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Party to the people

Degree Project 2024

Party to the People reimagines how digital interfaces can foster joy and connection through music. In collaboration with Spotify, this project challenges traditional interaction designs by emphasising emotional resonance rather than functionality. It aims to transform solitary listening experiences and provoke a reevaluation of how interfaces can maintain human connections despite physical distance. In an era where technology often leads to isolation, Party to the People offers an alternative approach by using design to recreate the communal spirit typical of live music events such as concerts and parties. The project is a critical commentary on the potential for interaction design to enhance life in the digital age. It demonstrates that interfaces can go beyond traditional roles, acting as a medium for joy and connection. It introduces one narrative for designing with joy through dimensions like relationship type (friends vs. strangers), interaction scope (groups vs. individuals), and timing (synchronous vs. asynchronous).

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Background

Party to the People rethinks how digital interfaces can foster communal joy and connection through music. In collaboration with Spotify, the project challenges conventional interaction designs by prioritising emotional resonance over straightforward functionality. These poetic interfaces seek not only to transform solitary listening sessions but also to provoke a reevaluation of how interfaces can deepen human connections despite physical separations.

In an era where technology often isolates, Party to the People proposes an alternative—using design to recapture the communal spirit of music that resonates in physical gatherings like concerts and parties. The project is a commentary on the potential of interaction design to enrich lives in the digital age.

Method

Party to the People’s foundation lies in a triangular research approach, conducting interviews, observations, and auto-ethnographic stories. By interviewing DJs and attendees of music events and reflecting on personal experiences within club settings, the project gained a nuanced understanding of the emotional layers that music interfaces could enhance. These interactions helped pinpoint the essence of communal joy and how it could be facilitated digitally. Afterwards, two ideation workshops and collaborative design sessions were conducted with Spotify’s In-Home Experiences team.

Result

The results highlight the potential of interfaces designed for emotional and communal engagement. Party to the People demonstrates that interfaces could extend beyond their traditional roles, acting as mediums for joy and connection. The designed interfaces—ranging from virtual rooms that mimic the atmosphere of live parties to features that synchronise listeners’ heartbeats across distances—aim to provoke thoughts about how to design differently.