In order to get some feedback about who my target audience are, and what they want, I created an online survey and posted it to various music oriented subreddits, in order to get audience feedback.
The subreddits I posted my questionnaire to were:
- r/wearethemusicmakers
- r/musicmakers
- r/music
- and for extra participants, r/samplesize
The feedback I recieved is vital in aiding me during the design process.
The first set of questions I asked were about who the audience is. I asked for gender and age range, to help me find out who would be interested in using such a project.
Based on the answers from my identifying questions, the target audience for my product is 18-24 year old males.
Though this information is a necessary tool in helping me figure out who my audience is and what they may want. I am not going to design my project exclusively for a male audience, even though they are my primary audience members. I don't believe that making the design unappealing to women would help my project in any way, and designing an exclusively male or "boys toy" would only put people off the use of my project. I want it to appeal to as many people as possible.
After this the questions became a lot more specific to my project, though because I understand the audience have never seen it, I could not go into too much depth.
I asked what kind of music they are interested in, by offering a list of multiple choice music genres.
I understand that I did not include all possible music genres in the questionnaire, that'd be impossible, so I used the major music genres like rock, electro, dance, etc.
To ensure that everyone who took my questionnaire could have their say, I also included an optional "other" box, which asked for a description box to be filled so that I wasn't left with a whole load of answers just left as "other".
I asked this question in order to get information about what the users want my project to do. I cant possibly have it output sounds from all genres of music, and need to give myself a place to start. Since electronic music was the highest scorer, I will focus on having the device output a range of electronic sounds, much like a synthesiser.
After this I wanted to know how interested my target audience would be in using my project. Since the places I had posted the questionnaire were focused on people who make music I asked whether or not they do, and if they dont how interested would they be in doing so.
As you can see the majority of people who filled in the survey, do make their own music, but a large proportion still don't. I predicted that many wouldn't since making music is something that requires a lot of time, effort and in most cases money.
I also asked how many would be interested in doing so, and the amount of people interested is staggeringly higher. This leads me to think about the usability if my project, I need to cater for everyone, or rather as many people as possible. I believe that having my device, be cheap as well as easy to use would draw a lot more out of the audience that it would otherwise. From this I now believe that the project should be a DIY digital instrument, rather than a standalone product, to help appeal the product to as many people as possible.
I also asked the audience about their familiarity with music interfaces. The reason I asked if it were to create or listen, is because I'm assuming that people understand basic audio lingo, like record, play, pause etc.
But you can never be too sure.
Now, by far the most valuable question I asked was an optional comment box that I included to let the users give their own recommendations and suggestions to aid me in the creation of my project.
I asked whether there were any specific features they would like to see in a Digital Audio Interface, and these responses were by far the most informative.
I received many responses, some better and more informative that others, but still valid none the less.
Here are just a few:
1. As a classical musician and wannabe composer, it's important to have ease of writing music. Sibelius is what I know, and while complete, it's very difficult and time consuming to write things down. So, at the moment, I use pencil and paper. If your platform were easy to use, I would probably switch to yours (although must be very complete too, I write difficult music). A demo first to try out, similar to Sibelius' would be important, otherwise I wouldn't bother buying if I don't know how it's going to be.
2. More connection with physical expression.
3. Reliability. Seriously, there is nothing more frustrating, or embarrassing, when a piece of gear just won't work.
4. MIDI support
5. Retain DAW functionality (main ones for me are digital instrument creation and "sections" that can be strung together or looped.
These responses, to be honest, surprised me. I was not expecting such a large amount of feedback. These responsed have given me much to reflect upon, and discuss during my VIVA presentation. I hope that this feedback will show that there is a genuine interest in ym project from the target audience. I also gave me confidence in my project, that there are people who want to see this kind of project being done, and are willing to offer help wherever they can.
Finally I asked whether or not people were interested in the level of interaction offered by the device. These questions were intended to support my project and show that people were interested in seeing a touchless 3D music interface.
The results speak for themselves, people are genuinely interested in the work that I am doing, and as a result I am now confident to move forward with the project. I feel that this feedback is vital in helping me make important decisions during the design process.
I now want to put more surveys and connect with my audience more, as I feel that their input is almost as important as my own.
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