Designing an Interactive Virtual-concert Experience
Meet the Team
Prototypes
What is DIVE?
DIVE is a project created by a team of undergraduate students at the University of Washington Bothell. Our goal is to create captivating live-stream concert experiences by allowing users to interact with the performance.
Project Duration: Autumn 2020 - Spring 2021
PHASE 1: Brainstorm
We put a big emphasis on thoroughly planning out how we researched for and developed DIVE. We studied what the music industry has done to adjust towards online platforms and how that experience compares to in-person concerts. If we wanted to properly move musical events to a digital setting, we had to make sure that we could replicate all the benefits of physical concerts the best we can, otherwise, we end up complicating or trivializing the concert experience. Additionally, our product had to also be seamless and easy to use. We needed to carefully plan out how DIVE will be presented to users so that attendees are not spending more time learning the platform than listening and participating with the artists and bands. Preparing our goals and ideas beforehand helped us flesh out our next steps in development and research early, giving us clear goals on what we wanted DIVE to achieve.
PHASE 2: RESEARCH
To learn about current live-stream platforms and gather data, the team completed a comparative analysis, audience survey and discovered the age range of those who use live-stream platforms. Each type of research revealed a great deal of information. When we were gathering data about other platforms to do the comparative analysis, it revealed what features platforms offered. During the survey, we learned what features audiences find important and live-stream platforms should have.
One of the most important discoveries we learned was the age range of the audience, with about 63% of between the ages 18-34 being the most frequent users. Other collected data, including the importance of audio and visuals in the experience, steered our team to create a product where users would enrich their experience when using the DIVE platform.
Importance of audio experience to users (Scale 1-10)
Importance of visual experience to users (Scale 1-10)
PHASE 3: BUILD
A full online experience with networking capabilities was our ideal finished product, but is unfortunately outside of our scope. Instead, we opted to develop a prototype that simulates what it looks like for a user to be in a concert with other users.
We received permission to use music and pre-recorded performances from Chong the Nomad and implemented them into our prototype. Scripts simulating other user’s interactions and messages were created to simulate this "live" environment. In addition to these, we created 3 variations of our prototype, each with a few minor visual changes and different interactive elements. These alternate versions were made with the intention of showcasing all of the different appearances and features artists could customize for their own performances.
Phase 4: Testing
We conducted our usability testing during the pandemic, which meant we had our participants met with us online through Zoom. Some benefits of doing so included face-to-face interviewing, as well as the ability to observe user behavior via screen sharing.
Through testing, we discovered important insights directly from our potential users. After conducting the usability testing on the first version of our prototype, it was revealed that the usability of our initial version was not as seamless as we had hoped it would be. Some people also started to use the platform in unexpected ways, which really brought to our attention how users interact in such an environment. Additionally, testing allowed us to further discover what aspects users find most important in a live-stream platform. By evaluating the results, we could adjust the DIVE platform to improve its user experience.
Process
Why DIVE?
At the start of this pandemic, the music industry has taken great steps to move all performances online. However, despite the attempt to recreate a magical evening spent with your favorite artist, the list of cons for live streams vs. in-person makes the former not as popular, and cannot make up the loss suffered by an industry worth $20 billion in 2019. Our team's mission was to find out what it is that makes livestream experiences so extraordinary, and what we could do to find the balance between a seamless online experience and maintaining the emotional connection between the artist and their audience.
Looking to the Future
With more than 50% of adults in America vaccinated, concert venues are beginning to open up back to the public. But even with the return of summer music festivals, it does not mean the death of live streaming. In fact, it is not an understatement to say that virtual live streams have changed live music forever. We can expect future concerts to now take measures that could allow a hybrid of in-person and online attendees.
Throughout quarantine, it was shown that the human carbon footprint dropped by 6.4%. The fact is, live-streaming has reduced the amount of planning and travel needed for artists to tour around the world. It shows how different considerations can be taken for environmental impact, global outreach, and the future of online entertainment.