LEEP Audio
LEEP Audio is a Toronto-based music technology startup creating a platform where emerging artists can compete, collaborate, and build their careers through community-driven experiences. Working as part of a multidisciplinary UX/UI design team, I helped transform early concepts into a polished product by contributing to competitive research, visual exploration, user flows, wireframes, and the platform's evolving design system.
Building on research completed by a previous team, we focused on creating a cohesive Competitions experience while laying the groundwork for future collaboration features. The result was a scalable design foundation that balanced the client's long-term vision with the goals of a clearly defined MVP.
Role(s)
UX/UI Designer
Duration
5 weeks
Keeping Artists Engaged Beyond the Competition
The Challenge
Traditional music competitions often lose momentum once a winner is announced, giving artists little reason to return. Previous research highlighted opportunities to improve discovery, feedback, collaboration, and long-term community engagement. Our challenge was to redesign the Competitions page experience while establishing foundations for future collaboration features within a five-week project timeline.
Understanding How Musicians Connect Online
Competitive Analysis
I analysed SoundCloud, Mixcloud, and BandLab to understand how musicians discover new work, receive feedback, and engage with one another. Rather than copying existing solutions, I looked for patterns that could be adapted to LEEP's vision.
Moodboards
Alongside this research, I developed two moodboards exploring different visual directions. While both embraced the client's dark aesthetic, I introduced a more purposeful colour system where accent colours communicate competition states, making the interface easier to scan while strengthening visual consistency.
Creating a More Connected Competition Experience
The Solution
Rather than treating competitions as isolated events, we redesigned the experience to encourage ongoing participation through clearer discovery, structured feedback, and opportunities for future collaboration. The MVP focused on establishing a scalable Competitions experience while laying the foundations for a broader creative community.
Mapping the Experience
User Flows
Before refining the interface, we mapped the key journeys users would take throughout the Competitions feature. These user flows helped define how artists, producers, and fans would navigate the platform, ensuring each interaction felt intuitive from discovery through to participation. My contribution focused on designing the search user flow, illustrating how users could discover competitions through the platform's global search function.
Sitemap
Aligning with the Client
Before moving into design, our team met with the client to better understand their vision for the platform and the role Competitions would play within it. Rather than discussing individual screens, we focused on the bigger picture - how artists, producers, and fans should interact, what made LEEP different from existing platforms, and which features were essential for the MVP.
These conversations helped us move beyond a list of requirements and understand the client's long-term goals. That shared understanding became the foundation for our design decisions throughout the project, ensuring every iteration aligned with both user needs and the client's vision.
"What makes LEEP potentially a unique platform is all of these things working together - the collaboration, the feedback, the competition. That's the secret sauce."
— LEEP CTO
Bringing the Experience to Life
Low-Fidelity
I designed a user flow focused on competition discovery through the platform's search function, ensuring users could easily find relevant competitions from anywhere in the experience rather than relying solely on the main Competitions page.
High-Fidelity
My primary responsibility during high-fidelity design was the Competitions landing page.
Building for Consistency and Growth
As the project evolved, consistency became increasingly important. Our team developed a shared design system containing reusable components, typography, colour styles, and interaction patterns that could support both the current MVP and future platform growth.
I contributed to the component library while helping define reusable UI elements that maintained consistency across every screen.
Component Library
Typography
Colour Styles
Iterating with Client Feedback
Rather than presenting a finished solution at the end of the project, we met with the client regularly to review our progress and validate key design decisions. Each review helped refine the MVP, clarify priorities, and ensure the final designs aligned with both user needs and the client's vision.
Key Feedback
"Can users understand a competition before clicking into it?"
Iteration
I redesigned the competition cards to include a hover interaction that reveals a short competition description, allowing users to quickly understand what a competition is about without cluttering the interface.
Key Feedback
"The platform needs a stronger visual identity."
Iteration
Following discussions around the moodboards, we combined elements from both visual directions to establish a cohesive design language. Accent colours became functional rather than decorative, helping users distinguish between different competition states at a glance.
Client Testimonial
— LEEP CEO
The Final Experience
The final solution transforms competitions from standalone events into an ongoing community experience. Artists can discover competitions, submit entries, vote, receive feedback, and continue engaging with the platform long after a competition ends.
The project also established foundations for future collaboration features, creating a scalable experience that supports artist growth and long-term engagement.
Looking Back
Working on LEEP gave me my first opportunity to design alongside a real client from concept through to delivery. Collaborating within a multidisciplinary team taught me how to communicate design decisions, adapt to evolving requirements, and contribute to a shared vision while balancing user needs with business goals.
Given more time, I would have liked to conduct usability testing on the high-fidelity prototype to validate our design decisions and identify opportunities for further refinement before development.
Some Things I've Learned
Client feedback strengthens the design.
Regular review sessions challenged my assumptions and helped shape stronger, more user-focused solutions.
Design systems should evolve alongside the product.
Building reusable components throughout the project made it easier to maintain consistency and support future growth.
Research is about finding opportunities, not copying competitors.
Looking beyond music platforms helped uncover ideas that could be adapted to create a more distinctive experience for LEEP.