Project Overview
Rhythm brought the Rotten Tomatoes model to music — combining crowd-sourced ratings with curated critic reviews to help people discover their next favorite song. Born from my deep passion for music, I designed and developed this iOS app to feature hand-curated playlists spanning today's hits and hidden gems from the past, each with its own "critic" review explaining why these tracks belonged together.
My Role
I was designer, developer, and music curator all rolled into one. Beyond creating the entire UI/UX, I personally curated every playlist, wrote all the critic reviews, and even taught myself Objective-C to bring the app to life. This meant designing in Sketch, then jumping into Xcode to hand-code the entire application from scratch — a true solo venture from concept to App Store.
User Research Insights
Music discovery was broken. Streaming algorithms kept people in bubbles, while music reviews were scattered across blogs and magazines. Users wanted trusted recommendations but also community input. They craved context — not just what to listen to, but why it mattered. The upvote/downvote system would let the crowd's taste emerge while my curated reviews added the human touch algorithms couldn't provide.
Problem/Challenge
The biggest challenge was wearing every hat simultaneously. I had to design an interface that showcased music beautifully, learn Objective-C from scratch to build it, manage a growing database of songs, and consistently create quality curated content. Balancing the technical demands of development with the creative aspects of design and curation stretched me in ways I hadn't anticipated.
Design Approach
I chose a dark theme to make album artwork pop — the music was the star, not the interface. The design stayed intentionally simple: a scrolling list of playlists that invited exploration. Song views featured large artwork with clean typography for track info and ratings. Weekly artist spotlights got special treatment with full-screen imagery and editorial-style layouts that made reading about music as engaging as listening to it.
The results of the project and looking ahead
Rhythm launched successfully on the App Store with over 30,000 lines of hand-written code powering a robust platform. The app managed 500+ songs across dozens of curated playlists and earned over 1,500 downloads from music lovers looking for something different. More than just an app, Rhythm proved that passion projects could compete with algorithm-driven platforms by bringing back the human element to music discovery.
Technologies used
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Complex problems deserve thoughtful solutions. I specialize in turning frustrating workflows into intuitive experiences, bringing clarity to cluttered interfaces, and making sure every click counts toward your goals.
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*All work showcased on this website was created by myself, Jacob Trujillo, and includes projects completed during my tenure at an agency. The views and opinions expressed on this site are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company.
†Clients mentioned on this site reflect work completed as part of my role at an agency. These projects are included to illustrate my personal contributions and expertise, not to imply direct individual client relationships.