Introduction

In music education, piano teachers often find themselves in need of a consolidated platform to locate sheet music tailored to their students’ age, proficiency levels, and all other different factors. Our challenge was to design a filter system for the database that made this process not only efficient but also intuitive. The client already has a running website in place, but it looks outdated and the UX is clunky.

 

The Challenge

The primary challenge lay in creating a robust yet user-friendly filter system. With thousands of music pieces in the database, the design had to ensure users could quickly find what they were looking for without feeling overwhelmed.

 

Objective

Design a platform catering primarily to piano teachers, allowing them to:

  1. Effortlessly search for piano pieces based on varying skill levels.
  2. Access detailed information about the selected piece.
  3. Have the option to purchase the music or view a demonstrative video on how to properly play it.

 

Design Process

  1. User Interviews: Conducting an interview with a couple of piano teachers provided invaluable insights into the needs and pain points of the target audience.
  2. Wireframing the Filter System: Given its complexity, special emphasis was placed on the filter system’s design, ensuring it was both efficient and maintained a clean aesthetic. Beyond the search, detailed pages for each music piece were designed to offer users more than just the sheet music, adding value through purchase links and tutorial videos.
  3. Hifi UI Design: We chose to retain the color palette from the old site, updated the font family, and introduced icons to enhance the site’s appeal and interest. Although the site is text-heavy, the addition of icons and the rounded corner design ensure it doesn’t appear monotonous.

 

 

Outcome

After months of design and development, we successfully launched the site. It became a go-to resource for piano teachers, making it much easier to find the right sheet music. One of the standout features was the integrated filter system, which handled a large amount of data while keeping the interface simple and easy to use.

 

Key Takeaways

  • User-Centered Design: Listening to users during interviews helped shape the final design in a meaningful way.
  • Balancing Efficiency and Aesthetics: Finding the right mix between a powerful search function and a clean design was challenging, but we pulled it off in the end.

 

 

See the live site here.