Soulestial is a stargazing app powered by the stars, but it didn't start that way. The goal of this project was to explore various methods of narrative building and concept generating. The team started in a state of ambiguity and, by the end, designed a meaningful and memorable narrative. The process it took to design Soulestial involved prototyping, testing, and iterating a series of narratives, concepting from a final narrative, and designing a powerful final concept.
The Soulestial music streaming service merges music streaming with the constellations. It allows users to identify constellations, explore playlists, create new playlists, and share with friends.
Users can start scanning the sky at any time of day in any location. Even mid-day when stars aren't visible, Soulestial allows users to see where constellations are located at that time.
During scanning, users can see where constellations are, the names of the constellations, and get a brief history lesson. By tapping on the constellation users select that particular constellation.
Once a constellation is selected, users are provided with a list of the playlists made for that constellation. Here users can see different playlists and create their own playlists for that constellation.
While playing a selected playlist or a custom playlist, users can see album art, song titles, and artists names. Soulestial also provides users with the opportunity to share what they're listening too with other users.
The goal of this project was to explore various methods of narrative building and concept generating.
Start: The team was given this abstract set of "words" which were used for user testing. This was done through several forms of blind variation and selective retention.
End: A concept driven by narrative. After weeks of developing, iterating, and testing narratives, the team had arrived at a final story. This gave us a problem/solution space to work within.
The team developed, iterated, and tested multiple narratives.
Narrative ProcessKelly Benton, Christian Doyle, Rachel Tarulli, Mg Taylor
My contributions: primary research, user testing, initial narrative building, final narrative prototyping, graphic design, concept video