Before I even open Photoshop and begin creating a basic template, I have done some research of other instances of music recommendation systems.
TASTEKID (link)
Tastekid.com asks users to input a keyword and lets the user select what kind of search they'd like to perform. This service also provides users with the option of signing up to Tastekid so their searches can provide 'better, personalised recommendations'.
e.g I can search "Taylor Swift" in the music category, and similar artists are recommended to me.
The site then goes one step further. If you click on the artist, a drop down appears with information about artists, one of their music videos (possibly their most recent?), and statistics based on previous users. Users can go one step further and share the artist to their Facebook and/or Twitter timelines.
The overall layout of the website is rather minimalist without flashing advertisements or excessive images, so I like that aspect. However, I do not enjoy the actual setting out of the recommendations. They appear scattered and not particularly ordered. I feel as though setting them out in a structured table would be much more visually appealing.
PANDORA (link)
Pandora is possibly the most known out of all the music recommendation sites. Just like the previous, users type in an artist's name to begin their search. However the next page differs from the previous site. A music player is situated at the top of the page where music automatically begins playing from. First a song from the artist will begin to play and afterwards a recommended song begins. Information about both artists is given with a list of other recommended artists below the blurb.
e.g I searched Years and Years.
I'm given the option to publish/share the tune to my Facebook timeline or buy songs from the artist on Amazon.
The overall appearance of the website works as it takes the basic music player format. Information is easy to read and the layout is very user friendly and doesn't detract from the purpose of searching for music. The fact that music automatically begins playing for the user to sample is a great feature that I really enjoy. And I love that songs just continue to play from different artists that all relate back to the original search.
GNOOSIC (link)
Gnoosic is a super minimalist music recommender. Users simply type in three of their fav artists and the website generates a recommendation based on the user's favs. I personally love minimalism, so even though this website gives no information about the artists I personally really enjoy it. It provides simple recommendations to the users. The user is asked wether they liked, didn't liked or didn't know if they liked the recommendation, and based on that answer another artist is recommended. It's like a never ending loop of recommendations based on a one time input from the user and I think that is truly fantastic.
e.g
MOODFUSE (link)
This web based application asks the user for their mood, what genre of music their looking for and presents them with a playlist of songs catering to their current mood. This concept is the closest to that chosen for this project. The goal of this website was to simply match the user's mood with a certain genre of music, so a description of the artists isn't really necessary.
e.g
MUSICOVERY (link)
Users simply have to hover over a dot within the square and music begins to play. The can select what genre they want to hear, or have all the genres selected. It's a very versatile system. Just like the previous example, the goal of this website was to simply match the user's mood with a certain genre of music. e.g
Based on my research, I think I'd like to follow a minimalist approach with a basic layout. The concept produced by team Loki differs from the websites displayed about, but I think the content could be formatted in a similar way to achieve an aesthetically pleasing user interface. Tastekid shows me what I want to avoid - I don't want to use drop down information tabs because users might not even know they exist. As I previously said, I don't enjoy the display of recommended artists and I'd much rather have a structured table format or simply the recommendations in a list beneath one another. Gnoosic is perhaps a bit too minimalist for what is necessary in this assignment, but Pandora is well balanced and will perhaps be my main source of inspiration.
But I truly, truly, TRULY love Gnoosic. I've been using it for over half an hour now. Good stuff. Minimalism. Okay. Bye.
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