedback. Since there can be a discrepancy between what users say and what they actually do, I had to use various methods of usability testing and interviews to ensure the robustness of the designs.
From whiteboard sessions to high-fidelity prototypes, every piece of work went through several iterations and collaborations with different teams within the business. Decisions had to be carefully weighed, as there was minimal room for error: one of the products was stored on physical hard drives used by customers at their offices offline, requiring a manual update for each new release.
Another challenge was the launch. Since the music release process follows a regular schedule relied upon by many customers across the world, it couldn’t be paused for the product team to introduce new software and ensure it functions as intended with the usual two week sprints schedule. I worked closely with a Product Manager and two senior developers on careful phased releases of different parts of Amplify, from the most critical essentials to some exciting new features identified during user research.
Amplify was launched in August 2018 and within the next 6 months completely and successfully replaced the legacy system. It became an irreplaceable and beloved internal product, significantly improving the speed, accuracy, and transparency of the overall music release process for everyone involved.