Design Progress
Design of the product kits and the lessons website service
By Group 5
The Product
The branding, instruments and accessories
The Kits
The first step in developing the InstruRental kits, is to elaborate on what it is composed of and in what price range the products in them should be. We first of all decided that it is beneficial for both us and the consumer to include a medium quality instrument instead of a cheaper starter instrument. Why? Well, because having a low quality instrument can be demotivating. The users can wonder why what they play will not sound pleasing or why it is difficult to perform certain actions. Good medium quality instruments take away these possible obstacles. Supplying instruments that are a bit more expensive is also beneficial from a company's point of view. Beginner instruments are of low quality and are prone to break down, this would mean that repairs would have to be made or a new instrument would have to be bought on a regular bases. Therefore it is justified to spend more on the initial investment and in the long term have less costs and instead work on repairs and delivery.
The initial price ranges for the different instruments are:
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Acoustic guitar: 150 - 200 Euros
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Electric guitar: 200 - 300 euros
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Digital piano: 300 - 400 euros
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Drum set: 400 -500 euros
Having chosen to supply four different kinds of instruments means that also four different kits had to be developed. Research has been done to decide what materials, that would benefit the user in their learning journey, should be part of the kit. Along side this kit the chosen instrument is supplied.
A notable thing about the kits is that some of them include maintenance tools. This might contradict the maintenance service we offer. The reason why these tools are included in the guitar kits is because we want to give the opportunity to the user to learn this themselves. Changing strings of a guitar might be difficult at first, but in the long run, it is beneficial to be able to do this yourself. So we offer the customer the choice to decide whether they want to make use of the maintenance service or try it themselves.
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The amount of materials differs greatly in the kits, that is why a single packaging design is not satisfying for all of them. The materials also need differing shapes or packaging materials to ensure safety. We designed four different layouts for the kits. The kit consists of at least the instrument itself and a box that contains accessoires. The instruments themselves are delivered in their respective casing, or bag (guitar bag). The whole kit will be branded in InstruRental styling, the casing of the instrument will either be custom made, or a sticker or other visual notification will be added to achieve this. The kit also contain a flyer with instructions on how to access the lessons, which is shown below.
The drum kit overview with design (the instrument is supplied apart from the accessories kit and the setup is done by and employee of the company).
The piano kit overview with design​ (the instrument is supplied apart from the accessories kit and the setup is done by an employee of the company)
The acoustic guitar kit overview with design (the instrument is supplied apart from the accessories kit in its own bag).
The electric guitar kit overview and design​ (the instrument and amplifier are supplied apart from the accessories kit).
The prices and source of the materials can be found in an Excel sheet.
Maintenance
Benefit from excellent instrument performance with our maintenance kits. Our service is an easy way of to keep customers' instrument optimized and ensure its functionality.
Our service includes:
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All the necessary tools so the user can keep a regular maintenance of their own instrument at home.
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Replacement of wearing parts.
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24/7 available customer service
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If an instrument is damaged a new one is sent to users with a quick request.
We shall not be held responsible for the improper use of the instruments. Customers will have to pay if their instrument is destroyed.
Sustainability
Sustainability is an important subject while designing your product nowadays. Sustainability is a broad collection term for many subjects, but as Oxford English Dictionary states "Sustainability is using natural resources mindfully so that the supply never runs out, and causing no harm to the environment". Sustainability has been a rising concern in recent years due to the rapid climate change, the overpopulation, overconsumption and environmental degradation.
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To make our PSS as sustainable as possible, it is important that the products don't go to waste, and their value is restored after usage, so they can be reused. This concept is called circular economy product design, which offers the possibility of restoring value in several ways: repair, refurbish, remanufacture or recycle. As shown in the figure below repairment is the most promising of them all, since this will provide almost the same amount of value and not much work is needed.
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With our PSS maintenance and reuse is a big part of our circular economy, since the instruments and accessories will be rented out to several users in their lifespan. Since our product will be a standard instrument model and accessories bought from a store, we can't optimise our product design to last longer or optimise it for repair and refurbishment, or decrease the resource use. But we can optimise the way they are shipped and ensure damage is prevented. This has been done by designing specific packaging cases for each instrument and their accessories. The design of this packaging will be designed in such a way that they will be used as a storage container for all the accessories in combination with the separate instrument bag. The users will have to keep the storage container and when they suspend their subscription, they will have to give the whole box to our supplier who will bring it to our compound (this will of course be free of costs). The box and its containing accessories will be checked for any damage and repaired by our employees. When something is broken beyond repair, the user will have to pay the price for the broken part. The product parts will be separated, and the still functioning parts could be sent back to the manufactures we buy our accessories from, which will then refurbish or remanufacture those parts into a new functioning product. The broken part will be sent to be recycled if possible.
References: Oxford English Dictionary. "Sustainability" I oed.com
Wikipedia. "Sustainability" I wikipedia.org
Joska Sesink."Circular Design" I Guest Lecture University of Twente
Tim Mulder. "Sustainable Packaging"I Guest Lecture University of Twente
Branding
As a small business, we might be competing against big brands with devoted customers and unlimited marketing budgets. That is why we have to find ways to stand out, with a solid brand building process.
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Branding is much more than just a cool logo; we want to build a brand, not just a business.
Our goal is to create a unique and lasting image in the marketplace and in order to do that, the branding process can be broken down into three phases:
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Brand Strategy
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Brand Identity
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Brand Marketing
We mainly focused on the first two phases for this project.
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Brand Strategy
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The Brand Strategy can be seen as the blueprint for how we want the world to see our business. It conveys our purpose, values and more. We divided this phase in four sections:
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Audience
Our target group is rather broad. It consists of everyone who wants to try out a new instrument. Another specific target group would be the parents of younger children (6 and up).
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Value Proposition & Competition
With InstruRental trying out a new instrument is easier than buying an instrument. Not only is it cheaper for a beginner, it also needs less commitment, so someone can decide to not play anymore without consequences. InstruRental provides online lessons, so that everyone can learn to play their newly leased instrument at their own speed. Maintenance is also included, so tuning the instrument is part of the service.
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Mission
InstruRental wants to provide an affordable and accessible learning environment, which engages and stimulates the user to try out a new instrument both individually and within a community.
We want to encourage the user to use his/her freedom to create their own musical path without having to commit fully.
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SWOT analysis
Brand Identity
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Brand Identity is the way that our business becomes recognisable. This phase includes:
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Moodboard/style collage
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Colours and fonts
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Logo
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Website design
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Colours and fonts
Colours and fonts played an important role in conveying our brand promise and personality traits.
We were not sure of which style we wanted to incorporate into our branding, so after some ideation, we came up with two ideas/styles. A colour palette was made for each style, as well as a list of possible fonts that could be used in the logo and website and would suit each style.
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STYLE 2
STYLE 1
Logo
A logo grabs attention, makes a strong first impression and is the foundation of our brand identity.
Our logo ideation phase was divided into four steps:
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We first started looking at existing music-related logos.
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We ideated a little and we came up with our initial logo concepts.
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One of the logo concepts was then chosen by the whole group after a few redesigns we came up with the final logo.
Mood board
As a starting point, mood boards were made to give a general style idea or feeling about InstruRental. It helped us express the vision we had in mind for the project. As well as collate and focus on our ideas.
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Website design
Colour, fonts and the logo were later applied to what is going to be our IntruRental website. Since branding a full functioning website was going to be a hassle, we created a website mockup that would represent and show how the website would look.
The Service
The Concept and the Prototype
InstruRental Website
The InstruRental website is the place where customers can order our product service system, and it is also where the lesson service is accessible and repairment service can be requested. While ideating functions of the website the requirements were kept in mind. Some of these will be highlighted here and matched with the ideation for additional functions of the website.
The service should clearly show its value
The front page of the website is the first thing what the consumers see and should clearly explain what InstruRental is and what it offers. This should be done in a quick and efficient manner, so not too much text. Another good addition to the information is customer reviews, this is always a transparent and convincing way to lure customers in.
The lessons should be interactive, professional, flexible and available at any time
The lessons are pre-recorded sessions given by professionals musicians to provide quality lessons with valuable tricks and tips. The lessons are subdivided into different difficulty levels. There are lessons that provide basic information such as how to read notes or hold your instrument. But there are also lessons about learning a certain song, which are also labelled by difficulty. Because these lessons are pre-recorded they can be studied at any time and the topic can be chosen by the user itself.
To increase the user input of the pre-recorded lessons there is a voting section where suggestions for topics of the lessons will be previewed and the most liked in the month will be progressed into a lesson.
To provide interactive lessons there is an option to join the weekly live feedback sessions hosted by the professional musicians. This is also a chance to ask questions and get observed by the musicians.
The service should offer feedback or answers on progress or questions
Asking questions and getting feedback is an essential part of learning, this is why we offer several ways to ask them. Apart from the opportunity to ask for help during the live feedback lessons and the customer service option, we also made a forum where the whole community can post anything they like. From questions, suggestions to video’s of improvements. The posts can be liked and commented to by the whole community, including the professional teachers. Who will be active frequently and provide valuable feedback on the posts.
The lessons should be motivating and rewarding
To keep the users motivated is a key part of the learning process, since repetition is the key to learning to play an instrument. To do this we thought of a rewarding system, which consists of a personal part and a community part.
The personal part is based on setting goals and completion time to these goals. This progress will be visualised as a timeline, turning more green the more you achieve (seen in the picture below). If these goals are achieved the user will also receive community badges, which can be shown in your profile and are visible for the community to see.
The community rewarding part is based upon the community forum section of the website. Every month some of the most liked posts will be featured in the voting section, these posts are nominated for “the best improver” price. And the winner will be chosen by the community itself. The best improver price is a special spotlight in the community forum for the coming month and a special badge.
The Lessons
As has been described before, the main music lessons will be pre-recorded and to increase interaction there will is also be a possibility to join the live feedback session.
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The Pre-recorded Lessons
With recorded lessons come several advantages, in comparison to physical lessons:
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Online learning is flexible in choice and in time, the users can decide when and what to learn.
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The lessons are available at any moment and can be rewatched, this offers the possibility for a user to revise certain difficult topics. On top of the possibility to ask the community for help.
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The structure of the lessons are controlled and efficient. The lessons are recorded and edited by professional musicians, they can decide to add more visual explanation inside their recording and cut out unnecessary information.
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The recorded lessons will be split up into three sections: the contents overview, theory lessons and the practical. The contents describes what will be discussed in the theory lessons and the practical. It will also contain a list to what is needed for the theory and practical lesson, such as the sheet music, accessories and exercises. The theory lessons will have a video of the professional music teacher explaining some basic musical terms, music scales, tuning, reading chords and musical patterns. These theory lessons goal is to familiarize the users with the basics of understanding making music. Which will then be put to the test in the practical lesson accompanied by an explanation video from the professional music teacher. This video will clearly show how to hold the instrument and how to play certain chords. These sections were visualized below.
Contents Overview
Theory Lesson
Practical
To get an even better idea of the content of a lesson, the figure below describes the learning path of the guitar. For the piano and drums, this process will roughly be the same.
The Feedback Sessions
The feedback sessions is a weekly opportunity to share improvement and ask difficult questions directly to the professional musical teachers through an online call. These online calls will be with a small group of other members, since most of the questions can be directly asked and answered by the same teachers using the community forum. Which is why these group sessions are more aimed at sharing improvement and also learning from others, sharing experiences, tips and tricks. The video gives an understanding of how these sessions will be set up.
The Prototype
The above shown pictures are part of the prototype of the InstruRental website prototype. The full functional prototype can be accessed by this link: www.InstruRentals.com (to access the member page there is no need for a password). Please keep in mind that this prototype is mainly focused on the information and functionality of the website, which is why some visuals are not included, and the colour palette is standard. Also, only the pages for the guitar instrument are worked out, since the layout and functionality of the piano and drums will be very similar (which is why it wasn't needed to include it into the prototype).
To get a better understanding of what the community members website (IRcommunity) was all about a quick infographics video was made, this can also be viewed on the website.
To get feedback on the functionality of the website, user testing was done. During the test the users were asked to read the home page, buy a guitar and try to log in as a member. And while doing this answer several questions about these progresses. This questionnaire was answered by 11 people and the results are shown below:
The Standard Questions
What is your age?
Were you able to open the website link?
Home Page Questions
From the home page is it clear what InstruRental is?
If you answered "No or Somewhat", explain your answer.
(No Answers Were Given)
What does InstruRental provide from your understanding from the home page?
• "It helps you with getting into music by providing customers with instruments which you can rent. Furthermore, it also provides lessons and a tool kit."
• "Hiring instruments with all the accessories needed to be able to learn from home."
• "I understood that InstruRental is a company dedicated to the sale and maintenance of instruments, as well as the possibility of sharing your musical ideas with others."
• "Music instruments in a subscription like context, along with lessons to follow."
• "InstruRental provides an affordable option for beginners to learn how to play an instrument of their choice. Alongside this they provide lessons, shipping and feedback from other users as well as professionals."
• "Rental instrument and lessons."
• "A instrument rental site with service and maintenance."
• "InstruRental provides everything you desire to start learning a new instrument without the normal high initial costs."
• "Instruments and lessons for beginners."
• "You can rent instruments and get professional lessons to learn to play them."
• "A service which rents you instruments and provides you with lessons."
Rate the home page to satisfaction of information.
(from 5:"containing everything" and 1:"missing all information")
These questions above were to check if the homepage includes all the information needed to understand the idea behind InstruRental and what we offer. As can be concluded from the result this is indeed the case, although many participants fail to mention the community forum. But this can be explained by the fact that it's not the main function of InstruRental, which is why it can be forgotten.
Would you consider getting an InstruRental subscription?
What is the maximum monthly price point you would consider getting InstruRental?
These questions above were to check if InstruRental is something what people would like to use or not, and for what price they would consider getting it. From the results above, it can be shown that 54.6 % of our participant are interested in InstruRental and the ideal price for the subscription is around 10 to 20 euros. This low price range can be explained by the fact that 45.5% of our participant said they weren't interested in a musical hobby.
Buying Process Questions
Write down which buttons you have pressed to get to the buying page and the time it took.
• "Instrument, guitar, 1 sec."
• "Purchase-order- personality information- payment - 30 secs"
• "I have only clicked on the link, it was fast"
• "Guitar models -> Strato Order -> Check Out, fast"
• "Button under the guitar picture in the homepage -> Order button -> 23 secs"
• "2min On instruments then Stratocaster then order and through the steps to buy"
• "Instruments > Guitars > Order > Follow up steps > 40 seconds"
• "(guitar) models, order, check out, save and next, next, return to home. Under a minute"
• "Guitar models, orderment, follow steps of purchase. Took around 25 sec"
• "You can rent instruments and get professional lessons to learn to play them."
• "Guitar, the black one(order), some of the accessories, finish, next, next, 1 minute"
Did all the steps provide enough information?
If you answered "No or Somewhat", explain your answer
• "There was no way of selecting a subscription directly from the subscription page, instead we had to go to the instruments page first"
How easy was for you to complete this process?
(from 5:"very easy" and 1:"very difficult")
These questions above were to get feedback on the functionality and efficiency of the buying process. As can be concluded from the result above, the buying process is a very easy process, which will take under 1 minute.
Member Page Questions
Write down which buttons you have pressed to get to the member page and the time it took
• "Member > Login, 5 seconds"
• "Members, 2 seconds"
• "members -> log in -> 5 seconds"
• ""Join us" button on the homepage -> Login button, 10 seconds"
• "5 seconds. Clicked on members then logged in"
• "Members > Login > 7 seconds"
• "Members, login (like 10s)"
• "Top right: Members - 10seconds"
• "members, login"
• "member"
• "member, login, done in under 10 secs"
Did all the steps provide enough information?
If you answered "No or Somewhat", explain your answer
• "Wasn't able to make an account"
• "Instead of having just a "Join us" button, I think it would be a good idea to also have a "Login" button with some text saying "Already a member?" or something like that."
• "When I click on "Buy access" it sends me to the subscription page but once again there is no purchase option on that page"
• "It was better to use the therm log-in then members"
How easy was for you to complete this process?
(from 5:"very easy" and 1:"very difficult")
How clear is it to you what the IRcommunity provides
(from 5:"very clear" and 1:"very unclear")
How valuable would you describe the IRcommunity Service?
(from 5:"not valuable" and 1:"very valuable")
Do you have any remarks or suggestions for the website?
• "Not very handy on a mobile phone"
• "None in particular, everything seem dandy to me."
• "fix the subscription page"
• "The website is not optimized for phone use. This made it harder to navigate."
• "The alignment of text is a bit random"
• "Not really, very clear and simple. The information is provided nicely"
• "Maybe make a direct purchase route that guides you through the steps. However the actual purchase route is not bad, just not the most intuitive."
• "The member page explaining video is kinda quick and a bit much at the same time"
These questions above were to get feedback on the process of finding the member page and logging in and about the information given on the home page of the member page. As can be concluded from the result above, the process of finding the member page mostly easy and quick, although still some misconception about the account making (which wasn't a function yet). The functionality and content of the IRcommunity was well understood and seen as quite valuable.
Conclusions
Overall, the feedback on the prototype website was positive, and it verified that InstruRental is wanted and found valuable. Although there were some important remarks, which should be changed for the final website:
• The subscription page should have a buy button, to which the user would then need to choose their instrument and accessories.
• The member button, which redirects you to a login form to enter the IRcommunity website, has to be renamed to "Log in". Since this is more standard and clear.
• A process of making an account should be implemented.
• The website has to be made mobile friendly.
• All the information, which came after the making of this prototype (such as the branding, the pricing and the other instruments) should be adjusted to the final website.
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