Product Design & Prototyping
Orbits: Spatial Audio
Role
Product Designer
Timeline
06/2021 - 08/2021
Team
Sole designer and prototyper
Tools/Frameworks
Lead Product Designer
Product Design & Prototyping
Orbits: Spatial Audio
Role
Product Designer
Timeline
06/2021 - 08/2021
Team
Sole designer and prototyper
Tools/Frameworks
Lead Product Designer
Product Design & Prototyping
Orbits: Spatial Audio
Role
Product Designer
Timeline
06/2021 - 08/2021
Team
Sole designer and prototyper
Tools/Frameworks
Lead Product Designer
Context
The World of Spatial Audio
Spatial audio is emerging as the next evolutionary stage in sound. With Airpods and Apple Music implementing this technology into their music, TV, and video products, the space continues to grow.
However, there aren’t many special tools for music artists to explore spatial audio. On top of that, current solutions are not intuitive with confusing formats unless you are an experienced music producer, creating a high barrier experience. I personally faced this issue when I attempted mixing spatial audio for a short film, and I recognized the need for an overhaul of the way spatial audio is created.
UX Research
Clarifying the problem
Market Research
I determined that there were three primary types of audio production softwares, each with their own approaches. The general trend I found was that more powerful an audio production software was, the more visually complex and and hidden the features were.
Defining the Problem
For beginner audio creators, the process of creating spatial audio is frustrating and visually complicated, causing many creators to not bring their full audio experience to life.
Design Goals
1 )
Provide users a visual environment to place their audio tracks in 360
2 )
Show the status, location, and motion of the audio tracks intuitively
3 )
Allow for compatibility with other editor/workstation
Principles
Crazy 8s
The Crazy 8s is a fast sketching exercise that challenges us to sketch eight distinct ideas in eight minutes. The goal is to push beyond your first idea, frequently the least innovative, and to generate a wide variety of solutions to your challenge. I used this technique to ideate new screens and features to design visually intuitive audio design interfaces.
Wireframing
Storyboarding the experience
A Squad is essentially a group of users that want to get together and stay together as they move through different experiences in Roblox. Squads enable users to seamlessly create a group, join experiences together, and in the future communicate in real-time via chat and voice. You can co-experience by creating a squad of up to 20 members, invite anyone into the squad, find an experience, and play together. It’s that easy. You pick the friends and experience, Roblox takes care of the rest.
Prototyping
Crafting the full experience
Name
I chose the name Orbits as alludes to the 360 sound environment as well as the doppler effect visual of the audio tracks. The logo places the doppler effect onto a dark circle, creating a look of a music record.
Colors
Instead of working with the dark and rigid UI of most audio softwares, I chose a more neutral color palette corresponding to interfaces on the Web. The beige color creates a canvas-like feeling. The dark gray complements the beige. The primary colors help the audio tracks stand out across the app.
Font
I chose Spartan as a font family as it is clean, friendly and easy to read on a computer. For people working between different editors and workstations, I wanted the interface to be refreshing and inviting, almost like a canvas ready to be painted on.
Context
The World of Spatial Audio
Spatial audio is emerging as the next evolutionary stage in sound. With Airpods and Apple Music implementing this technology into their music, TV, and video products, the space continues to grow.
However, there aren’t many special tools for music artists to explore spatial audio. On top of that, current solutions are not intuitive with confusing formats unless you are an experienced music producer, creating a high barrier experience. I personally faced this issue when I attempted mixing spatial audio for a short film, and I recognized the need for an overhaul of the way spatial audio is created.
UX Research
Clarifying the problem
Market Research
I determined that there were three primary types of audio production softwares, each with their own approaches. The general trend I found was that more powerful an audio production software was, the more visually complex and and hidden the features were.
Defining the Problem
For beginner audio creators, the process of creating spatial audio is frustrating and visually complicated, causing many creators to not bring their full audio experience to life.
Design Goals
1 )
Provide users a visual environment to place their audio tracks in 360
2 )
Show the status, location, and motion of the audio tracks intuitively
3 )
Allow for compatibility with other editor/workstation
Principles
Crazy 8s
The Crazy 8s is a fast sketching exercise that challenges us to sketch eight distinct ideas in eight minutes. The goal is to push beyond your first idea, frequently the least innovative, and to generate a wide variety of solutions to your challenge. I used this technique to ideate new screens and features to design visually intuitive audio design interfaces.
Wireframing
Storyboarding the experience
A Squad is essentially a group of users that want to get together and stay together as they move through different experiences in Roblox. Squads enable users to seamlessly create a group, join experiences together, and in the future communicate in real-time via chat and voice. You can co-experience by creating a squad of up to 20 members, invite anyone into the squad, find an experience, and play together. It’s that easy. You pick the friends and experience, Roblox takes care of the rest.
Prototyping
Crafting the full experience
Name
I chose the name Orbits as alludes to the 360 sound environment as well as the doppler effect visual of the audio tracks. The logo places the doppler effect onto a dark circle, creating a look of a music record.
Colors
Instead of working with the dark and rigid UI of most audio softwares, I chose a more neutral color palette corresponding to interfaces on the Web. The beige color creates a canvas-like feeling. The dark gray complements the beige. The primary colors help the audio tracks stand out across the app.
Font
I chose Spartan as a font family as it is clean, friendly and easy to read on a computer. For people working between different editors and workstations, I wanted the interface to be refreshing and inviting, almost like a canvas ready to be painted on.
Context
The World of Spatial Audio
Spatial audio is emerging as the next evolutionary stage in sound. With Airpods and Apple Music implementing this technology into their music, TV, and video products, the space continues to grow.
However, there aren’t many special tools for music artists to explore spatial audio. On top of that, current solutions are not intuitive with confusing formats unless you are an experienced music producer, creating a high barrier experience. I personally faced this issue when I attempted mixing spatial audio for a short film, and I recognized the need for an overhaul of the way spatial audio is created.
UX Research
Clarifying the problem
Market Research
I determined that there were three primary types of audio production softwares, each with their own approaches. The general trend I found was that more powerful an audio production software was, the more visually complex and and hidden the features were.
Defining the Problem
For beginner audio creators, the process of creating spatial audio is frustrating and visually complicated, causing many creators to not bring their full audio experience to life.
Design Goals
1 )
Provide users a visual environment to place their audio tracks in 360
2 )
Show the status, location, and motion of the audio tracks intuitively
3 )
Allow for compatibility with other editor/workstation
Principles
Crazy 8s
The Crazy 8s is a fast sketching exercise that challenges us to sketch eight distinct ideas in eight minutes. The goal is to push beyond your first idea, frequently the least innovative, and to generate a wide variety of solutions to your challenge. I used this technique to ideate new screens and features to design visually intuitive audio design interfaces.
Wireframing
Storyboarding the experience
A Squad is essentially a group of users that want to get together and stay together as they move through different experiences in Roblox. Squads enable users to seamlessly create a group, join experiences together, and in the future communicate in real-time via chat and voice. You can co-experience by creating a squad of up to 20 members, invite anyone into the squad, find an experience, and play together. It’s that easy. You pick the friends and experience, Roblox takes care of the rest.
Prototyping
Crafting the full experience
Name
I chose the name Orbits as alludes to the 360 sound environment as well as the doppler effect visual of the audio tracks. The logo places the doppler effect onto a dark circle, creating a look of a music record.
Colors
Instead of working with the dark and rigid UI of most audio softwares, I chose a more neutral color palette corresponding to interfaces on the Web. The beige color creates a canvas-like feeling. The dark gray complements the beige. The primary colors help the audio tracks stand out across the app.
Font
I chose Spartan as a font family as it is clean, friendly and easy to read on a computer. For people working between different editors and workstations, I wanted the interface to be refreshing and inviting, almost like a canvas ready to be painted on.
Reflection
Closing Thoughts
Constantly ask why: Throughout the process, I questioned the way existing products worked, which led me to work on this project. It also helped me focus my product and design decisions to helping the user achieve their goals and unlock their potential.
Don't reinvent the wheel: When creating my project scope, I felt the tendency to increase the project scope and turn it into an end-to-end workstation. However, I began to understand that many apps had their own unique strengths, and Orbits can instead take advantage of those existing products users are already confortable with and build to be compatible with other apps and workflows. This understanding helped me focus on the unique features and interactions spatial audio creation could have.
Reflection
Closing Thoughts
Constantly ask why: Throughout the process, I questioned the way existing products worked, which led me to work on this project. It also helped me focus my product and design decisions to helping the user achieve their goals and unlock their potential.
Don't reinvent the wheel: When creating my project scope, I felt the tendency to increase the project scope and turn it into an end-to-end workstation. However, I began to understand that many apps had their own unique strengths, and Orbits can instead take advantage of those existing products users are already confortable with and build to be compatible with other apps and workflows. This understanding helped me focus on the unique features and interactions spatial audio creation could have.
Reflection
Closing Thoughts
Constantly ask why: Throughout the process, I questioned the way existing products worked, which led me to work on this project. It also helped me focus my product and design decisions to helping the user achieve their goals and unlock their potential.
Don't reinvent the wheel: When creating my project scope, I felt the tendency to increase the project scope and turn it into an end-to-end workstation. However, I began to understand that many apps had their own unique strengths, and Orbits can instead take advantage of those existing products users are already confortable with and build to be compatible with other apps and workflows. This understanding helped me focus on the unique features and interactions spatial audio creation could have.
Check out my other work
Check out my other work
Hang: Loyalty Reimagined
Product Design + Prototyping
Roblox Squads
Product Design
Product Design
Google Creative Lab
Product Design + Strategy