Practice platform for pop choir Singing Beat

For TLE1 I was assigned a team for the first time, with whom we got to work on our first TLE project. During this project we acted as if we were a web agency and were assigned a client. Our client, a pop choir called “Singing Beat”, had a very outdated website, which resulted in reduced communication with both the outside world and the choir members.

My role during this project was “Researching technologist”, in which I was responsible for all the research. Part of this research was, for example, the target-audience study, which I carried out using interviews, surveys and desk research. Based on this research, a solution could then be designed for the choir members. We programmed this together, with me mainly taking on the role of backend programmer.

The solution we arrived at was a renewed website that made it easier to upload and download content. Choir members can now rehearse the songs at home by downloading them from the website. On the old website this was slow and not user-friendly. The same applied to the board members who had to upload this content. That was very complicated and time-consuming. For each of the 100+ songs in the repertoire, the following files had to be uploaded:

• At least 5 voice parts
• Lyrics
• Translated lyrics
• Instrumentation (no vocals)
• The full song

On the new website we built, we significantly simplified this process. Board members can now upload all files at once via “drag and drop”. For the members we created a full audio player with features such as:

• Searching for songs
• Marking favourite songs
• Filtering songs by, for example, genre or playlist
• Board members can now create playlists for upcoming performances, for instance

In addition, photos can be uploaded and downloaded on the website, and it’s possible to post announcements. These new features and usability improvements come with a completely new design and style, for both desktop and mobile.