Recommendations with a reason.
Three listening routes use different candidate and ranking policies. Explicit searches don't silently become permanent taste preferences.
COMFORT
TERRITORY
WILD CARD
A PRODUCT DESIGN & ENGINEERING CASE STUDY
Don’t just
find music.
Feel the find.
AFTERTONE turns music discovery into something you play. Swipe through new sounds, follow your taste into unexpected places, and crown your favorites in head-to-head tournaments.
FIND YOUR FREQUENCY
▂▅▃▇▅ DISCOVER SOMETHING NEW
NOT ANOTHER ALGORITHM. YOUR NEXT ADVENTURE.
03 discovery paths04 tournament rounds20 app color themes211 automated tests in the local v0.10 build
01 / TRY IT YOURSELF
A little taste of AFTERTONE.
No login. No API keys. No third-party music. This working portfolio demo uses fictional tracks and short original synthesized sounds to demonstrate the interactions.
✳ PLAYABLE, NOT A VIDEO
AFTERTONEDEMONOW EXPLORING NEW TERRITORY
One song at a time.
AFTERTONE SOUND STUDY
ELECTRONIC · BRIGHT
After the Signal
Static Patterns
A new voice connected to your evolving taste.
0:000:08 · original preview
← Pass · → Keep · Space Play · S Skip · B BlindDemo library · 12 original sounds
HEAD-TO-HEAD
Let the music battle.
Pick a contender to advance. Finish the bracket for a gold, silver and bronze podium. Repeat to build a Hall of Fame.
SAVED FOR LATER
Your favorites live here.
Your favorites and decisions stay in this browser. Export your collection whenever you like.
This is an intentionally limited, rights-safe demo of the design and interaction model. The original local project includes live catalog adapters, 22-second previews, more tournament formats, lyrics experiments, and recommendation logic.
02 / WHAT'S UNDER THE HOOD
Built for the hard parts.
More than a visual concept: AFTERTONE has separate systems for music retrieval, recommendation decisions, listening state, game rules, and persistence.
A reason to come back.
Music Duels includes knockout brackets, bronze playoffs, thematic arenas, saved champions, and an evolving Hall of Fame.
01020304
CHAMPIONFavorites that outlast a session.
Keep/Pass decisions, undo, personal collections, listening history, and tournaments are stored locally with backward-compatible state handling.
LOCAL FIRSTUNDO SUPPORTEXPORTS
Tested like a product.
Automated checks exercise recommendation edge cases, catalog pagination, player state, tournament progression, and saved-data compatibility.
211automated checks in the v0.10.0 local build
A CLEAN SEPARATION OF CONCERNS
CatalogMetadata & availability
DiscoveryMode rules & rotation
ExperiencePlayer, swipes & duels
Local StateSaved history & favorites
03 / THE PRODUCT JOURNEY
Built by listening to feedback.
The strongest changes came from discovering where the original prototype didn't feel good enough—and rethinking the experience instead of adding another setting.
01
THE FIRST SPARK
Swipe, keep, explore.
Started with anonymous short previews, simple decisions and a taste map. Learned quickly that limited catalogs and mystery metadata made discovery frustrating.
02
THE REAL CHALLENGE
Separate discovery from playback.
Explored multiple providers, then designed clearer boundaries between canonical song information, playback availability, catalog permissions and what a local prototype can do.
03
WHAT MADE IT A GAME
Tournaments, not thumbs.
Introduced Music Duels, tournament themes, saved podiums and champion brackets to give each session a destination and a sense of progression.
04
WHAT'S NEXT
Polish, validate, present.
Wrapped the work in a self-contained, rights-safe interactive showcase. The full local application stays separate until provider and media-display permissions are addressed.
A DESIGN & ENGINEERING PROJECTGreat products aren't just built.
Great products aren't just built.
They're refined.
AFTERTONE is a case study in turning a simple interaction into a working product—complete with awkward constraints, iterative fixes, and a game worth playing.