21 comments

  • Samuel HulickSamuel Hulick, over 8 years ago

    Hi all! I'm the person behind this. If anyone has any questions or critiques, I will be watching it all day. Please shoot!

    16 points
    • Taron GhazaryanTaron Ghazaryan, over 8 years ago

      Would be great to see how well the competition onboards new users. They don't have the luxury of having an unremovable icon.

      5 points
      • Samuel HulickSamuel Hulick, over 8 years ago

        Good point! Though I actually have a folder called "Siberia" in which I have exiled all the undeletable apps to. It's even on the most remote "screen" I can push it onto.

        1 point
    • Mason LawlorMason Lawlor, over 8 years ago

      Glad you did this. I was thinking of doing a write up after I did it yesterday too.

      My panties became un-waded when I finally let Apple Music do it's thing. I was in disbelief at how much I hated it up until that point.

      I was pleasantly surprised with how in-tune the "For You"playlist was. It was actually creepy how good it was, it was undoubtedly looking at back at my iTunes history and tying it in.

      I'm so glad you mentioned the Buy button on slide 60. This was so confusing. I was thinking, "wait, so is this going to charge my card right now?".

      The genre/artist bubbles were such a pain in the ass. Definitely not the fastest way to get the job done. I watched a co-worker do it and sigh in agony. It was definitely not Apple Simple.

      Great breakdown Sam.

      3 points
    • Adam T.Adam T., over 8 years ago

      Nacho spot! Big fan of BSBD Glaciers - check out 88 ULTRA (Kingston from BSBD) solo album - F'kn amazing.

      0 points
    • Jacob TaylorJacob Taylor, over 8 years ago

      I agree with most of this. However I do take issue with your critiques about, and solution for, the 'Start Free Trial' button.

      It is incumbent upon the app provider to be as clear as possible about any potential financial outlay being made by the user.

      By putting "Get Three Months of Free Music" you are not indicating to the user that their is any potential for a paid rollover at the end of the period.

      Otherwise, this is all spot on. Also, listen to that Yo La Tengo playlist if you already haven't! My favourite band.

      1 point
      • Samuel HulickSamuel Hulick, over 8 years ago

        Fair point, but I disagree all of that is handled on the following screen, before the user actually signs off on anything transactional. I could see the way you laid it out working as well, though. Either way, thanks for your feedback!

        0 points
  • James Young, over 8 years ago

    Is this one the biggest car crash you've reviewed so far Samuel?

    4 points
    • Samuel HulickSamuel Hulick, over 8 years ago

      Definitely not the biggest car crash! Since I don't have a viewpoint into how their conversion funnels are working, I really can't say one is working better than another.

      I can definitely say I was more perplexed than usual with this experience, though, especially considering it was coming from Apple.

      7 points
  • Surjith S MSurjith S M, over 8 years ago

    I'd like to see a useronboarding on useronboard.com :)

    2 points
  • Ruby ChenRuby Chen, over 8 years ago

    Hi @Samuel !!!

    I always enjoy reading your teardowns and I have learned so much from them! Thank you! Your side notes broader my perspective too, and this one particularly makes me giggle more...

    I haven't tried Apple Music yet, but by going through your teardown, I recognized that the bubbles of music genres are the same while I tried out the online platform from Beats Music itself. I think it's a playful and enjoyable process and maybe that's why Apple decided to carry over with it. Unfortunately, it just doesn't make more sense in this new context.

    How do you think about the bubble approach itself? Is it not benefit to the context of Apple Music? Or is it the UI around the bubbles more likely to be the problem?

    1 point
    • Samuel HulickSamuel Hulick, over 8 years ago

      It was hard to capture in slideshow format, but I genuinely struggled with a lot of the bubble-ness. I hope to release a video of it sometime in the future, but the general notes were:

      • Tapping and double-tapping weren't the easiest things since they moved around whenever they were interacted with

      • Holding to "kill" the item felt gross (its heart would beat as it was "dying")

      • Swiping around made everything wash back and forth like a lava lamp. It really affected discoverability in that way.

      1 point
  • Merel Backers, over 8 years ago

    Love it. :-)

    1 point
  • Daniel SamuelsDaniel Samuels, over 8 years ago

    The desktop one isn't much better.

    1 point
  • Samuel HulickSamuel Hulick, over 8 years ago

    @Jim Thank you for the mention!

    1 point
  • Laurens SpangenbergLaurens Spangenberg, over 8 years ago

    Could you do an onboarding tour of alternative services such as Spotify? I'm curious how the competition matches up.

    0 points