How might we help audio and videos producers find the perfect audio track?
Project Overview
Audio and Video Content Creators spend a lot of time looking for the right audio for their content. In video production, it is common for producers to make a "rough cut" using copyrighted music and later have to replace this with a copyright-free alternative.
I worked on the research and design for this feature and owned the entire design process.
The Challenge
The challenge was to ensure that the "Find Similar Audio" feature meets user expectations in terms of back-end technology and design interactions. This was validated through user research studies and interviews.
WORK
Adobe
ROLE
Lead UX/UI Design
DURATION
3 months
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Keynote feature at Adobe MAX 2021
01. RESEARCH
This project was first handed off to me by another designer on the team. She focused on conducting research on the algorithm and accuracy of the returned results. This advanced search feature is made possible by Adobe Sensei, which is our machine learning search engine.
When it was handed off to me, I made sure to go through all her findings and insights so that I can apply it to the project. I focused on the designs and interactions portion of the project.
Testing algorithm and returned results
COMPETITOR APPS AND INSPIRATION
After looking at competitor apps as a reference, I had a good idea of what key components I wanted to use for my designs. I partnered with the Strategic Business Development team and recruited our Enterprise Customers from Google, Amazon, Ernst and Young, and Dentsu. These were all moderated sessions and comprised of groups between 1-5 people. I also recruited participants from Usertesting.com.
02. DESIGN
After looking at competitor apps as a reference, I had a good idea of what key components I wanted to use for my designs. I started testing and asking users how they like the design and interactions to look and feel like.
early explorations
Questions I wanted to find out -
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How discoverable should this feature be?
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What is our success criteria?
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What is the user intent?
find similar modal
Questions I wanted to find out -
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What key attributes are they looking for?
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Do people just want a simple left/right drag?
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Do they want to narrow down to fewer seconds?
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Are keyboard short cuts important?
These are some of the questions I had going in to the user interview. And some keytakeaways that I got were -
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Many gravitated towards adjustable hand bars because it was a familiar pattern
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Being able to adjust down to the specific time is important to many
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Participants liked having a sense of control with the hand bars
SEARCH results page
When it came down to the search results page, we have the technology to highlight the portion of the soundtrack the sounds most similar to the selection that you chose. We wanted to find out if this design is something that people found useful and if people understood how this interacted.
03. IMPACT
After multiple rounds of research and iterations, I presented to the Stock organization (70+ total people!) and it was well received. People loved this new feature and everyone was really excited about it. This eventually ended getting developed and launched for Adobe MAX 2021 and felt like a major accomplishment for my career! As for next steps, this feature is currently being explored in other Adobe creative apps such as Adobe Premiere.
Read more on this blog
Watch demo here