JamParty

Social karaoke game app

Gaming has always been one of my biggest hobbies, and the way games design interaction and entertainment has strongly influenced my design approach. From COVID, I wanted to explore a new concept inspired by how my friends and I have always bonded through remote play (the world was just catching up). This project gave me a golden opportunity to sharpen my design process and experiment with new skills!

Problem

"I want to engage with my friends through more interactive and fun ways when we're not together."

Solution

A gamified karaoke app, that allows for creation and discovery on top of a social space for friends to connect and jam out.

Problem

"I want to engage with my friends through more interactive and fun ways when we're not together."

Solution

A gamified karaoke app, that allows for creation and discovery on top of a social space for friends to connect and jam out.

Role

Product designer

Timeline

May - Aug '22

Jamming

The meat and potatoes. An interactive karaoke room where friends group up to play games with their favourite songs. The screen is split into clear zones for actions, performers, song and game info, social activity, and a dynamic action bar that lets users smoothly move between video, chat, and extra options.

Connecting

From the homepage, users can hop into their profile or social tab to see everything friend-related. Profiles show favourite songs, games, high scores, and stats, while the social pages let you discover what friends are jamming to, join or judge them, and manage friend requests.

Creating

Explore everything JamParty has to offer while you’re solo. Sing your favourite songs, play solo games, pop open lyrics when you forget the words, and discover new songs and games to share with friends.

Onboarding

Try songs, games, and join Jams before having to signup. No-account users get a preview of what they’re missing, and when they’re ready, the sign-up flow only asks for the essentials so they can start jamming ASAP.

The fun stuff

For this project, I explored deeper prototyping and Figma interface animation for the first time! It became my favourite part, bringing the app to life and getting people excited. Below are some micro-interactions, animations, and visuals, all made in Figma, including the video at the top.

The fun stuff

Sprint to start

This project began with a design sprint around a "karaoke app" for young adults. With such a vague prompt, I defined the app’s value and direction, with my mentor using HMW prompts, grouping them by similarity into five core themes. How might we...

01

help users discover music that matches their taste?

02

help users feel safe and confident?

03

create public and private spaces to interact?

04

foster deeper connections in an online space?

05

help users discover content and keep the session going?

Sprint to start

01

help users discover music that matches their taste?

02

help users feel safe and confident?

03

create public and private spaces to interact?

04

foster deeper connections in an online space?

05

help users discover content and keep the session going?

User research

Before jumping into design, I used research to better understand the problem and what people actually cared about.

User research

Before jumping into design, I used research to better understand the problem and what people actually cared about.

How might we?

From these HMW's, different solutions and opportunities were conceptualized, and continuously added onto through a "Yes and…" exercise. Finally, the most popular concepts were voted on.

Concept billboards

I then created lo-fi billboards for the top 9 concepts and used them in user research to validate which ideas felt the most valuable.

UXR summaries

After, I interviewed 9 participants about their goals, reactions, and what felt useful, while also testing usability when possible. I then turned the feedback into UXR summaries for each concept, covering key positives, neutrals, negatives, and any recommendations moving forward.

Key findings

After the interviews, I organized the participants' feedback to find common themes, understand the target audience's wants and summarize them into 3 key findings.

Privacy

Participants prefer a more private app based on connections over a public app based on content.

Interactivity

Participants want access to fun and interactive concepts beyond just regular karaoke.

Familiarity

Participants prefer a personalized experience, with the ability to customize and collect.

Key findings

After the interviews, I organized the participants' feedback to find common themes, understand the target audience's wants and summarize them into 3 key findings.

Privacy

Participants prefer a more private app based on connections over a public app based on content.

Interactivity

Participants want access to fun and interactive concepts beyond just regular karaoke.

Familiarity

Participants prefer a personalized experience, with the ability to customize and collect.

Analysis

After completing my user research, I took my findings to create a project brief, giving my product structure and detailing important principles I could refer back to during design. This was not set in stone, and was something I could always adjust upon new data or realizations.

Main Hypothesis

"If we help users connect through music and synchronous interactive experiences, it will strengthen their relationships."

Main Scenarios

You're bored so you call your friends to play games. You want to record yourself singing a song. You want to play around with features to record and send to friends.

Business Opportunities

Let users hang out through music and related games in an interactive setting. Sing easily with an extensive library of music. Live synchronous singing with no delay.

Principles

Privacy. Interactivity. Familiarity.

Analysis

Main Hypothesis

"If we help users connect through music and synchronous interactive experiences, it will strengthen their relationships."

Main Scenarios

You're bored so you call your friends to play games. You want to record yourself singing a song. You want to play around with features to record and send to friends.

Business Opportunities

Let users hang out through music and related games in an interactive setting. Sing easily with an extensive library of music. Live synchronous singing with no delay.

Principles

Privacy. Interactivity. Familiarity.

Exploration and iteration

I went through a lot of design explorations and iterations to arrive at my final designs, from how screens appeared to how they interacted. Here’s a glimpse into some designs that didn’t make it and why.

Exploration and iteration

Jam room layouts

The Jam room and creation experience lived many lives from performer-focused layouts to more anonymous or action-heavy screens. These directions helped me realize the experience worked best when it felt face-forward, expressive, and easy to read, instead of overly focused on one performer or crowded with competing actions.

Onboarding & social

I explored a few ways to make onboarding and sharing feel more exciting, from social posts to progress indicators and sign-up prompts. While the ideas helped surface what the app could offer, they started to feel too heavy, forced, or disconnected from the quick, playful energy I wanted JamParty to have.

Inviting others to a jam

My first invite flow separated recent calls from creating a new call, which made starting a group feel more complicated than it needed to be. I later simplified the flow for quicker, more casual interactions, and changed profiles from real names and usernames to usernames only to better fit JamParty’s game-like social style.

Reactions mid-game

I explored a few ways for users to access reactions during a Jam for some playful expression. The wheel had the right fun, game-like feeling, while the horizontal list felt more familiar and comfortable. Combining the two helped make reactions feel expressive without making them harder to use.

Reflection and takeaways

What I learned from this project.

I love motion!

This project was an incredibly vigorous experience where I was able to hone many different skills and also discover my passion for animation and deeper prototyping! They breathe so much life into ideas!

Keep organized

This project was larger than I first expected, and my files weren't the most organized or easy to keep up with. I definitely need to keep neater next time.

Set priorities

I had a lot of cool ideas but had to learn to prioritize the most important features and parts of the designs first. Adjustable camera positions and sizes during a jam, copying a friend's voice as a filter, and introducing more exclusive games are just some of the exciting possibilities I'd love to explore in the future.