I worked part-time as an on-air personality (DJ) at KURE 88.5. During my tenure at KURE, I noticed many issues DJs faced that could be solved with a user experience intervention. For this reason, I designed a prototype for a website and app that could assist DJs in planning and executing their radio shows.
Drag and Drop Playlists
I wanted to make it easy for DJs to create a playlist that fulfilled the requirements of the station, including: avoiding FCC violations, playing high priority songs, reading PSAs and grants on-air, and filling an allotted time slot.
The dash allows DJs to drag and drop tunes, which are checked against an API of FCC-friendly, station-approved songs. DJs can also drag and drop songs from the high priority playlist or add new music from their own collection into their show.
Run Show
I wanted to alleviate symptoms of college radio, such as paper shuffling, and "ums". DJs won’t be shuffling paper on the air anymore with the DJ Dash because their PSAs and Grant Readers will be auto-populated into a script along with their track names. DJs will have the option to add additional text to their script or ad-lib on air. Ideally, the script will cut down on dead air time and "ums".
Seamlessly Switch Between DJs
Another symptom of college radio is dead air time, which often occurs between DJ shifts. The DJ dash lines up music to play between DJs so there's no space between shows.
Socialize
Just for fun, I added a wiki option for the background of the DJ Dash so that DJs could interact with each other by changing the background between shows. This reflects the personality of the station—the DJs already interact by leaving notes and photos around the station for others to see.
DJs can also keep track of the station's social media in the social panel, which allows them to add requests into their shows and respond to followers directly from the dash.
DJ Dash App User Flow
In addition to the website version of the DJ Dash, I designed the user experience for an app. This is pared down from the mobile site UX and includes the most important actions so that DJs could plan their shows on the fly—say, while walking from class to the station.
