SoundCloud Redefined

UX case study

Concept redesign for educational/portfolio purposes. Not affiliated with SoundCloud.

Click to watch the 1-min walkthrough

My role

UX/UI design, user research

Deliverables

User flows, style guide, responsive mockups, prototype

Tools used

Figma, GPT

Introduction

SoundCloud helps millions discover music. But both user research and UX studies show that some core listening habits aren't supported. This redesign rethinks the experience to close that gap.

Challenges

I take an existing app that is already on the market and well-known among users. Despite its popularity, it still struggles with usability problems. My task is to uncover the key pain points through research and redesign the app to deliver a smoother, more intuitive user experience.

Solutions

Through user interviews, I identified user problems and developed solutions using design thinking. I redesigned user flows and introduced new design patterns to improve the overall experience.

"Users rely heavily on recognition and shortcuts in media interfaces. When designs bury core actions, engagement drops."
- NN/g, Media Player UX Guidelines, 2021

Discovery / User research

I interviewed users while they navigated the current app, surfacing where the existing experience breaks down.

Current SoundCloud Home and Search pages

Ideation & Define

I mapped key flows and iterated from paper sketches to high-fidelity designs. This showed how features like search filters and playlist actions would work in context.

Low fidelity

Mid fidelity

High fidelity

Style guide

Colour palette

Typography

Components

Responsive grid

Solution

The redesign surfaces Likes and Shuffle upfront, streamlines playlist actions in the feed, and completely reimagines Search with a tag-based system for faster discovery.

Reflections / Learnings

This project showed me how small UX changes - surfacing Likes, simplifying playlists, rethinking Search - can have a big impact on everyday use. I learned the value of grounding every design decision in actual listening behavior, not assumptions.

Next Steps

If continued, I'd validate with a larger user group, measure discovery performance with the new tag-based search, and explore how these patterns could extend to creator tools.