Diversify:
A mobile application to Promote Diversity through sound
Project brief
This was my first ever ‘Design-a-thon’, where I would be put to the test to design a high-fidelity prototype of an application based on a prompt. For 2023, the promo was “Living in a world often divided, it’s more difficult than ever to foster community across individuals of diverse backgrounds and perspectives. As a result, we often see marginalized voices being suppressed and devalued as less than. As designers who can create and inspire change, how can we amplify and empower cultures of community and inclusivity in our neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, and beyond?” My task for 3 days was to brainstorm, plan, research, and design a digital application that fosters community and celebrates inclusivity.
Competitive analysis
Spotify employs various tools and features to promote diverse artists on its app.
Equality for Audio Program: A program that aims to uplift and amplify the work of underrepresented voices in podcasting.
Editorial Playlists: Spotify's team of expert curators creates a wide range of editorial playlists that showcase diverse artists from different genres, regions, and backgrounds.
Personalized Mixes: Spotify's personalized playlists, such as Discover Weekly and Release Radar, incorporate tracks from both established and emerging diverse artists. By tailoring these mixes to individual users' tastes, Spotify exposes them to a wide array of musical styles and diverse talent.
Planning & Executing
Target Audience: Users in search of artists that align with aspects of their identity; musicians create art about their lived experiences within an identity, which is why users would want to explore art within communities of their identity. Another audience would be users in search of diverse, underground music artists to explore.
Design Thinking: My application directly tackles the niche of discovering artists of certain identities, and hones in on the ‘discovery’ aspect of music exploration for users.
User Experience: The product has appealing colors, visuals, and a simple design.
User Interface: The overall user interface is visually appealing without sacrificing its functionality.
Final decisions & future changes
In order to design a digital application that fosters community and celebrates inclusivity, I designed the app “Diversify”: an application that connects users to artists similar to their identity, or identities of their interest. It recommends artists, creates playlists with recommended music, and also finds music events that promote diversity near them.
This app shines a light on multicultural perspectives in different creative fields by creating a platform that directly connects users’ identities to musicians within their community.
Users can connect online by simply listening to music, and also in-person by attending nearby events.
This application utilizes connection technologies to support humans in connecting with their identity, diversifying their tastes, and discovering art.
If I had more time, I would make the interface more unique to itself, as of right now it lacks uniqueness to other music applications.