Lyte Media
A media app that allows you to stream music, videos, and literature online.
Overview
A startup media concept. It is a freemium model that has a mobile-web experience and a mobile app. The company’s business strategy was to first build a user base by offering a free product and then evolve the feature set so they could monetize on a premium (paid) product. At this point, the product has been well received and has a healthy user base of free users.
Problem
There needs to be an experience that will allow users to subscribe and pay a monthly fee and there currently isn’t a premium feature.
Tasks & Duration
User Research, UX Design, UI Design, Wireframing, User Testing, Hi-Fidelity Prototyping
August 2020-September 2020
Goal
Two core needs:
1. Create the opportunity for new users to subscribe to the premium product upon registration in the signup flow.
2. Create the opportunity for returning free users to become paid subscribers in the sign-in flow as well as within the product once logged in.
Provided Context
Current Product: The existing signup flow does not have a call to action upon registration that gives the user the opportunity to subscribe. The existing flow does not have prominent calls to action throughout the free experience that gives the user the opportunity — or a compelling reason — to subscribe. By creating a paid product with better features than the free experience and giving users the opportunity to upgrade to a better product, users will pay the subscription fee. This will lead to a profitable revenue stream.
Persona: The ideal user would be 18 - 24 years old and very tech-savvy , and usually on their phones for several hours a day and music, movies and books are an important part of their lives. This user is also very budget-conscious.
Brand personality: Uniquely diverse, but somehow always familiar. This creates the need for design to balance that tension. The brand attributes are bold, smart and hip.
Secondary Research
Figure 1: YouTube
Figure 2: Spotify
Figure 3: Pandora
The goal was to create the opportunity for new users to subscribe to a premium membership. I researched 3 top media apps that have different membership levels. I have noted their individual positives and negatives around their onboarding and enrolling paid subscribers.
Due to time constraints, I sketched the user flow on pen and paper and wireframes weren’t created but it was a quick way to map out the user flow.
Key Features
Onboarding
A short demographic questionnaire in the onboarding was added, to allow the user to feel valued and would feel the media suggestions would be aligned with their preferences.
The option was given to choose what type of membership could be selected along with the features. This provides an opportunity to select a premium product.
Calls to Action
Calls to action throughout the free experience that gives the user the opportunity — or light reminders — to subscribe.
Design
I chose to focus on a dark state for the app which is on trend and “hip” but also bold, using a bold lemon yellow. The colors needed to be simple, but the design would be recognizable but still classic.
A CTA for a quiz for media personalization was also included for future incentives for a premium upgrade.
Project Learnings
Hi-fidelity is better to use for usability testing. It seems like the user testing was more helpful at the hi-fidelity stage, than the sketching stage.
Avoid leading questions. When conducting user testing at the sketching level, I used leading questions and this likely led to more helpful insights at the prototyping stage.