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Give a narrative of the three people that you observed and interviewed. Don't use their names. Don't identify the users by name, but do describe who they were. Each narrative should include a particularly interesting moment -- a breakdown or workaround that exhibits a feature of the problem you're aiming to solve.
Names have been omitted.
Music Director D. (Americana/Roots):
Role: Receives music from the bin and logs them in the log books. Sometimes decides that something is a keep at this point. Files music in the new bins and comes to flush perhaps once a month, removing them. Currently receives digital media, but except for specific high-priority tracks, does not even bother downloading them, let alone playing. Does not usually burn CDs of digital media for playback in the studio, so digital media is often lost.
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- Doug would like to store the highest quality possible music on the system, that is, if possible in a lossless format like FLAC. MP3 is the low-end of the quality scale.
Music Director B. (Folk):
Role: Receives and logs new music, but completely ignores digital submissions right away. Is willing to use a system if learnable.
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- Bruce thinks if there is a system that he can learn easily, then he will probably use digital formats more often.
Music Director J. (World):
Highlights: Receives new music, but has never logged received CDs. May play or burn digital media rarely, but usually deletes. Submits to CMJ semi-regularly.
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- Trackblaster is a way to see all the DJs and how many times they’ve played each track, but not all DJs use it
User Classes
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Describe the user classes that you have identified, and their major characteristics.
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Music Directors: Some variance in throughput levels (how many CDs and digital music they receive) and in competence with technology. Their job is to put the music they receive into the physical library, and do CMJ reporting.
Elves: Deal with hysical burning onto CDs and labeling.
Needs & Goals
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Describe the goals that you have identified, with reference to the observations you made.
Julia wants an easy and flexible way to categorize music by genre (sometimes one song belongs to multiple genre, and other times people make mistakes when assigning a genre)
New release tracks have to be conspicuous to everybody
Filing system to make reporting to CMJ easier
Quick way to preview and delete unwanted music
Direct method to import digital media into the database (through URL?)
Grab music from other digital sources easily (Amazon, SoundCloud)
Make sure the liner notes are attached to the album or individual songs
Local music artists have very unstructured music files
Remote access of the system