Sometimes a playlist is more than just background noise — it’s how we cope. Metle is a personal project built from lived experience, designed to support emotional wellbeing through music, reflection, and intentional listening.
Many people, including myself, use music as a tool for mental health. It helps manage anxiety, lift moods, and offer comfort. But current music streaming apps don’t support emotional regulation directly.
Spotify and Apple Music lack mood awareness, journaling tools, and the ability to track how music impacts our emotional state over time.
Suicide is the leading cause of death for young Australians.
1 in 35 young Australians experience depression.
The average youth listens to music up to 5 hours a day.
There’s a clear opportunity to turn passive listening into emotional healing — especially for young people navigating mental health challenges.
Metle is a music streaming platform and mental health tool for users aged 15–29 who use music to regulate mood, reflect emotionally, or cope with anxiety.
It combines mood-based listening with journaling, progress tracking, and support resources to create a more intentional, emotionally aware music experience.
Users select how they feel or how they want to feel using a Mood Grid.
Metle suggests genres based on that emotion and tempo, e.g.:
• Fast + Sad = Metal
• Slow + Calm = Lo-fi
• Fast + Happy = Hyperpop
After listening, users journal how they feel — creating a music-linked mood history.
A 16-quadrant system based on tempo and mood. It's colour-coded and consistent across the UI to visually represent energy and emotion.
Reflections are tied to mood and music. The user’s emotional patterns are visualised in a calm, clean calendar interface. Entries can be locked for privacy.
Includes an interactive vinyl player with custom art, rotating animation, circular progress bar, and dynamic backgrounds that reflect the music’s tone.
Quick links to helplines, local services, and educational content remind users to seek help when needed.
Metle = mental + metal. The logo is a stylised “M” formed from a musical note, with colour mapping from the mood grid to represent emotional states.
Supportive and empowering — never patronising. Metle exists to make music feel like a friend, not just a soundtrack.
Built in Figma. Includes flows for login, mood map, genre suggestions, journal entries, playlist, and account settings.
Testing will focus on mood map clarity, journaling comfort, and emotional impact. Participants will include teens and young adults who use music for emotional regulation.
Metle taught me to design for emotional nuance, privacy, and real-world safety. It showed me how UX can be a space for healing, not just usability.
Expand genre–mood pairings, test journal/calendar UX, explore Spotify API integration, and seek partnerships with mental health orgs or the NDIS.
Music helped me get through hard times. Metle is my way of paying that forward.