SpinStation
User Research
UX/UI Design
Vinyl sales have increased rapidly in the past couple of years, but the shopping experience seems outdated.
The market for record stores, and in particular vinyl sales, has increased rapidly in the past couple of years and is expected to continue growing; however, the shopping experience feels archaic. Customers report many issues in terms of today's vinyl shopping experience: shelving organization is confusing, and genre classification is too rigid.
A quick overview
What if we use today's technology to make vinyl shopping more efficient and modern?
With this project, we aimed to modernize and simplify the vinyl shopping process by offering easy access to album information, pricing, and availability, all to create a streamlined, intuitive, and fun music shopping experience. This kiosk would benefit customers, employers, store owners, and artists while also encouraging exploration of new music and in-person shopping at independent record stores.
SpinStation is a record store kiosk that makes shopping for records fun, quick, and easy! With SpinStation, users can search for albums, scan to listen to the record, find new music by browsing genres, and see availability at nearby stores if a record is out of stock.
This project was created for my final in DSGN 100: Prototyping at the University of California, San Diego. The goal was to create a physical kiosk that made a certain in-person task easier for users. Throughout the two months we worked on this project, my team and I completed user research through interviews and fieldwork, digital prototyping through Figma, and physical prototyping.
Let's get started
Duration
2 months
May-June 2025
My Roles
User Researcher
UX/UI Designer
Team
Elizabeth Ge
Alexa Jimenez
Gael Hinojosa
To start this process, we began conducting secondary research about record store sales, ways in which technology can empower small businesses, how users discover new music, and why customers are drawn to vinyl over other forms of music. You can view our research document here. Here is an overview of our most insightful findings during our research:
Curating Value in Changing Markets: Independent Record Stores and the Vinyl Record Revival — (Hendricks)
"… vinyl record sales are experiencing an unprecedented explosion… In addition, industry estimates find that 2/3 of these vinyl record stores are being purchased at independent record stores."
Record Stores in the US: Market Research Report (2014-2029) — (Tang)
"The market size of the Record Stores industry in the United States is $1.2 billion in 2025."
"Over the next five years, the Record Store industry in the United States is expected to grow."
Using Technology to Create a Better Customer Experience — (Leachman and Scheibenreif)
"We have found that the most compelling digital experiences start with a compelling understanding of the customer — who they are, what they want, what job they have to do, and even how they feel about themselves."
"It is… about using customer understanding to create experiences that help them develop a greater sense of control and self-confidence…"
Empowering Small Businesses: The Impact of Technology on US Small Businesses — (US Chamber of Commerce Technology Engagement Center)
"4 out of 5 businesses with very high tech usage report growth in sales, employment, and profits."
"85% of small businesses plan to increase their usage of technology platforms."
Online research insights through secondary research.
Conducting research
Starting primary research
Fieldwork research and exploring record stores.
Over a week, we visited two different record stores and observed not only the stores themselves but the customers who were shopping there. Here is an overlook of the main insights we discovered:
Both stores had organized their vinyls and CDs in alphabetical order (artist name) and by genre (ex., rock A-Z or pop A-Z).
Store layout and the way vinyls were organized played a huge role in how easy it was to navigate the store and how easy it was to see all the inventory.
Customers varied in age, ranging from their early 20s to early 40s. Customers were rarely on their phones while shopping.
Most customers knew what they wanted going into the store and only pointed out records they recognized.
The research through fieldwork shows us that there is a market and value to be obtained from creating a vinyl kiosk — and that the two main concerns for the kiosk are modernizing and streamlining the shopping experience.
Creating personas based on our research.
Based on our fieldwork observations, our users' main needs, and customers' pain points, we created two different personas: a primary persona — a customer — and a secondary persona — an employee.
Our mission statement.
After our research stage, we were able to conclude that this kiosk would be helpful to customers, and there is a clear direction we should take for this project. We then came up with this mission statement:
Interview quotes and our findings.
"They have all sorts of weird genres, and I feel like the music I listen to doesn't really fit into one specific genre."
Participant's answer to "How easy is it for you to find what you're looking for while thumbing through the shelves of a record store?"
"I would get the most use out of the [search by artist feature] because if I'm going in there looking for a specific vinyl, I'll be able to see if they have the artist, let alone the album."
Participant's answer to "What features would improve your shopping experience in a record store?"
After our interviews, we found a list of features our users would want in a vinyl kiosk:
Listening stations provide more information and add to the shopping experience.
Navigation help and a store directory so vinyls are more accessible.
A search by artist, album, or song feature to find a specific record that is in stock.
A feature to compare prices at different stores.
Visuals of the album so the records are recognizable within the interface.
Interviewing customers and qualitative coding.
Next, we started interviewing people who are familiar with record stores and the process of in-person vinyl shopping. We interviewed 5 participants, each of whom identified themselves as either a casual browser or a vinyl collector. Next, we created a Miro board for qualitative coding and coded for these common topics: demographic, users' priorities, users' current behaviors, pain points, what users look for in vinyls, and what users expect in a vinyl kiosk.
Store layout and organization fieldwork photo
Organization of alphabetical order (artist name)
We aim to modernize and simplify the vinyl shopping experience by offering easy access to album information, pricing, and availability, all to create a streamlined, intuitive, and fun music shopping experience.
After research, we came up with a list of our users' main needs. While centering those needs, we came up with a list of main features for our kiosk that would satisfy these needs and solve obvious pain points. After discussing, we decided on these main features:
Provide information on albums, including the artist's name, tracklist, vinyl copies or versions, and the vinyl's condition.
Direct users to the proper in-store location where the vinyl can be found.
Allow users to compare vinyl prices and find nearby availability in other local record stores.
Provide details about nearby stores to best inform customers about alternative locations to find vinyls.
Deciding on our kiosk's main features.
Starting the design
For our usability testing, we came up with a list of navigation tasks, or a testing flow, for the participant to follow. This allowed us to test how each page transitioned from one to the other, assess the discoverability of our features through the interface, and ensure that both text and icons were legible. Some examples of these navigation tasks are:
Use the search bar and search function to play a vinyl.
Use the scanner and scan vinyl, find recommendations, details about the product's condition, and its in-store location.
Browse the store's "All Vinyls" collection to see the store's catalog and click on an out-of-stock vinyl to see other locations that carry that product.
Based on these navigation tasks, we received feedback and recommendations as to how to improve our interface for our final prototype. Here is a list of insights we received:
Move the tracklist to the bottom of the page to make the "Vinyl View" screen feel less crowded.
Have the "About Vinyl" tab show before other information, such as the tracklist. This is because this is the most important information about the product and, therefore, should be first.
Make the location name clickable to access location details more easily.
Add a separate, more expansive genre tab.
Make icons bigger so they are easier to see and interact with.
Running usability testing with our interactive prototype.
Returning to research
After completing our initial sketches and user flows, we implemented our ideas into a digital wireframe, incorporating interactable elements. The initial digital wireframe was very minimalistic in color, typeface, and style. This is because, while starting the prototyping phase, we wanted to focus on the interactions and the way each page leads into the other.
Making a digital wireframe.
Moving onto digital prototypes
After usability testing, we used insights, feedback, and recommendations from our users to change aspects of our interface, all to make the interface more smooth and intuitive.
After the digital prototype was finalized, we paired it with our physical kiosk prototype. The final digital prototype is viewable here.
Using insights to refine our prototype.
Adding finishing touches
Once we thought the interactions and user flow worked well, we updated the interface to match the style of the brand image we developed.
We used this prototype to conduct usability testing and, once we got good feedback from users, developed this prototype into the final version.
Upgrading to an interactive prototype.
To start making our brand image, we came up with a moodboard inspired by the vintage and analog feel of records and record players. We wanted the kiosk to enhance the shopping experience of vinyls, so we needed to get the look and feel of the interface correct. We created a list of adjectives that we wanted this interface to evoke:
Musical
Rhythmic
Vintage
Analog
Warm
Nostalgic
Immersive
Stylish
Timeless
Disovery
From this moodboard, we were able to derive typefaces and color palettes that matched the aesthetic we built.
Creating our brand image.
Based on our kiosk's main features, we started blueprinting the user flow, which we would follow when creating digital wireframes. The goal of these initial sketches was to plan out the flow from one screen to another and make sure every feature we wanted to include was easily accessible, discoverable, and made sense when exploring the entirety of the interface.
Initial kiosk sketches and user flows.
After creating our moodboard, we created this color palette based on the colors that were common in our moodboard and after finding inspiration on Pinterest. We wanted the interface to feel warm and vintage, so we included creams, warm greys, chestnut brown, and a bright yellow. To balance these warmer colors, we paired them with more neutral blues. We also decided to add a serif font for headings to add to the vintage feel. Afterwards, we created a logo with variations.
Finding a color palette and typefaces.
Color Palette
Typeface Style Guide
Logo Variations
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Kayla Windust