Screenshot cover of Silver Audio software platform
Speeding up collaboration with a seamless tool

Silver Audio

Audio industry professionals tend to juggle various tools for asynchronous collaboration on their working files. We help these users achieve a more seamless asynchronous audio file collaboration experience.

Role and contributions

Designer and founder to steer product roadmap

I collaborated closely with the founder, tech lead, and developers. Together, we spearheaded the design and steered the roadmap. I brought the design of our solution from idea to proof-of-concept in high fidelity design mockups.

Screenshot of product roadmap in the form of information architecture diagram
We created a map of our intended information architecture and mapped our working roadmap within each page, with the colours signifying design progress.
User interview insights

Audio mixing engineer, tech-savvy and detail-oriented

“Getting all the musical language understood at different levels of technicality between people is a challenge.”
01

Feedback-focused

Users were very focused on the way feedback was provided to their audio projects

02

Note-taking

Users needed ways to write down notes they wanted show to their collaborators

03

Reference tracks

Reference tracks are crucial in the initial stages of an audio project

Identifying the need

84% of interview participants frequently share files with colleagues or friends for feedback

We identified a consistent need for users to share files remotely to collect feedback. Remaining participants weren't in a place in their projects where they wanted to collect feedback yet, but have an existing desire to do so.

People infographic showing 10 out of 12 individuals highlighted (83%)
Design decisions: Getting Feedback-focused

The type of feedback matters

We reprioritized the design to accommodate the space needed for an interface aimed at focused and isolated listening. We went from a single track file, to a track hosting multiple layers/“stem” files.

💡

Stems are layers of audio that professionals put together to form an arrangement of sound or music.

Photograph of initial sketches for Silver Audio platform, showing single track waveform
The original concept featured a single audio track uploaded by the user, with the comment thread both residing in the same column to maximize the feedback view.
Screenshot of Silver Audio wireframe with a new multi-stem layout
We switched the single-track feature to multi-track for focused feedback on a specific layer of audio (e.g., drums), and also moved the comments to a side panel for a simultaneous view of waveforms and feedback.
Design decisions: Improving learnability

Users struggling with information architecture

After conducting a recent cognitive walkthrough with some users on our latest design iteration, we noticed that all of our users struggled to understand what the versions were associated with.

We aligned visual hierarchy and information architecture more by moving the versioning feature.

Screenshot of Silver Audio platform and original design for versioning located in the top right tab
Participants interacting with the Versions tab on the top right got confused about how new versions of a file would be added.
Screenshot of Silver Audio platform with a new placement for versioning feature, with a dialogue opening and access from a chip component next to the track name
To better match the visual hierarchy with our intended information architecture we moved the access location to the versions closer to track to more associate tracks with versions.
To be continued...

Second iteration undergoing user testing

Our latest iteration of designs are continuing to receive exposure to a pool of our target users. I’m excited to report back more of our findings here soon!

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