Polyflow is an extension to Spotify meant to create listening parties for a group of friends where everyone can add songs they like. Although Spotify has a similar feature, it is limited to six users, and only the host can control the music. Polyflow has no limit on party members. With a simple voting system, users can reorder the queue. The songs with the most likes move up, while the most disliked ones get deleted. It also has a built-in player to play, pause, skip, and shuffle queue if necessary. 

In the Fall of 2021, my friend and I embarked on a collaborative journey to bring Polyflow to life. He laid the foundation with an initial code, and I joined as a UX UI Designer to enhance the visual design and usability. This was not just a project, but a passion that we nurtured in our spare time for eight months. The website underwent a series of transformations, both visually and technically, until we settled on the PWA format, a website that looks and behaves like the app.

Undoubtedly, our journey was not without its challenges. Spotify's restrictions posed a significant hurdle, forcing us to rethink our approach. However, we remained steadfast in our commitment to deliver a unique music-sharing experience. As a result, Polyflow creates a new playlist in the host's Spotify account instead of making an external one. The voting system can remove songs from the queue, and we are actively working on reordering songs according to user preferences.

Initial sketches and a site map. Like all projects, we have started with a site map. Where do the users start? What steps do they take? Where does it lead them? Which features do we need, and which can we hide? As we changed the website, the user path had to be changed too. 

These sketches also include the first graphic elements for the landing page, backgrounds, and a general feel of the product. Since our name is Polyflow, I wanted to incorporate torrent motifs into our design.

Home Page: Desktop variations and thought process. The general layout of the home page did not change much; the main components are still there: logo, search bar, account settings at the top, side menu on the left, members tab on the right, and player and the queue are taking the main stage. The only drastic changes happened to the member's tub (it moved onto its own page out of convenience for mobile users), and the player is now at the top while the queue is below it. The new layout is more accurately depicted in the mobile version of the site. 

Later, we also added a Landing page. Unlike the Home page, it went through four to five major redesigns, although they are mostly reflected in the mockup section. Because the Landing page relies heavily on graphics, changes almost didn't reflect on the overall layout; thus, there was a lack of wireframes. 

Landing and Home Page: Mobile variation. Now, the mobile version is what got translated into the final design. The only noticeable change is that we removed the hamburger menu and replaced the footer with a bottom navigation menu.  

Logo. Brainstorming a logo was tricky since we needed to know what kind of branding we wanted for Polyflow. The only common theme throughout was 'cute.' We wanted our website to be friendly and welcoming. That thought, and a Snapchat logo we used as a placeholder gave us the idea of an octopus, a cute octopus. 

Desktop Version: Landing Page, Home Page and Members Page

Mobile Version: Landing Page, Home Page and Members Page