Novation Circuit: The Synthesis of Human Factors

Aside from my illustrious career in UX, my main passion is sound design and music. In this blog I'll talk about my recent experiences with the Novation Circuit synthesizer and how it's UX differs from that of other synthesizers. All photos courtesy Novation.

The hills are alive with the sound of human factors

Meet the Novation Circut.

01-circuit-topdown1.png

Often thought of as equal parts quirky, unique and frustrating, the circuit forgoes the menus found on most other synthesizers that are more than single sound machines. The Circuit offers a fascinating look at a product that forgoes traditional user expectations of what a synthesizer's interface should look like. This innovation in design leads to both breakthroughs and new pinpoints and it is worth a look at how the user experiences the machine.

THE GOOD

Let's start on a positive note. How can we, as UX designers, implement something that on the outside feels like a bad experience (being forced to fork over money to access additional features) and make it feel good for users? Believe it or not, it is possible\

Considerations

Goals

To produce a modern groove box that meets multiple consumer needs at a low price. The synthesizer market is small, but passionate and vocal.

Affordances

By forgoing an lcd menu and creating an innovative and unique color/pad based system, Novation was able to keep prices down. This kept the Novation Circut affordable.

Iteration

Novation has consistently released new features and met consumer requests via firmware updates. This constant iteration has created goodwill among Novation's audience, who regularly tout these updates as one of the main selling points of the unit.

Design

Novation made smart and deliberate design choices with the Circuit.

Five knobs to rule them all

Whereas a traditional sequencer or synthesizer has many parameters either within an LCD based menu or knob parameters on the device itself, the Circuit only has five. This simplifies the creations of synth patches/sounds and streamlines the user experience.

Portability

The circuit affords portability, an essential trait of a good groove box.

Look at the colors

The novation Circuit makes use of Multi

Accessibility

Due to the Circuit being pad/sequencer based, the system opens up music creation to users who may have difficulty coordinating a traditional keyboard and knob structure.

 

novation-circuit-1228205.jpg

 

THE BAD

That's not to say the Novation Circuit is Perfect (does that rhyme?)

Design Disadvantages

Confusing User Experience

While the UI of the circuit encourages exploration, it does not follow the usual conventions of a synthesizer. This creates a new, different learning experience. Novation did their best to circumvent this pain point by making the system easy to use.

Tri-County Area

Due to the lack of an lcd panel in the UI, it is not always readily apparent what state the system is in. The user must rely on visual cues, which leads us to...

Accessibility Concerns

While the colored pads can help guide a user and the knobs help ease cognitive load, the system still requires care in accessing different states and the reliance on colors could be a hinderance to visually impaired users.

IAPs: The Good, The Bad, and The Dark

The following blog post started out as a research project for HCI 522 (UX STRATEGY AND WEB ANALYTICS). While I initially had envisioned this work as an informational paper based on academic readings, I thought a blog post would be more helpful for my audience. After conducting my initial research I was disappointed to discover that many of the topics I wanted to cover were scattered. This blog post is intended to be a repository for this information and show how analytics can both impact the design process as well as inform my peers on the use and design of In-App Purchases. The following is a mixture of instructional information and advice culled from reading academic studies, news articles, and opinion-based sources. Images used are authors own if not sourced, and are all used for non-profit educational purposes.

 

You down with IAPs?

If you've ever played a free mobile game, chances are at some point you've encountered the option to purchase an item. As a UX Designer, I have found myself fascinated with this seemingly obtrusive option and how it can effect the user's experience of a system. As a result, I decided to undertake a deep dive into the world of In-App purchases to examine the upsides, negatives, and ethical concerns regarding their design.

 

In order to explain UX applications of IAPs, one must first understand what they are and how they fit into mobile game commerce.

What is an IAP?

IAP stands for In-App Purchase. When a user runs out of free lives in Candy Crush Saga and buys more after being prompted, they have completed an IAP. You should be familiar with IAPs and here is why: 

As one can see in the image above, the revenue from these purchases is rising early, almost comically when one compares the revenue from 2011 to 2017. In-app purchases make up over half of the applications available in the Apple App Store andIn-App purchases are features and content a user must purchase in order to unlock. This can range from extra lives and cosmetic features in a game, to the premium version of an application such as Spotify. While they are often mentioned in terms of mobile games, they are found in many different applications (for reasons that will be explained momentarily.) IAPs are the manner in which many games make their money. (3)

Revenue Sources

There are three major sources for revenue from a mobile app:

1. Paid download (Minecraft Pocket Edition costs $6.99)

2. In-app Purchases (Bitmoji is free allows users to purchase sets of emoji's within the system)

3. In-app ads (Crazy Taxi is free, but users must watch in-app ads while using the app)

The choice you make as a UX designer depends on the needs of your client, the users and the overall idea behind the project. As well, these revenue sources can be combined and often are. (5)

How to analyze IAP Performance

Many KPIs can be used to both measure the effectiveness of IAPs within a system, as well as iterate and improve upon existing IAPs in a system. These include:

  • Overall App Revenue

  • Number of in-app purchases made daily/weekly/monthly

  • Number of Free users vs. paid users

There is a multitude of programs that allow a team to monitor the revenue of their product, with Google Analytics and Apple App Analytics being the major players. Analytics applications such as Google Analytics allow the user to see key performance indicators such as an Ecommerce Overview, product performance and time to purchase. While selecting the best application for analytics is beyond the scope of this post, I highly recommend you do your due diligence and look over all of the available options to suit the one that best fits the need for your product.

Infograph source: HCI in Business First International Conference, HCIB 2014, Held as Part of HCI International 2014 (), Heraklion, Crete, Greece, June 22-27, 2014 ; Proceedings. The study ranked different concerns customers had and proposed potentia…

Infograph source: HCI in Business First International Conference, HCIB 2014, Held as Part of HCI International 2014 (), Heraklion, Crete, Greece, June 22-27, 2014 ; Proceedings. The study ranked different concerns customers had and proposed potential ways to increase revenue (

 

THE GOOD

Let's start on a positive note. How can we, as UX designers, implement something that on the outside feels like a bad experience (being forced to fork over money to access additional features) and make it feel good for users? Believe it or not, it is possible

 

Considerations

Goals

First, consider the goal of your final product when designing IAP implementation. Is your product designed around an IAP, or is it a natural inclusion to an idea that did not already include them?

Look at similar apps (with such a crowded market place there is bound to be a similar idea) and how they are implementing their IAPs. Take a look at the Apple APP store's top paid, free and grossing applications to get an idea of current trends in designing around IAPs. What kind of content are these applications selling, how are they selling it and why are they succeeding? There is not an easy answer to this, but if one looks carefully trends will emerge. (9) (10)

Pricing

One of the most important areas to consider is price.

Pricing is important.

How much is your user willing to pay to access features? How much are they willing to pay to even give your product a shot? The lower the entry barrier for downloading an app, the more downloads it experiences. The lowest barrier for entry is free. Thus, the term Freemium. A freemium experience is one where the user can have a free experience, but will beefit greatly from purchasing IAPs. This is a popular method because when an application is designed around In-App purchases, the aforementioned cost of entry is exponentially lower. Of course, this model also comes with some negative connotations, so it is always a balancing act. (4) (6)

Revenue methodology

By combining multiple revenue generation methods, profit can increase alongside providing an excellent user experience. For example, the user may feel better about their interaction with IAP-focused applications if they are given multiple choices. By combining both IAPs and ad based revenue within a freemium application, the user may feel better about spending money on an IAP knowing they also had the choice to watch an AD and get the same content. There is also an emerging trend towards utilizing all three methods . Have a solid idea of how you expect your user to interact with these concepts and design with that in mind.

 

DESIGN

Make intelligent decisions when Designing the IAP Experience. Design with the user in mind as much as revenue collection.

Guidelines

Make sure you give a through reading to the guidelines presented by both Apple and Google. Apple, for example, requires developers to "use simple, succinct product names and descriptions" as well as the default confirmation alert it provides.

IMPLEMENTATION

For ideas on how to implement IAPs, please visit this blog from SELLMYAPP.COM: The Mammoth Guide to Profiting from in app purchases - 41 Ways to stay on top of your game

This post is an excellent overview on how to design and implement. UX principles such as offering breadcrumbs (allowing users to "try a boost" for free), giving users choices (allowing users to pay to remove ads within a free application), Offering user-centric content that doesn't effect the game experience and the use of tutorials are covered. (1)

RELEVANCY AND ACCESS

Jesper Bylund points out the necessity for balancing both relevancy and access in the design of IAPs in his blog post Designing in-app purchases that work.

Bylund makes the case for balancing the relevancy of the IAPs offered, as well as the access to information on the purchase and the purchase itself for the user. These are both important aspects to keep in mind when designing IAPs. (2)

The mobile game Hearthstone provides a great example of both principles in use. The major IAP, cardpacks, is the backbone of the entire application, thus increasing relevancy. The user has easy access to purchase cardpacks with both currency earened through interaction with the application as well as real money. Clicking on the real money option makes it clear that the user would using actual money, but also uses visual cues to try and increase incentive to purchase.

 

 

ANALYTICS

 A study performed by researchers Don Ming-Hui Wen, Dick Jen-Wei Chang, Ying-Tzu Lin, Che-Wei Liang, Shin-Yi Yang utilized a mobile shopthat was created using a framework "attracting, engaging, retaining and monetizing users " framework. They then used analytics to measure its success. They found that by using gamification tactics, they were able to increase customer retention and engagement. Utilizing analyzing analytics helped them complete their study and shows the power of utilizing analytics in correlation with designing IAP experiences. (12).

However, analytics do not only help gauge how successful a product is - they can also be used to help iterate on a design. For example, by looking at how many purchases are being made of specific IAPs, analytics can help deduce optimal pricing.

Analytics can help re-organize a product’s economy or model. If the analytics are showing the in-app economy is not connecting with users, the application can be adjusted if the project allows for it. Analytics can also assist in developing new features or promotions. Seeing what features are being used the most can help make decisions when designing new promotions within a product.

Finally, analytics can assist in designing the journey of the user and when the IAPs are offered. By analyzing information such as "time to click/purchase", the designer can use these analytics to help pin point at what point during the user's journey an IAP may be offered or implemented. 

 

THE BAD

Of course, nothing in this world is perfect. While IAPs can be smartly implemented, this is not always the case.

 

Disadvantages

Poor user experience

A lot of IAP based applications are made as cash grabs without thought put into the content offered. As a result, there is a glut of poorly designed experiences that have left a bad taste in user's mouths. Put simply, the IAP content itself needs to be successful or else the project will not succeed. 

An app that chooses an in-app purchase model may sometimes have to design two separate experiences for users. This can create extra work for the developer, as they have to spend extra time crafting the experience of both types of users. 

In addition to designing the product itself, the economy of the product must also be taken into consideration. Pricing needs to be taken into account during the UX process, and this can be a daunting work that can make or break a product. For example, in the mobile game Hearthstone, free users can earn gold in game and can purchase packs of cards for 100 gold, or avoid this by spending $1.99 for two packs. However, this pricing model may not work for another application. While developer Blizzard was successful with this implementation, they also are a large company that has resources not every developer will have access to.

FREEMIUM SHMEEMIUM

In-app purchases have a bad reputation. When the market for mobile applications was emerging, many of the parental features we now take for granted did not exist. While advances have been made in protecting users, parents may still be cautious of downloading a free application on their phone. For example, just five years ago a flaw in Apple's security allowed for over 30k unauthorized transactions to be completed (8). IAPs have a sordid history.

Bad implementation, dark patterns or poorly designed experience can lead to negative User Reviews

Finally, the app store takes a cut of the profit when an IAP is made. As the IAP is offered through Apple or Google, they naturally skim a percentage of the purchase. 

 

THE CASE OF THE POORLY IMPLEMENTED IAP

 

PUNCH THE PAIN AWAY

Punch quest is a mobile game designed with an IAP-based revnue model in mind. It exists in the genre of:Endless Runner. The game itself was specifically designed to increase user awareness of the developer through the creation of a “freemium” model game.. While the game had 600,000 downloads, the revenue was only in 5 figures, making it a humongous failure for the developer. (10) (13)

WHAT WENT WRONG?

After analyzing the data and conducting research with users, the developer came to the following conclusions (11):

•After testing, the developers hypothesized that the “buy” button was too small

•The IAP experience was not well optimized

•The developer found that players were earning money in-game too easily and did not have enough incentive

•The in-app purchases themselves were not relevant or necessary enough to generate substantial revenue

 

THE DARK

Spooky! Scary but not paranormal, Dark Patterns are worth a look when discussing IAP design.

 

Source

Source

ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK?

Perhaps the “antithesis” of the usual aim of UX designers, Dark patterns attempt to trick the user into making disadvantageous choices. This is sometimes obvious trickery that will not go over the user's head, but may result in revenue collection. While these patterns are deceptive, they are usually not illegal...or ethical. (4)

For example: Inconsistency. A user may be used to clicking on a certain area to obtain a new character, but it has now been switched with the option to purchase one instead. Used to clicking on the area out of habit, the user gives into temptation when offered the opportunity to purchase the character, or accidentally clicks on the space out of habit. 

IAP DARK PATTERN EXAMPLES (11)

•Confusing color schemes: The system may try and use color in a way that confuses the user or tricks them into making a purchase.

•Spamming friends: Many games that feature IAP also have options for users to gain in-app content if they get their Facebook friends involved.

•Ads in disguise: A user may be shown an ad, especially for IAP content, but the ad may be disguised as part of the system.

•Price comparisons: The system may make it difficult or confusing to compare pricing on the different IAP offered by the system. 

For a complete list of Dark UX patterns, please see DarkPatterns.org

SOURCES

1. "41 Ways to Profit from in App Purchases - The Mammoth Guide." Sell My App. N.p., 04 Mar. 2016. Web. 08 June 2017.                                                    

2. Bylund, Jesper. "Designing In-app Purchases That Work." Jesper Bylund. N.p., 16 Jan. 2013. Web. 24 May 2017.                                                  

3. Çetin, Elif. "Why Are In-App Purchases Important?" A Beginner's Guide to In – App Purchases. N.p., 27 Sept. 2016. Web. 20 May 2017.

4. Clare, Adam. "An Introduction To Dark UX Patterns." Reality Is a Game. N.p., 27 Aug. 2014. Web. 08 June 2017.

5. "Free vs. Paid Apps: The Pros & Cons." Sourcebits. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2017..

6. Mullin, Shanelle. "The Beginner's Guide to Mobile App Analytics." CXL. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 May 2017.

7. Nah, Fiona Fui-Hoon. HCI in Business First International Conference, HCIB 2014, Held as Part of HCI International 2014 (), Heraklion, Crete, Greece, June 22-27, 2014 ; Proceedings. Cham: Springer, 2014. Print.

8. Panzarino, Brian and Matthew. "A Flaw in Apple's In-App Purchase System Enables 30K Illegal Sales." The Next Web. N.p., 13 July 2012. Web. 20 May 2017

9. "The Art of the In-App Purchase." Placeit Blog. N.p., 27 Mar. 2015. Web. 20 May 2017.                                                  

10. Viticci, Federico. "The Value Of In-App Purchases." MacStories. N.p., 31 Oct. 2012. Web. 23 May 2017.

11. "What Are Dark Patterns?" Home | Dark Patterns. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2017

12. "Worldwide Mobile App Store Revenues in 2015, 2016 and 2020 (in Billion U.S. Dollars)." Statista. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2017

13. Webster, Andrew. "'Punch Quest' Is the IPhone's Hottest Game, but It's a Financial Flop." The Verge. The Verge, 31 Oct. 2012. Web. 27 May 2017.

14. Wen, D. M., Chang, D. J., Lin, Y., Liang, C., & Yang, S. (2014). Gamification Design for Increasing Customer Purchase Intention in a Mobile Marketing Campaign App. Lecture Notes in Computer Science HCI in Business, 2014. Print.