Sound Worm
Howie Y
Sound Worm
One smart music app across every streaming service.
An integrated smart music app that unifies streaming services, custom-tunes any room, and learns your taste through a self-adapting "Music Gene" system.
Roles
Product Designer
Type
Consumer Facing · Mobile
Year
2021
Deliverables
Product Design · UI/UX · User Research
01 Brief
The global music streaming market 2020–2027 is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.4%. The projected market size is $46.9 billion by 2027. Growth is expected to be driven by increasing internet usage, rising use of smartphones and laptops, an increase in competing music platforms, and lower annual subscription costs to supplier solutions resulting in a rise in the number of subscribers.
02 Problems
Before the Music
Modern music is more accessible than ever, yet the path to a seamless listening experience remains surprisingly fragmented.
Friction Before Listening
There are too many steps to set up before the desired music finally comes — connecting to proper audio devices, adjusting EQ, and finding the right playlists.
Broken Immersion
"55% of U.S. listeners subscribe to multiple streaming services."
To find particular songs, they have to go back and forth between several streaming services, interrupting an immersive music experience.
03 Insights & opportunities
More Than Music
Music serves different roles throughout people's lives — shaping emotions, strengthening relationships, preserving memories, and inspiring discovery. These motivations uncovered opportunities to design beyond playback.
Mood Amplifier
In self-emotional expression, music can express moods more accurately than words; the feeling is amplified by songs matching our moods.
Opportunities
Generate personalized playlists that help users shift moods; approach emotion-recognition technology to understand the user's feeling; use a music visualizer to guide feelings.
Inside Jokes
Music could work as an inside joke to help us find people with the same interests and values to form communities.
Opportunities
Users find people with the same tastes by sharing playlists, and share feelings via comments.
Earworm
Music provides contextual cues that contribute to episodic memory — the recollection of personal experiences.
Opportunities
Users create playlists to record feelings and moments like a diary; recommendations follow the playing record of place and time.
Music Gene
Scientists break the musical universe into "species" by examining the factors active in every song, forging connections between songs to connect you with new music based on previous choices.
Opportunities
Accurate recommendations via a self-adapting system, built on a lot of research and record data.
04 Solution
One smart music app
SOUND WORM is an integrated smart music app for the audio system that understands all your needs and music tastes.
Seamlessly move between streaming services
SOUND WORM is a smart platform that lets you listen to content from your favorite services. Browse all your music, podcasts, and radio stations in one place.
Custom-tune your devices
A new equalizer puts the speaker-tuning capability of the pros in the palm of your hand, personalizing the sound to the unique acoustics of the room.
Get to know your music taste
A self-adapting system called MUSIC GENE recommends similar music based on your previous choices. After each recommendation, it learns your taste through feedback, building a personalized music map.
Make friends, express feelings
A music-sharing community called INSIDE JOKE lets you find friends who share your interests and tastes — and share feelings through comments.
Bring back the memories
SOUND WORM generates personalized playlists from the playing record of place and time, bringing you back to the moment. You can also create music diaries to record feelings and moments.
Mood Amplifier
Using emotion-recognition technology, SOUND WORM understands you better and generates emotionalized playlists that help you shift moods. Music visualizers create an immersive experience and amplify the feeling.
Music wherever you are
For quick, easy setup, SOUND WORM uses your device's microphone to detect nearby products, then automatically connects, groups, and manages outputs. Let the music follow you — switch seamlessly between car, speaker, or phone.
Meticulous design
We pay close attention to interface design. Each button position is tested and refined over several rounds, for an experience that feels effortless.
05 Design process
How Sound Worm came together
The research, exploration, and testing behind the product.
Process overview
A double-diamond process — Discover, Define, Develop, Deliver — structured the work from research to delivery.
User research
I surveyed several listeners to understand their experience with existing music products, then built the persona Jakob and a friction map of where the experience breaks down.
Comparative analysis
Benchmarked existing music apps and audio products to find gaps and opportunities to differentiate.
User flow
Mapped the full navigation — launch, tutorial, location, device connection, Discover, Library, Scenarios, Now Playing, and account.
Wire frame
Low-fidelity screens to test structure and hierarchy before committing to visual design.
Prototype
High-fidelity, interactive screens across the core flows.
Usability test
A pre-session survey, a recorded usability test, and a post-session survey — with multiple control variations to see which works best.
Visual design
A muted palette of greys and earth tones with a custom icon and typeface, so attention stays on the music itself.
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Posted Jun 9, 2026
An integrated music app that enhances user experience across multiple streaming services.
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