Timeline
2026
Platform
Web: desktop, tablet and phone
Role
Product design, interaction and motion. Designer-led build.
The problem, then the narrow one
I can't design for everyone.
The real idea is a memory board for any relationship. To design well I picked one person to start with, and a narrow user keeps every decision honest.
friends
couples
families
siblings
friend crews at concerts
The ideA
Music is one of the strongest memory cues (Belfi et al., 2016; Jakubowski et al., 2023). So I held records in a store, watched a disc slide out of its sleeve, and wanted that feeling here.
Friends pool their photos for the night. Every disc you were part of sits on your own wall.
Decision 1 · The home wall
I got this one wrong first. Try the three versions. Move your cursor across the honeycomb: that is the lens.
3. Honeycomb
A lens. Biggest where you look, like the Apple Watch home screen. The newest night lands in the center. Grid, List and search handle finding.
1. Random
Broke trust. I placed a record, came back, and it had moved.
2. Locked
Still a web page. Same places every time, but it looked like any other site.
Decision 2 · The record
The sleeve is the artist. The disc is your night.
Switching Covers to Vinyl replays a disc sliding out of its sleeve.
I planned to crop album art into the label. Spotify's guidelines say don't crop, so the sleeve shows the artist whole and the disc carries your own photo or a colour.
What it cost.
You lose the artist's face on the vinyl wall, and it gets darker. I used that as a feature.
Covers
Vinyl
Album cover is taken from Spotify
Decision 4 · The event page
My first version was a photo gallery. I dropped it, because you already have folders.
1. Watched real walls
I asked friends to send photos of their walls.
2. Looks composed on day one
The canvas is bounded and new photos land with a small tilt.
The wait is the animation.
A photo develops like a polaroid while it uploads.
The group owns it.
Anyone who joined can move anything. Only the person who added a piece, or the creator, can delete it.
GRID
A folder. It sorts photos. It doesn’t feel like a wall, and you already have folders.
wall art
A wall. Polaroids, tickets, cassettes and letters, placed by the friends who were there (wall art was made by my friends)
Summary
Cost
Spotify
What it does:
Shows the artist’s cover as the sleeve, whole and uncropped.
The rule:
Fetched live, shown with credit and an Open in Spotify link. Never stored, saved or printed.
What it cost:
The artist’s face is gone from the vinyl wall. Your own photo is the disc.
Giphy
What it does:
Brings animated stickers onto the event wall.
The rule:
Shown with GIPHY’s attribution, following the display rules they publish.
What it cost:
The artist’s face Fill in only if true, for example “I can’t promise a sticker will look the same in a saved file.” I don’t have a confirmed cost in your docs. gone from the vinyl wall. Your own photo is the disc.
Google drive
What it does:
Drag photos straight onto the wall from your Drive.
The rule:
Your photos, your choice. Nothing is read until you pick it.
What it cost:
Fill in once built. Add a “Next” tag if it isn’t.
What I'd build next
01
Timeline recorder
Replay a wall part by part, like a trip or eight years of a relationship. Parked until the core loop of add, invite and decorate is proven.
02
Spotify web player
Let a disc play its song. The simple route is Spotify’s embed. The full player needs Premium, desktop and approval from Spotify, so I haven’t built it.
03
Notifications
Tell friends when someone adds a photo or a disc lands on their wall. The settings screen exists, but nothing sends yet, because there is no email provider.
