Sonic Stats Website
2024
Project Categories
• UI/UX Design • Web Design • Data Visualization •
Tools Used
• Figma • Adobe Illustrator • Adobe Premiere Pro •
Role
• Lead Designer • Video Editor •
A Case Study: Senior Thesis Project
Accessible via a website prototype, Sonic Stats is a digital interactive dashboard that compiles and visualizes music statistics based on users’ listening habits. Data can be integrated from various music sources, allowing users to discover their habits and tastes in unique visual formats.
Project Summary
Many different music services across the internet currently provide some form of data summary that is available to their user base. Among these include Spotify Wrapped and Apple Music. However, these summaries are usually given at regular intervals, not whenever the user wants them. Furthermore, the data itself is very fragmented, since it is usually limited to the platform in which music is consumed. As such, it lacks a holistic view.
Of the existing services that do allow for cross-platform integration, like last.fm, the data can be very difficult to parse through, especially if one is interested in quicker snapshots. If they do offer overall data summaries, these use very typical data visualization techniques, like graphs or tables, which is nothing new in the realm of visual data. Also, depending on the platform, the visual language never changes or evolves, even as the users’ tastes evolve.
Design Challenge
Sonic Stats aims to bridge the gap between many of the existing platforms by bringing in data from all of these sources. Users can choose which streaming or radio services they want to be tracked, as well as giving them the ability to manually add entries.
Visually, the data itself is compiled in very unique ways. By referencing classic symbols associated with music and color associations, these graphics breathe new life into user data. For example, total listening activity across many months of a year looks like a sound wave, or perhaps one can tap through different eras of music to discover how much of their listening is biased to a specific decade.
Rather than showing all this data as simple lists of numbers or scientific graphs, these graphics make engaging with data an easy and intriguing experience, giving users agency over what they see and how.
Design Solution
