Project Overview

This 7-week experience design project aimed to identify a client facing a challenge and develop a tailored intervention, though we struggled for the first 4 weeks. I was responsible for conducting user research, finalizing the interaction designs, while also facilitating a design sprint.

This project is not associated with 88rising. It was created as a mock client for an academic assignment.

“For Asians and Asian Americans and just Asian youth globally, there’s no real home on the Internet, or a company consistently putting out things that either include Asian talent or Asian viewpoints in stories. ”

Language driven artists discovery

The landing page features an array of Asian languages alongside their respective countries, fostering exploration and discoverability. Designed with the aim of initiating connections, it invites users to gravitate towards a language or country they resonate with, facilitating the discovery of artists from the same cultural background.

Behind the beat collaborations

The collaboration page adopts an emotion-centric approach, showcasing behind-the-scenes content from music videos to humanize the artists. This aims to present artists in a more relatable light. Additionally, fans are offered direct links to the song on various streaming platforms, enhancing their immersive experience.

Celebrating unique personalities

The artist page adopts an innovative approach, aiming to highlight the distinctive personalities of the artists, which 88rising themselves consider. Utilizing a brief introductory video to offer insight into their essence, a diverse collection of quirky stickers tailored to each artist, and an assortment of video content including music videos, behind-the-scenes footage, and exploratory content, the page offers a multifaceted glimpse into the artists' worlds.

Fans struggling to stay engaged with the brand

To find the root of the business problem the team conducted user interviews and surveys involving 89 respondents spanning from casual to die-hard fans, we aimed to delve into the core issues surrounding music-sharing habits and perceptions of 88rising and its roster of artists.

62%

of respondents were unaware of 88rising’s monthly releases, revealing an engagement gap.

41%

of casual fans attributed it to the brand’s perceived low engagement, though they expressed interest in discovering new talent and signature sounds.

“It feels like the big names are stagnant while majority of the new artist are spread thin or not enough exposure.”

“They give more variety of artist for people to discover. And something new to listen to. A different sound from the usual big names...”

Visualizing Solutions Through a Focused Design Sprint

To identify specific areas for intervention, I facilitated a compact one-day design sprint aimed at visualizing potential forms for our concept and solution. This collaborative process allowed the team to rapidly generate, prototype, and iterate on ideas, providing a clear direction for refining the design and addressing key challenges.

Disconnected key touchpoints.

88risings current site only focuses of sale, lacking information about artist themselves or music, which may give the wrong impression of the label. Additionally, their YouTube channel houses content scattered across various platform making it hard for fans to discover and further engagement.

First Iterations:

With just 2.5 weeks left before the final deadline, our team rapidly developed mid-fidelity wireframes to align with the content strategy. Although feedback from mentors pointed out that this iteration fell short, they found the underlying concept we aimed to create highly compelling.

Second Iterations:

After receiving feedback, we revisited our approach to refine the direction. We focused on striking a better balance between 88rising’s aspirational goals and making them more tangible. However, one critique we received was that the artists' page lacked cohesion with the rest of the site and could be much more unified in design.

Building a tighter interaction language

We started with the idea of presenting artists in a relatable way, focusing on their personal stories and connections with fans rather than their fame. Initially, we applied this concept through simple pictures that invited users to engage more personally with the artists.

To tighten the interaction language, I started by drawing inspiration from the homepage’s grid organization, ensuring consistency throughout the design.

I then incorporated elements from personal memorabilia, like Polaroids, to evoke a sense of personal connection, and mirrored the experience of flipping through vinyl records for an interactive discography. These choices were made to foster intimacy and nostalgia, aligning with the core goal of presenting artists as relatable rather than distant figures of fame.