About the project

A music service with calm background music for work, study, relaxation and sleep. We designed its interface in two formats: for the big screen (a TV or set-top box) and for smartphones.

Challenge

Background music isn't chosen track by track: you turn it on for an activity and leave it playing. So the main scenario had to start with a single action, and the music had to be accompanied by an atmospheric image that looks right on a TV screen. On the phone, by contrast, the library matters more: saved tracks, playlists and downloads for offline listening. We needed to create two interfaces with different priorities but a shared visual style.

Big screen

The home screen is almost entirely filled with an atmospheric photo, and at its center is the Stream mode with four options: Work, Study, Chill and Sleep. Just pick an activity and the music starts playing. The "Change image" button lets you switch the background image. Below is the "Continue listening" row with playlists the user has already played.

A player is permanently pinned to the bottom of the screen: cover art, playlist name and current track, playback controls, dislike and like, and on the right — casting to another device, a timer and sound settings. The timer is especially important for the Sleep mode.

During playback, the interface steps into the background: the screen turns into a full-screen visual, and all that remains of the navigation is the player at the bottom and a couple of icons in the corners, including the switch to full-screen mode. This way the app can be left running on the TV as a living backdrop.

Mobile library

In the mobile version, the library became the main section, with three tabs: Tracks, Playlists and Visuals. The track list is compact: title, artist, download icon and like. The download icon shows the status: whether a download is in progress and whether the track is saved on the device. The current track is marked with a playback icon, and a mini player with the name of the active stream is pinned above the bottom navigation.

Playlists are shown as large full-width covers — this preserves the same visual atmosphere as on the big screen.

Result

We designed a music service that works as a backdrop on the TV with a single choice of activity, and as a personal library with downloads and playlists on the phone. A dark theme, large cinematic images and a unified player tie both versions into a single product.