We are an innovation and design studio for start-up and fast-growth companies that want to win in new markets.
Zaudhaus’ challenge with Songbird was to develop not only new features for their flagship desktop software – to help make it easier to use and more useful, but also to make the product (and brand) as a whole – more consumer friendly. Instead of marketing to developers, they wanted to turn the ship towards consumers and drive adoption and use.
We worked together with the amazing Songbird development team to do three things. First, revamp the overall brand vision – there were several versions of the identity in use and a voice that spoke to developers, not consumers. We needed to rethink the whole brand voice and begin establishing stakes in the ground for how we’d look at the product, the Web site, and the way we understand the audience. Next, there were choices to be made at the product level around new features – how to attract new customers and compete against the likes of iTunes, DoubleTwist and other streaming services that had similar capabilities. Finally, we needed to remake the product interface to support all of the above.
After recrafting the identity of Songbird – harkening back to the history of the company and surveying the popular developer groups to ensure we didn’t upset anyone too much – not to mention discussing pro’s and con’s with consumers, we moved to work on the product.
We reviewed hundreds of add-ons that were created in the developer community and selected several to purchase and integrate with the product as new default features that the Player would ship with. This brought tremendous value to consumers and created a connection for what we deemed the “lean forward” experience that the Songbird audience was all about (as compared to the more simple needs of iTunes customers.
The facelift that we gave the visual brand of the company and the player – took a stand in pushing a more media-centric look that we felt was more appropriate for the mediaphile. The dark, royal purple color communicated a lush, rich, media experience we were after.
Recently, we further took the look & feel of the Player to Android devices with the new Songbird for Mobile Player. The UI accurately extends the look & feel to the mobile device and makes any Songbird user feel at home.
Finally, we pulled all of the new components together and launched a new GetSongbird.com Web site as well.
