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Reliable & Quantifiable Endorsements for Musicians on LinkedIn

CS598KGK Design Project 1 – Chang Liu

+Audience

Designed for musicians (ex. singers, rock bands, DJs, session musicians, dancers, sound engineers and so on) who are looking for a larger professional network, a more convincing way to appeal oneself, and consequently more jobs and opportunities

Intended mainly for musicians who do live performances (Sorry, recording artists!)

Also useful to music productions and record companies who are looking for prospective artists to sign

+Motivation

Musicians can currently add their skills to their profiles and receive endorsements on them. Problems are: Current endorsements may not be reliable. Say, a pianist has received many endorsements on

“piano”; it is just too obvious. ( No clue on how well he/she plays.)

After all, why would the industry sign you? Probably not for your skills. Then what matters to them? –Popularity. They want to gauge your popularity quantitatively through concrete accomplishments. “How many people regularly come see you performance?”

+Design Ideas

An interface shows reliable and quantifiable signals regarding musicians’ popularity

Plus, an interface strengthens connections with others Current endorsements are often used to

maintain/update/strengthen one’s connection with the other – I would like the new interface to do this as well

+Interface

+Interface

+Interface

+Signals

Contribution – show your skills Specifies what your role at the live/concert was So viewers can learn about your skills

Date & Place – reliable and quantitative signal of popularity Specifies where you performed and when – it is a conventional

signal but if you lied people would find out You cannot afford to often perform on large stages if you do not

have a large audience – it is an assessment signal The capacity of the concert halls helps quantify your popularity

Collaborators – strengthen connections Keep in touch with your collaborators People would love to strengthen connections with you through

successful performances; it might shed a light on themselves, too!

+Thank You!

“I am the entertainer, the idol of my ageI make all kinds of money when I go on the stageAh, you've seen me in the papersI've been in the magazinesBut if I go cold I won't get soldI'll get put in the back in the discount rackLike another can of beans”

- Billy Joel (1974), “The Entertainer”