Jelly Jam

Inspiration

Many children do not ever consider learning an instrument or try learning one, even though they might like it if they tried. Growing up, individuals face a problem of not having opportunities to learn musical instruments. Our team members resonated with this experience as individuals who did not have access to lessons and equipment. Based on our conducted user research, these were common obstacles for others usually due to lack of resources, funding, as well as definitive commitment upon starting to learn. Additionally according to our outside research, 3.6 million students do not have access to music education. This student population mostly consisted of Black, Hispanic, or Indigenous children. This led to our inspiration of Jelly Jams to bridge this gap and provide a creative space for children to learn and have fun.

What it does

The mobile app Jelly Jams is a unique app experience to learn basic music theory, notes, and instruments. Users are able to experiment, arrange, and record loops of sound made from instruments which combine together to create a song. These jams are shareable to friends and other users of the app. Our app emphasizes on self-expression and creativity, allowing users to customize their avatars.

How we built it

Our team first conducted user research to figure out what valuable features needed to be implemented into the app. We created a survey to collect data about people's music experiences as a child. Our research was further supported through seeking outside sources and articles. This data was then used to craft a persona that represented our app's target audience, children who lack access to musical education. We began sketching our low-fi screens which were further developed on Figma. With several iterations, our end product and goals were reached upon completing our high-fi prototype.

Challenges we ran into

With a limited amount of time, our team found it challenging to implement all of our ideas. We were ambitious at the beginning of the event, hoping to design our own style brand. This proved to be challenging as our team was inexperienced in graphic designing. This led to the style brand development stage taking up a large amount of time which set our team back from completing all our wireframes.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Within a span of 3 days, our team was able to successfully create the mobile app we had envisioned. With time management skills, our team was able to implement all features of the app and complete prototype development and testing phases. Although we struggled with developing a style brand, it has become an accomplishment completing this project.

What we learned

The stages of design can be tricky and it is important to complete thorough user research before reaching the stages of wireframing and prototyping. Focusing on the user experience allowed our team to empathize with user needs and struggles.