Moments: Vocal Clouds is a four layer sample based virtual instrument based off of the human voice. Vocal Clouds is the first edition in the series, focusing on dreamy and atmospheric sounds. My role was the lead product designer, collaborating with teammates to determine the feature set, lead the UI and visual direction and building a component library in Figma, and running and synthesizing user testing sessions into actionable feedback.
Some initial concepts were designed in Figma to determine the core set of features we wanted to include. We took our top two choices and ran a few user testing sessions to validate the best layout based on desirability of features and easy of navigation.
After we determined the final design direction, I began executing the design for all of the subpages and menus, and creating all of the details of each component as well as the icon system. This involved creating a clickable prototype in Figma and using notations to hand off the design to our developers for execution.
With most of the design and feature set in place, I recruited a set of users from a broad range of music production backgrounds to gather feedback and make sure the product aligned with our goals (was it beginner friendly, did the feature set feel appropriate for the price, were the most important features easily discoverable). This involved designing a pre-session survey and a test plan. I took the feedback from the 7 sessions I ran and compiled it into a short video & pdf document to share with stakeholders and align the team with the necessary changes.
I also led the art direction for this project. While a few different styles were explored, my initial choice of clouds were favored by both external users and internal stakeholders. The airy quality of the clouds aligned both with the voice as an instrument and the dreamy sound of the product. The images were produced with Midjourney and modified in Photoshop to add extra effects and animation that would be triggered by sound playback.
