Music Education Native App Design

A complete overhaul for a worldwide family music education companion app.

Music Together is an organization that helps families form deeper bonds through music education. When children and parents take a class, they’ll gain access to digital copies of the songs they learned that day. The previous version of the app hadn’t been updated in years, and it was time for an overhaul.

‍

The Project Team

This project was completed at ZoCo Design.

Josh Walz, Lead Product Designer
Sara Riedel, Product Designer
Sarah Davis, Client Engagement
Andrew Bromwell, Project Oversight

Product architecture and rapid prototypes were tested on users.

While we iterated on the information architecture, we built clickable wireframe prototypes and tested on several users of the product—including program teachers who frequently helped families troubleshoot the existing product. With a positive reception, we continued building the product.

Educational features are layered on top of familiar design patterns.

Audiences responded best to music-app "jukebox" design patterns—similar to those by Apple Music and Spotify. However, to encourage continued musical practices, features like interactive notations, musical storybooks, and “build your own music videos” were implemented throughout the app. Families could now apply what they’ve learned outside of the classroom, while expected features such as custom playlists kept families engaged and singing along to their favorite tunes.

A style guide and animation library enabled Music Together to iterate on the product over time.

To ensure the product’s assets and playful interactions came to life long-term, we established a pattern library and design system. In addition we created a small library of “friends animations” to ensure further moments of delight to the final product.