OOLONG SAISON (2025)
PRODUCT DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT
Oolong Saison is a meditative, browser-based sound and visual experience that generates ambient music in real time based on the user’s local environment. The piece reimagines how digital experiences can respond to natural surroundings, blending generative composition with reactive 3D visuals.
Concept & Impetus
This project began with a simple question: What if music could feel more alive — more rooted in where you are and what’s around you? As a composer with a deep interest in interaction design, I wanted to explore how musical systems could become more contextual and personalized, without asking users to make a single decision.
Inspired by the patience and texture of modular synthesis and the natural evolution of ambient music, Oolong Saison slowly shifts with the time of day, weather, and other ambient cues — like a digital ecosystem in audio form.
Development & Design Approach
Rather than building a fixed soundscape, the experience is dynamically assembled using randomized musical events, layered synthesis, and real-time visual feedback. Notes and harmonies are drawn from a system of custom progressions that shift based on light, cloud cover, and time, creating a sense of slow, purposeful evolution.
The interface is intentionally minimal — a glowing orb that reacts to the music — allowing the focus to stay on atmosphere. The orb changes form, hue, and behavior throughout the day and night, subtly embodying the sun or moon, with shape morphing based on moon phases.
The tech stack leverages browser-native audio and visual libraries (Tone.js and Three.js), but the implementation deliberately avoids feeling “technical.” It’s designed to be invisible — the user never adjusts settings or clicks through options. They just press play.
Discovery & Feedback
Before building, I conducted lightweight interviews and informal testing with designers, composers, and ambient music fans. These users often relied on ambient playlists for focus, relaxation, or creative work but expressed consistent dissatisfaction with their experience.
Key insights included:
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Desire for Continuity: Users reported feeling frustrated by the segmented nature of playlists. Each track, even when curated with care, felt like a separate piece rather than part of a cohesive whole. Abrupt transitions disrupted their concentration and pulled them out of the immersive experience they sought.
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Preference for Evolution Over Repetition: Rather than looping the same compositions or transitioning between pre-existing tracks, users were intrigued by the idea of a piece that could evolve gradually over time. They desired something dynamic and responsive, something that could shift and adapt without ever feeling static or overly familiar.
- Ambient Music as a Presence: For many, ambient music functioned not just as background noise but as a comforting presence within a space. They desired something that could enhance their environment in a subtle, unobtrusive way—like a digital organism that lives and breathes alongside them.
After releasing an initial version of Oolong Saison, I sought feedback from users who had expressed interest in the concept. The response was largely positive, with many users noting the novelty of a soundscape that felt alive and constantly evolving. However, they also provided valuable insights that led to further iterations and improvements.
Key feedback and adjustments included:
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Creating a More Organic Listening Experience: Some users felt that the transitions between sonic elements were still too noticeable, which could break immersion. I responded by refining the underlying synthesis engine to produce smoother, more gradual shifts between tonal elements. Adjustments to the grain player and the introduction of a drone layer helped achieve a more organic, enveloping sound.
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Improving Responsiveness to Environmental Inputs: Users were excited by the concept of the music responding to external conditions such as time of day and weather. However, they wanted this responsiveness to feel more nuanced and dynamic. I enhanced this feature by incorporating real-time weather data and using gradual, rather than abrupt, changes in tone, frequency, and modulation.
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Refining the Visual Component: Users appreciated the audio-visual feedback but desired something more refined and cohesive. I updated the visualizer to reflect the concept of the orb as a living entity, tied to both the evolving music and the environmental inputs. Adjustments to the rendering process, including bloom effects and mesh deformation, improved the aesthetic experience.
- Cohesion Across the Experience: The most impactful feedback revolved around making the music feel like a single, continuous organism rather than a collection of pieces. This insight drove my decision to move away from a playlist-based approach entirely, focusing instead on an endlessly evolving audio environment.
Takeaways
Oolong Saison became a study in how audio and visuals can gently respond to the world outside the screen — not by asking for input, but by listening. The project blends art, code, and product thinking into something that lives and breathes.