RIFFS
A platform for capturing and sharing short song ideas, co-designed with a musician from Austin, Texas.
- ROLE
- Co-design, product design, prototype
- TYPE
- The anywhere studio for songwriters
- YEAR
- 2024–
- STATUS
- ● invite-only beta
// THE JOB TO BE DONE
“I'd love to have something like an effects pedal that makes it feel like I'm making music with someone that's not even in the room.”
Riffs began as a co-design project with a musician from Austin, Texas. Musicians capture short song ideas, share them with other musicians, and learn from and build on each other's music.
// MISSION LOG
What made this project great.
01
An effects pedal for songwriting
Vinh's effects pedal gave us the shape of the product. A pedal does one thing, and you use it with an instrument in your hands. So the heart of Riffs is one screen: play a jam, tap once, and record your part over it.
02
One loop: listen, record, share
Every screen in Riffs serves one of three things: listening, jamming or sharing. If something didn't help someone record or listen, it was cut. The record screen even drops the navigation and becomes a focus mode with a single close button.
03
Designed for a loud room and one free hand
Musicians usually have an instrument in their hands, and often play in a loud room. Every control is designed to be hit with a thumb without looking, and the count-in is big enough to read from a music stand. Every take starts at the top of the jam, so the parts always line up.
// THE FLOW · LISTEN, RECORD, SHARE
From a job-to-be-done to a record-and-listen flow.
Long chats with my ex-bandmate in Austin, Texas turned into ideas about how we could compose music together in a fun way, without the baggage of working together as a band.
UI is laser-focused on a simple interaction and flow. Listen, record, share. Repeat.
00 FIND A JAM
01 LISTEN
02 COUNT-IN
03 RECORD
04 REVIEW & SHARE
// AROUND THE LOOP
// MY ROLE
I served as designer and developer on Riffs, from the co-design sessions with Vinh to the screens and the app now in beta. Vinh brought the musician's point of view: what it takes to write music with someone who isn't in the room.
RESPONSIBILITIES
- Co-design sessions and synthesis
- Product design: flow, screens, visual language
- Interactive prototype and beta app
WITH
Vinh Diep, co-design partner
// DEBRIEF
LESSONS LEARNED,
FIRST PERSON
WHAT I EXPECTED
A prototype would be enough to prove the idea.
WHAT HAPPENED
A prototype proves that you can build it. Only musicians using it with each other can prove that they want it. That's what the beta is for.
WHAT I EXPECTED
Making music together remotely means playing at the same time.
WHAT HAPPENED
It doesn't have to. Riffs is asynchronous: you record your part over someone's jam whenever you have a minute, and they hear it under Updates. Nobody has to be in the room, or even awake at the same time.