Music learning app

We tailored Best Music Coach as a completely personalized educational platform. Geniusee designed it to connect students and musicians. We are proud to empower students and teachers all over the world to find each other for online music coaching. We developed a music learning app with parental control, payment subscription, group lessons, messenger, and in-app calendar. And that’s even not a full list of Best Music Coach functionality ;)

Services:

Industry:

EdTech

Location:

United States

Dan Spencer

CEO

“The biggest benefit of working with Geniusee is avoiding paying US prices to a company that would be using Ukrainian devs anyway. I also do like the responsiveness of Geniusee team, which is great now, by the way. At the same time I am now thrilled to get to the point where there’s no bugs, so my customers will be satisfied and it would be great to know from the very beginning the costs of maintenance and bug fixes upfront so business owners know how much it can cost.”

Business context

Our client on this project, a musician himself, was looking for a development team that could bring a solution for a music education app. We worked within a very strict budget. Our collaboration was based on a fixed-price model. The primary goal was to start educating people despite borders and location. The first version of the MVP, tailored in only six months, allowed acquiring from the beginning students and teachers as the users of the platform.

Key challenges:

Build a video streaming service inside the platform that allows holding one-on-one lessons, as well as group classes
Develop a calendar add-on
Add the option for a subscription in the payment section
Deliver a safe child account with parental control

Work approach

Close collaboration with the client

Our client knows his end customers really well, so it was rational to conduct the discovery phase together with other analytical stages while working on further MVP versions. One of our main principles is a partnership—we still work with Dan on post-release support.
Focus on the user experience

Simplicity, intuitively understandable navigation, interaction, and engaging user experiences were the main requirements for the interface. Our designers created a few wireframes and style options before setting the end UI/UX design.
SCRUM process

We decided to go with SCRUM to ensure the quality of the deliverables, ending the project on time and within budget. The work was based on easily-managed sprints with coding and testing iterations during sprint reviews.
Work based on user feedback

To clearly understand end-customer needs, we developed a prototype that was tested in focus groups. Based on clients’ reviews, we made changes so that the final MVP could meet the user requirements.
Lean startup approach

Geniusee used a lean approach to move fast on the product development lifecycle. It allows quick iterations to improve further versions based on regular user feedback.
Security-centered approach

We adhered to all data privacy and financial safety regulations and conducted penetration testing to identify the vulnerabilities. This was performed to ensure the safety of data and user privacy.

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Process

We developed an educational platform based on three main roles: student, teacher, and admin. The first version of the MVP was delivered in six months, and after that, all ameliorations were based on end-user feedback.

Working with Dan was nice and easy, as he knows his clients and colleagues, their needs, pain points, and how to satisfy them. Yet, we had to come up with a unique solution for a music teaching app that balances fixed prices and best coding practices, ensuring security requirements, engaging UI/UX, and many more. Our business analysts did their best by interviewing Dan, creating work breakdown structures (WBS) and user stories, ensuring user acceptance, and then defining development criteria and requirements.
Designing is highly challenging and enjoyable, so we decided to go with an interactive and engaging interface. Yet, this stage is one of the most cost-demanding, so to reduce the price and not lose the quality, our designers used off-shelf solutions. We created a detailed user flow here and prepared three scenarios that became the platform's base for the student, teacher, and admin. To ensure understanding and attractive design, we created a screen map, graphic elements, and a detailed prototype, taking into account usage scenarios.
This web platform is based on a serverless solution. We decided to work with AWS to ensure the security of those who teach and learn music and for scalability and cost reduction, both operational and development.

Here we implemented many custom solutions, crossing multiple experimental ways, which made working on the project exciting. The platform is based on AWS services, Lambda in particular. It uses the Apollo server, which is built in Lambda.
Our developers chose React, as it provides client-side logic and allows for the implementation of a wide range of reusable components for web applications as frameworks or libraries. We also used the React Material/Ant library to decrease the time and cost of development and design.

Overall, at this stage, we worked on writing code, back-end and front-end development, and implementation of the MVP.

All further iterations were based on instant feedback from music teachers and students to build a smooth and personalized learning path in music education.
We closely watch the quality of deliverables, so constant testing is an inalienable part of our work process. We set the quality requirements from the very beginning with the client and tested every part of the delivered music tutor app. At Geniusee, quality assurance is based on the test design method.
Geniusee develops partnerships and long-term collaboration. Although the service has been successfully launched for a while, we still help Best Music Coach scale by adding new features and widening functionality. We also provide support and maintenance to the learning music platform on different levels.

Project tech stack

Best Music Coach required a lot of custom features built from scratch, so the choice of tech stack was an extremely crucial part of the project. Here we selected appropriate technologies to assure future scalability and operational cost reduction. It was a hard choice, as we had to fit into a strict and fixed budget, yet we accomplished the first version of the MVP in six months.

Back End:

Front End:

Geniusee team

Together with Dan, we built a proactive collaboration that allowed us to create the MVP in six months. The end customers are beginners studying music theory and practicing and experienced professionals playing various instruments.

Product team

Development team

Ihor

Tech lead

The most interesting part of the project for me was a server for online meetings that was hard to implement as well as developing a custom calendar and video streaming. Also, the stability of the system was a challenge, as it was hard to synchronize the tech stack with DevOps services. Eventually, we released the MVP and continue to add new features, so our fascinating tasks never end.
Oksana

Project manager

It was a great pleasure to work with Declan and the Sport Endorse project manager as we built an honest and productive collaboration. The Sport Endorse team was very responsive to our requests, especially when we asked to get feedback about the product from athletes and brands. This empowered us with a deeper understanding of their requirements and needs during the development process.

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Features

Video streaming

A built-in video streaming service that launches lessons inside of the platform. Custom development allowed for reducing operational costs as third-party services required expensive payments because teachers may spend five or six hours per day on lessons.
Secure and simple payments

The payment system is integrated with the platform. We decided to go with Stripe. We also developed a payment subscription. As payments are automated, it was challenging to split payments straight into three parts: Stripe commission, Best Music Coach percentage, and teachers' salary. To automate it, we used CronJob.
Tailor-made Calendar

A custom calendar with a design based on the library. The calendar shows free slots for teachers, time for lessons, and many more. This service was highly important for the whole system, as any implementation mistake may cause the breakdown of the entire platform.
Made-to-order Messenger

Here, as with video streaming, we decided to go custom. Teachers and students may communicate with each other about previous or future lessons, send homework for review, and exchange feedback.
User accounts per roles

Primarily, we developed three main roles: the admin, who manages the platform, the student, and the teacher. Each of them has its own type of personal cabinet with a lesson list, payment details, and so on.
Teachers’ CV pages

The Geniusee team also created teacher pages. Each of them contains details about the coach, e.g., experience, instruments, and so on, as well as feedback and reviews.
Easy search process

Coaches' lists and filters were interesting tasks. We implemented filters such as availability, type of instrument, and level of musicians (beginner, intermediate, advanced).
Multiple lessons types

We developed possibilities for different types of lessons: one-on-one, group lessons, and webinars. Group lessons were complicated technological tasks, as connecting many people requires expertise and knowledge, plus the stability of the system.
Alerts and notifications

We also built an alert system, so the platform sends notifications to students and teachers, so they do not forget about meetings. The system also mails links to lessons one hour before they start.
Students’ accounts

A child account, limited access for kids, and parental control—parents owe all credits to the cabinet, manage payments or subscriptions, and choose a teacher, time, and frequency of studies. Children may only visit lessons.

Results

Best Music Coach empowers music teachers and students who seek to collaborate in a safe and comfortable space to learn how to play their favorite songs using different instruments, from piano or guitar lessons to banjo and ukulele.
This web application offers clients not only the ability to play music or find the perfect pairing of tutors and students for a music connection but also the possibility of sight reading and sheet music for popular songs.
Not only is the platform itself the client’s deal on this project, but also an important issue for lowering development costs.
First, we saved the client money by using React Material/Ant library to decrease the time and cost of development and design.
We delivered a custom solution to reduce the cost of video streams, as teachers usually may spend at least five to six hours with students, and using third-party services here reduced the cost.
To put it briefly, among the main outcomes was the MVP delivered on time and within budget. As perfection is a road without an end, there’s still a huge room for evolution, so we continue our collaboration with Best Music Coach, constantly releasing new versions and providing support according to our support levels.