For this project, I was tasked with redesigning a mobile app in two different styles, flat and skeuomorphic. Of the potential applications I explored, I chose to redesign the music app, Spotify because I felt it would have the most to work with regarding graphics and buttons. Spotify is also an app I constantly use, so I was interested in reimagining the app in a style that would appeal to me as a music enthusiast and vinyl collector.
Flat design is an area I work in almost daily, so I was already familiar with this particular style. I kept it simple, something I equate to good flat design, with a lighter interface which I thought would be a nice change from the dark, black and green interface that Spotify currently has. I also thought about using the vinyl record playback element in the flat version, but I opted for a cleaner album art playback instead and kept the spinning vinyl record for the skeuomorphic design. For the skeuomorphic design, I kept a similar layout to the flat version with a few items moved around in the playback area to make room for the spinning record playback element. In creating this design, I imagined that the record would spin while the song is playing. After much trial and error, I proceeded with a light and clean skeuomorphic design with raised and lowered portions of the app. I also added a glow to the active buttons. Perhaps my favorite part of this design is the glowing track progress bar that circles the record during playback. This was an element from a later sketch and I thought it was pretty clever. The icons were also all custom-created for this project.
A personal note on the skeuomorphic style: This is not a style that I usually drift toward in my work, currently. I sometimes think skeuomorphic can look dated but I challenged myself to create a skeuomorphic design that looks modern. It took me a little while and after many trashed versions, I think I finally achieved what I was after. I was inspired by looking at neomorphic design inspiration, which I consider to be a clean, modern version of skeuomorphic.
