A Songwriter’s Guide to UX / UI
Part 4: Moodboarding
Okay y’all, we have done our due diligence. It’s finally time to move on from our initial research phase into the exploratory design phase. HOW EXCITING. Now, let’s get the creative juices flowing with some moodboarding! Our moodboards should include images, colors, fonts, illustrations, icons, textures, anything and everything that can helps us as designers communicate our vision to team members and stakeholders.
I’ve always likened moodboarding in my design projects to making mixtapes or playlists to share with my bandmates when I had a new idea for a song.
“I love the way the drums sound here.”
“I want the chorus to bop like this.”
“Can we make my vocals sound like that?”
“What kind of synthesizer are they using?”
You get the idea. When you’re collaborating with a team or a band, it’s vital to get everyone on the same page from the very beginning. A well crafted moodboard (or mixtape) can really align everyone’s creative energy and spare you some difficult conversations down the road. Ideally your moodboard will:
- Determine the style (our fonts, colors, photography)
- Define tone and voice (are we bright, bubbly, bold, beautiful?)
- Establish product direction (what does our design baby want to be when it grows up?)
There is tons of moodboard inspiration on sites like Dribbble, Muzli, Behance and Designspiration.
What’s Next?
Next week we will begin wireframing…check out my demo!
