MerchBox.
MerchBox is an app idea I conceived for the Interaction Design course in the Masters of Digital Media program at TMU. The app is a one-stop shop where fans can purchase official merchandise from their favorite musical artists.
The app allows users to build a profile, follow their favorite artists, connect the app to their Apple Music or Spotify and collect points for streaming songs. These points help unlock VIP content, redeem discount codes or enter contests.
Market Research & Competitive Analysis
Source: Statista
I interviewed 10 potential users who had previously shopped from a popular singer/band’s merchandise stores and asked them about their experiences. Based on this qualitative research, I was able to understand the users’ pain points and their current behaviors and draw up user personas of the target Merchbox. audience.
Rachel Symone - 21 y.o. undergrad student
As a massive music fan of various artists, I want to be able to buy merchandise from just one site so I can keep track of all of my orders and save on shipping costs.
According to Atevnu.com, the music merchandise industry makes 350 Million USD each year.
Despite this, there doesn’t exist an organized website or mobile application where merchandise sale is streamlined.
Websites that currently offer such services have a variety of issues such as: not having a mobile app, not providing return/exchange or other customer services, only having merchandise of lesser known artists.
User Research
Jhanvi Sharma - 26 y.o. entry level worker
I love collecting merchandise of my favorite artist, and would love to enjoy discounts, enter giveaway contests and unlock special content through a merch app!
Based on this research, I came up with a site map for MerchBox. and began experimenting with various options for the home screen and drawing lo-fi wireframes for the general look & feel of the app.
As I developed these low-fidelity wireframes into high-fidelity, I was able to get great constructive feedback from my peers and my professors as well as ideas on how I could further improve the experience of the users.
Thus, I was able to design the final high-fidelity wireframes for Merchbox. as shown below:
