Discogs user/vinyl buyer research

Jumbo Records- Leeds
Walking in to a store like this is always a pleasure due to the excitement and the anticipation of finding a gem between the stacks and stacks of amazing album artworks boldly displayed on the larger diameter. The new interface needs to combine the feeling of walking in to a record store, as many only go in to record stores, to celebrate the long history and revival of vinyls and tie the two generations together whilst with the opportunity Discogs brings to allow people to sell and buy any vinyl found with a quick simple search, which I intend to refine for a slick user experience

Points made from Jumbo when asked
'What do they think about Discogs experience? what problems have they faced?'
'What is it about vinyl that has brought it back and why people collect them?'
'What components of a record store could I encorporate for the new interface?'
-a positive of Discogs is that it is updated regularly
-the sound quality of vinyl is better, go up in value,owning vinyl is an investment
-a weakness of discogs is accounts being disabled due to not paying tax should be included on pricing straight away

Relics Records

This was from a business perspective as they are active sellers on Discogs
-positives are you can see the ratings of buyers to know wether they are trustworthy or not
-would be beneficial for the self proclaimed 'nosey' business owners to see what others have sold,and the prices to judge competition
-set up originally as a site for vinyl enthusiasts, still has a strong community ethos promoting trust
-agreed the interface was very clunky
-vinyls sound better, are far nicer/feel better in your hands,different world altogether
-in the modern day we are persuaded we dont want the clutter of vinyls but this is changing
-vinyl collections are an expression of your character,identifies who you are
-in a record shop, the strengths that should be included in the interface in some way are the happy to chat attitude you get from (some) record shops,you can listen to the vinyl,dont know what youre going in for most of the time

Tried Crash records but they were very rude about my project and patronising

Simple search for Drive soundtrack gives complex and confusing search results

Screenshot from when searching on their much more slick direct app, highlighting to problem of inconsistency with Discogs' interface

Comments from speaking to friends and various people outside music venues-
'directed to the wrong format, can come up with the mp3's and not the actual vinyl I want to buy'
-useful information on the product but first time users are put off by too much text
-especially first time users can mistake conditions of the vinyl as being good enough
-doesnt show shipping which can vary a lot between different sellers
-when selling products the functionality of the website can be problematic

From a curator of the exhibition I went to of photography of inside vinyl stores up and down the country, valuable to speak to due to their passion for speaking to the owners and also buy vinyl on discogs themselves

'Well i don't think it gets recognised enough because of its layout & branding, its more like a database rather than an music/vinyl specialist website- it's like an eBay for records. I don't it should be branded like eBay though, probably more to cater its specialism ! ' Fellow LCA creative who regularly buys vinyl and has complained to someone in my class about Discogs before, so I thought asking him would be ideal! His point made of it looking more like a database is correct, considering the amount of people using selling and buying on Discogs internationally needs a universal interface from young adults to the older vinyl generation,that resolves the issue of inconsistencies in function and replenishing the user interface to boost the sites large potential.

research like this from various vinyl buyers, who use discogs or just enjoy the mystery and anticipation of record stores have given me different personas to base my interface off