PM UX: Block Rocking Beats

The Smashing Cartoons by Smashing Magazine

This week we’ll be looking at Figure, a neat and super simple music-making app by Propellerhead Software. Figure allows even the most off-beat, tone-deaf, musically challenged individuals to create fairly decent sounding music.

Unlike other music apps, such as Garageband, Figure takes a much more simplistic approach that lets users pick up and play without much of a learning curve.

How it Works

Figure keeps things easy by minimizing the functionality available to users, making it more of a beat making app than a full-out music production tool.  It only gives users a variety of bass, drums and lead synths to work with.

Users also don’t have the ability to input notes as they can with other more complex music production apps. Instead – and we think for their own good – they are limited to using a pre-quantized range of notes.

Figure provides users with some pretty cool rhythm wheels, which play notes in preset patterns and rhythms. The use of these rhythm wheels makes it very easy to stay on the beat and not stray off into the weird noise area.

Touch Away

Figure is all about interacting and touching, which I believe makes the experience more engaging and enjoyable. It utilizes the iPhone’s touchscreen beautifully by using every last bit of touchable real estate.  I was impressed with how intuitive the touch controls were and how natural it felt to tap, drag, swipe and draw while making music.

Great UI

The interface in this app was simple, intuitive and looked pretty darn cool to me. Th colour coded tabs to spread out the functionality worked well as I never found myself taking time to search for anything. I could always see where everything was and didn’t need to put any thought into how to get there.

At first, I found the blue touch fields in the pattern tab to be a little too small for my liking. Then I learned that by rotating my phone into landscape view, I could have just those four touch fields take up the entire screen, making it much easier to tap out some beats.

Pattern tab in landscape view.

Save? Share?

After creating my first masterpiece, I was pretty disappointed to discover that I couldn’t save or share my craftsmanship with the world. At the very least I think we should be able to save a few of our creative audio endeavours, but find the lack of sharing particularly perplexing as most apps have some sort of social networking element built in. I’m curious to know the reason behind this and if these options were even considered. The search for answers continues. Have any insights? Tweet us @plasticmobile and put my curiosity to rest.

The Final Beat

Figure is a fun way to pass time and be creative. It doesn’t require much to learn how to use it and, more importantly, doesn’t require any musical talent to use.

However, it is missing two pretty significant and obvious features. The option to save would give users the ability to go back and listen to their creations, and the option to share would let them brag to all their friends about their beat-making skills!

We all new the day would come, though no one was ever able to predict when. But, it seems Mark Zuckerberg finally got tired of everyone speculating about the value of the Book, and decided to put a price tag on it himself: $5 billion! Not too shabby.

The new speculation, of course, is does that dollar figure over-value the social networking phenomenon, or will it follow the path of the Google’s before it and prove everyone that Zuckerberg and team were actually airing on the side of conservative? Only time will tell!

The decision to go public may have been prompted by the expectation that Facebook will probably hit its 1 billionth users this year, and that they turned a tidy profit of $1 billion last year. Another very interesting fact to come of the filing for an IPO, is that about 80% of the Facebook fan fare is based outside of North America. Weird? We at Plastic Mobile were positively baffled by this stat, since no one we know isn’t sharing, posting and chatting on Facebook – except for one guy. But, he still uses Explorer as his web browser.

One final tid bit of interest we read in PCWorld stated Zuckerberg is not only chairman and CEO, but he has also included a clause to allow him to name his successor if he is still the company’s controller upon his death: “In the event that Mr. Zuckerberg controls our company at the time of his death,” Facebook’s S-1 filing says. “Control may be transferred to a person or entity that he designates as his successor.” Reports from The New York Post and Bloomberg Businessweek suggested that analysts found this mighty strange, but one thing is for certain; Mark Zuckerberg is, and will remain, Facebook’s reigning king.

We’re standing by to learn more about the over-under value debate and to see where this major moves takes the world of Zuckerberg, err, Facebook.

Remember January 2010 when people working at charities had a “holy Mobile!” moment? Remember the instant when nonprofit organizations realized that mobile giving is a game changer when the American Red Cross raised 7%(more than 32 million) of all funds benefiting the Haiti earthquake crisis via mobile? Many believe that mobile giving reached a tipping point with response to the Haiti crisis last year but we know that this year it’ll grow even more.

In the old days, everyone had a charity box at home but that’s been supplanted by online and mobile giving, available to donors at any time. The mobile giving market represents the next step in this evolution, and is growing exponentially. We believe there’s never been a better time to start a mobile initiative than right now. In fact many experts believe that mobile giving has the ability to match or even outperform online donations.

Giving on-the-go and cause marketing via mobile media is the next trend for nonprofits and charities, and you have the chance to take advantage of the emerging mobile medium before consumers start getting bombarded by text messages asking for donations. And it doesn’t stop with raising money; nonprofits are also using mobile to share their organizational messages, stimulate volunteerism, and increase engagement and interactivity.

Although raising money via mobile giving is the primary goal for nonprofit organizations, mobile is more than just a fundraising tool. Therefore, it’s important to view the mobile channel not only as a mechanism for donations but also realize the benefit from the fact that the mobile phone is the most personal device to launch creative campaigns on, that reach for the heart and the pocketbook.

There are endless opportunities in the mobile channel. Mobile technology dramatically changed how consumers interact with brands and brands that understand consumer mobile behaviour will ensure success as the channel evolves. Still not convinced that mobile is game changing for nonprofits? Then read this:

Why is mobile a big deal for charities and nonprofits?

• Obviously for donations it’s simple, quick and can generate substantial volumes
• It not only it makes it technologically easier for supporters to donate, but also make it possible for them to donate on the go to fit their busy lifestyles
• Mobile integrates well with other media, so it allows you to use the strengths of each
• Mobile has become the preferred way to access Internet
• Mobile is the most effective means for you to reach out to people
• Mobile marketing today is where email marketing was years ago
• Mobile is compatible with nonprofit’s characteristics such as urgency and intimacy
• Mobile allows for real-time broadcasts
• Social networks are largely accessed through mobile and they have moved from being a mere vehicle of personal interaction to become the most comprehensive means of dissemination of any good news or cause
• User experience in mobile is vastly improving everyday
• Charities will reach new groups of donors by having a mobile initiative
• Provides innovative ways to engage with the public and invite them to support your cause
• It helps charities to think about how they can use geo-location tools to show their impact and to engage volunteers and donors wherever they are
• Mobile phones are highly personal and this allows you to get personal and even stir up emotions

The bottom line is that entering the world of mobile marketing could open up many new fundraising opportunities for your nonprofit organization. So, before it gets too late in the game to be on the cutting edge, integrate mobile into your multichannel marketing activities and benefit from “ the channel du jour”. Interested yet? Need help from industry experts? Give us a shout and will help you with all your mobile related needs.