Trouper is an on-demand service that allows like-minded musicians to find jam sessions when they need it.
First, Trouper solves the musician discovery problem by narrowing the scope of the social network to only musicians who are actively partaking in the jam community.
Second, the Practice interface not only helps musicians perfect their art, but also allows Trouper to gather both proficiency and preference data.
By having this two-pronged approach, Trouper can facilitate jam sessions and reduce the friction that currently exists in this space – making sure that musicians find their perfect jam buddies.
Experience the digital prototype here - created with Axure.
Phase 1: Ideation & Competitive Analysis
The idea of Trouper came about when I moved to my third city in three years. I was having a hard time finding friends to play music with - not only because it was difficult to identify who the musicians are, but also because of varying taste, skill level, and schedule.
I found some of the channels to be intimidating (Meetup, Facebook Groups) - some folks even resorted to flyering! There weren't many services that catered to the more intimate, 1-on-1 settings. Larger jams sessions are just not my cup of tea.
Some sketches of the initial idea.
Phase 3: Paper Prototype
I created a paper prototype to test out the interactions between different screens and functions. By testing the prototype with potential users, a number of bottlenecked popped up and users were "stuck" on some screens. I also realized that I'm not so good at sketching.
Phase 2: Cultural Probes
I asked a number of musician friends to document their interactions with music over the course of 2 weeks - to understand the emotions in which music evokes and the context that these situations happen. This included journal entries, photos, and videos which are shared with me at the end.
Not surprisingly, musicians (even non-active ones) love music because it 1) is inherently social and enjoyed with others, 2) helps people discover their environment, and 3) describes feelings.
If musicians want to let out the inner musician, why aren't more people jamming? Because it's hard to make it happen.
Phase 4: Digital Prototype
The digital prototype was created in Axure over the course of the week to emulate a fully-functional mobile app. Interaction testing was done both on the desktop Chrome browser and Chrome Beta on Android. Feels rather convincing, I'd say - until users realize that they are in the middle of Montreal.
Actual app development TBD, but check out the digital prototype here.