MUSIC
An ambient music experience that understands your moment
Moment OS is a reimagined Apple Music experience: lightweight, context-aware playlists that adapt seamlessly to your world.
Respect users' time and habits.
Our experience adapts to when and how users listen. By understanding daily rhythms, like commutes, workouts, or winding down, we surface music that aligns naturally with each moment, without demanding extra input.
Feel native to Apple's ecosystem.
Every touchpoint is designed to blend seamlessly with Apple's visual language and interaction model. From typography to transitions, the experience feels like a natural extension of Apple Music.
Surface relevance, don't overwhelm.
We believe discovery should feel curated, not chaotic. Instead of flooding users with options, our system prioritizes what matters most in context, reducing friction and enhancing focus.
Enable control without requiring effort.
With intuitive toggles and non-intrusive prompts, personalization becomes something users benefit from, not manage. We make smart features easy to trust and even easier to ignore when needed.
Music is suggested not by genre or algorithm alone, but through subtle signals from everyday life: calendar, steps, stillness, routines, and the rhythms of the day.
FEATURE 01
Playlist suggestions appear contextually based on time, location, calendar, or routine, and only once. If ignored, they quietly fade away.
FEATURE 02
Users can manage contextual recommendations through a simple toggle in Settings. Granular access control keeps personalization transparent and optional.
FEATURE 03
Home reflects your moment, not just your taste. Contextual playlists appear alongside daily recommendations so the right music can find you.
FEATURE 04
We redesigned the Add to Playlist flow to be more intuitive and immediate. Instead of being buried in submenus, it is quick to access, visually prioritized, and native to Apple Music's UI.
To build something truly seamless and contextual, we grounded our work in user needs, research insights, and iterative testing.
STAGE 01
Apple Music is already a powerful platform, rich in content, beautiful in design, and widely adopted. But as we explored its everyday use, we began noticing small moments of friction.
Why are recommendations so static?
Why does "Add to Playlist" take so many taps?
Why doesn't the experience adapt more naturally to how we live?
We weren't building something new from scratch. Instead, we were stepping into an existing ecosystem, with the challenge of making it more alive. More responsive. More human.
STAGE 02
We mapped out core user flows, from discovering music to saving it, and identified friction points in the current Apple Music experience.
STAGE 03
Storyboards and journey mapping revealed a recurring need: timely suggestions without search, music that matches energy without interrupting it, and frictionless control on the user's own terms.
STAGE 04
Despite Apple Music's personalization features, recommendations still tend to reflect past listening behavior more than a user's present state.
We reframed the opportunity around contextual awareness: music should understand where you are, what you are doing, and what kind of transition your day is asking for.
How might we help Apple Music respond to users' present context, so it feels in sync with the moment they are living?
STAGE 05
After weeks of research, prototyping, and iteration, we landed on an integrated system of interfaces that reflect the heart of our redesign: music that adapts to your moment.
We refined everything from playlist discovery and notifications to in-app settings and micro-interactions. Feedback from our usability tests helped us simplify interactions, improve clarity, and ensure the system felt intuitive and native to Apple Music.
By connecting ambient data with musical intent, Moment OS transforms Apple Music into a responsive soundscape that is ready for the user's current moment.
With thanks to Professor Bridget Weis, TA Li-yuan Chiou, critique groups, and testers for helping shape the experience.
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