Project: Pianocoda, piano sheet music site.
Role: UX / CRO.
Date: May 2025
Tools: WordPress, HTML/CSS, Google Analytics.
Task: improve UX and reduce friction in the download funnel.
Context
Pianocoda offers piano sheet music and audio recordings, with a strong educational focus. On archive pages (e.g., Bach sheet music, beginner pieces, etc.), users saw a list of works with thumbnails, but:
- To listen to a piece, they had to open the individual item page.
- This meant loading a new page for every piece they wanted to check.
- The exploration flow was slow and inconvenient.
Goal
Reduce friction in piece exploration and increase click-through rate on download buttons.
Hypothesis: If users can listen directly from the preview list, they will explore more pieces, show higher interest, and eventually download more sheet music.
Implementation
- The archive page template was modified to display an audio player directly under each work entry.
- The audio files were already available but hidden behind a click; now they are shown as instant previews.
- Content Views Pro was used to embed the audio player’s custom field inside the archive layout.
Results
Although no formal A/B test was run, we observed clear improvements:
- Increased time on page on key archive pages.
- Higher scroll depth on pages with more than 10 pieces.
- Positive feedback from users (via email and comments).
- More sheet-music downloads during sessions where users interacted with the new player.
Learnings
- Sometimes a small, well-designed UX improvement can have more impact than a full flow redesign.
- Reducing friction is an effective way to boost conversions even without changing the final CTA.
- Customization in WordPress using custom fields and visual components can open the door to powerful CRO experiments.