2026
SoundScout
Final project for HCI 530: Mobile Design @ DePaul University
End-to-end design of a social music rating and discovery app. Built around the idea that the best recommendations come from friends and not algorithms.
Role
Timeline
8 weeks (Jun 2026 - Mar 2026)
Skills
Product Thinking
User Research
Prototyping
Tools
Figma
React
Claude Code
Problem
Algorithms don't get you like your friends do
Many music fans like to keep track of their listening activity using spreadsheets, playlists, or other 3rd party tools that don't go beyond surface-level analytics or generic recs. When looking for new music, existing apps just point users to stranger's ratings or opaque algorithmic suggestions that feel impersonal. No current app surfaces suggestions from friends in a meaningful, transparent way.
Competitive landscape
Last.fm
✓
x
~
x
Musicboard
✓
✓
✓
x
RateYourMusic.com
✓
✓
~
x
AirBuds
~
x
✓
x
~ = Partial Support
Key Screens
Home
An overview of recent activity from friends and the highest rated album in your circle that week, with recently released music from your saved artists and quick access to recently logged music for rating and reviewing.
Discover
Suggested music page led by social context and an AI-powered recommendation system. All suggestions are surfaced with distinct reasons, coming from friends that have similar ratings of shared albums and preferred genres. What your friends think is displayed before the ratings of the whole user base.
Activity
A pure reverse-chronological feed with all logged music, ratings, and reviews from everyone you follow. An unfiltered display of the raw social data that powers discovery across the rest of the app.
Profile
Your taste fingerprint: number of logged and reviewed albums, with your selected favorite genres and albums displayed. The data displayed is the foundation of the taste compatibility feature with friends.
Recommendation Settings
Three primary adjustable factors that influence how your recommendations are generated, so you can take control of your music discovery. This makes the use of AI transparent and user-controlled instead of a blackbox.
What changed
Global Search
Two users struggled to identify the location of the search bar while tasked with adding a friend. They expected the search to be visible on the Home and Discover pages as well. The search bar was added to the Home and Discover pages, with a distinct purpose of browsing rather than adding an album or user (what the Add tab does).
Rating Modal
Users showed difficulty in using the button-based keypad system, and the small review text field indicated that they had limited space (left). I opted for dual slider and keyboard input for the rating instead and increased the size of the review space (right), leaving more space for thoughts.
Score Badges
Users found that the gold score badge (given to albums with a rating of 9.0 and above) wasn't distinct enough from other badges (left). I added a gradient in order for it to visually resemble gold (right), making it stand out as a gold-medal album should. Additionally, I included another badge for specificity and optimized them for light and dark modes.
what i learned
Clarity of Job Beats Richness of Features
The hardest part wasn't deciding what to include, but ensuring that every feature had an unambiguous purpose. The difference between the Home, Discovery, and Activity pages seemed unclear at first, until I could articulate that one is a personal catch-up, one curates suggestions, and one shows unfiltered data.