Rock Genius is a music lyrics website built upon an innovative technology wherein any text submitted to the website can be annotated. Any song lyric can be annotated with embedded photos, relevant videos, explanations, articles, and other media to enhance a chosen lyric. Part of the Genius Media Group, which maintains companion websites Rap Genius, News Genius and Poetry Genius, the informative and culture-enriching website is managed by a group of moderators who communicate with users to regulate content and build brand loyalty.

 

Communication between user and moderator always had room for improvement considering that no tool existed to help moderators keep track of their conversations. Oftentimes a user would be approached by multiple moderators on an issue because there was nothing to check to see if the user was already alerted. The Rock Genius Moderator Coaching Tool aimed to solve that problem with a combination of ease of use, simple interface, robust scalability and powerful search.

Developed using FileMaker Pro 13 Advanced, the database was a passion project. Being a moderator of the website gives me the chance to talk to passionate music fans and guide them towards a successful future for providing context behind powerful rock lyrics. I built the tool and designed the user interface to provide a fast and convenient way for moderators to log their conversations.

The full user interface was designed using Adobe Illustrator and FileMaker's own design tools. The desktop version scaled perfectly to the iPad, providing an easy scaling job from one device to another. The interface even translated perfectly to the web where all interactive content fit perfectly in sync with the rest of the ecosystem.

Features include a full database search, quick data entry, consistent coloring scheme and logical button placement, all of which fit well within Rock Genius's existing design structure and surpassing it in ease of use.

Building an iOS compatible version of the database ensured that no matter when and where conversations took place it could be easily logged. The Rock Genius Moderator Coaching Tool was my most successful foray into the world of database and interface design.