Ableton Cloud
March 2021
Project summary
Note is the first mobile application of Ableton. With Note you can sketch ideas anywhere, create beats and melodies, and sample your environment. Using Ableton’s cloud service, you can send your Sets from Note to Live or other iOS devices to refine them further.
My role
UX/UI Design, User test, Strategy
About Ableton Cloud
Ableton Cloud allows easy transfer of Note Sets from your iOS device directly to Live’s browser. Synced Note Sets will also be available on any other iOS devices with Note installed and Ableton Cloud enabled.
User test
Upon joining the team, the initial design was test-ready. In collaboration with a researcher, we formulated hypotheses and quickly prototyped solutions for validation.
UX improvement
Analyzed test results and identified issues and potential enhancements. The project owner, researcher, myself, and programmers collaborated to discuss pre-release achievable goals.
👁️
Improve the discoverability of Ableton Cloud features on Note and Live
🧠
Enhance users' understanding of the cloud functionality connecting Note and Live
🙅
Avoid sample loss in Live when unsyncing from Note
🚨
Potential version conflicts caused by offline or other situations
New design in Note
The new Cloud details page, the home page's empty status of Cloud sets, and the Cloud feature in the Walkthrough design significantly enhance users' discovery and understanding of Cloud functionalities.
New design in Live
The empty status of the Cloud section in Live engages users to enable the Cloud feature.
UX in Live
Use cloud materials for the Current Live project, following Copy and Drag rule. These materials will be automatically collected into the existing Project folder, avoiding any loss caused by removing cloud files at this stage.
New unsync UX design
The initial Unsync solution creates a local copy of Set_1 on all connected devices each time a user unsyncs it from the Cloud. This ensures no file loss across devices. However, this leads to multiple local files with the same name, potentially causing long-term file management issues
Sync risk
As our cloud version rule states: 'Latest updates win,' I discussed the potential risks of losing versions with the Note development engineer. I analyzed the potential dangers through this flowchart.
Cloud cross platforms
As a designer for Connect, the cloud functionality primarily integrates with our existing products. This means I need to learn the UX and UI principles of different platforms and embed our cloud features across them. My stakeholders include not only members of our team but also product owners, designers, and developers from other teams.
