Defining the next era of Live Show experiences

Roposo’s design embraced innovation and freshness to rethink the world of live entertainment

Episode 1 : Is live just a feature?

Live streaming has been around for longer than you think. The first live stream happened on June 24, 1993, by a couple of computer scientists and engineers from a band called “Severe Tire Damage.” They performed their usual gig when their colleagues at Xerox PARC in California decided to try out some new technology. The stream was broadcasted over a niche network called Mbone (multicast backbone), which could be watched as far away as Australia. This was the very first instance of live streaming both audio and video. Years have passed since that groundbreaking event. Today, billions of people tune into live streams every day.

We have spoken about our goal of “Standing for creative self-expression and authenticity” and how we are empowering the consumer’s expression with our Activity Board 😎. If you haven’t read it yet here you go :

Standing for Self-Expression: A Departure from the Comment-Verse

Before we proceed, it’s important to analyze the structure of the current live shows and unlearn any biases we may have developed from past experiences viewing live shows. The first association that most of us draw with live is a person in a rectangular box 📟, it’s what we have seen for ages. When we started thinking about Live on Roposo, the first question that we asked was, why a rectangle box? Why not something else?

Breaking free from the box

We often associate live shows with a person speaking from a box. In the past, this box was more horizontal, but nowadays it tends to be more vertical. However, the box remains a constant presence.

This raises the question: Why do we use an unnatural box?

Does it enhance the creator’s expression, or is it simply a tradition without much consideration? Is this something that Roposo as a platform wants to stand for? We needed to find answers to some burning questions.

Key problems to address

1. How can we elevate live shows to feel more organic and genuine?
2. How do we foster an environment that adds value to creators’ expressions without restricting their creativity in a box?
3. With empathy as one of our core values, how can we create an inclusive experience that respects everyone’s individuality and space?

Values that we aspire to embody

Taking this ideology in mind, we initiated brainstorming sessions to define our concept of a live show and the values we aim to uphold. Several key points emerged that we strongly believed in right from the beginning:

1. Connecting creators and audiences deeply and helping them build meaningful relationships
2. We are a Discussion first platform. We are a platform that supports healthy conversations between multiple hosts and between creators and consumers on a vast range of topics
3. Support Creators in expressing themselves to fully engage with their audience
4. We stand for expression and want to work towards making good opinions stick for long

What is a Live show for ROPOSO?

Let’s delve into what ‘live’ means for Roposo. As a platform, Roposo is all about real-time opinions and engaging discussions on the latest trends in our day to day lives. These conversations take place between creators and consumers, as well as among consumers themselves, fostering a vibrant community. We believe that each person has a unique perspective, making their opinions truly special. That’s why, for us, ‘live’ offers a window into a person’s unfiltered thoughts and views — whether it’s about trending music, the dating scene, or getting the best fashion advice.

Think of it as a gateway for consumers to connect with the lives and minds of our creators, opening a door to captivating insights

Alright, now we know about the unique experiences of the creators and consumers. What about the show in it’s entirety, should all the lives show be similar? Or do they have to be unique as well?

Birth of Canvas : Truest form of creator’s expression

Let’s explore the uniqueness of a show in the context of our familiar physical world. Imagine you receive a ticket 🎟️ to a show, but you have no prior knowledge about its content. All you know is that you need to get ready and head to the venue.

Now, what is the first clue that helps you understand what kind of show you’ve enrolled for? It’s not someone on the stage announcing, ‘Welcome to my stand-up comedy show,’ ‘magic show,’ or ‘classical music performance,’ right? Instead, the moment you step into the venue, you get a sense of what awaits you — through the ambiance, arrangements, decor, and even the attire of the people on and off the stage.

These elements give you an idea of what you are about to experience.

Similarly, why shouldn’t a consumer entering a live show have an immediate understanding of what to expect? That’s where the concept of ‘Canvas’ comes in. Just like its name suggests, Canvas provides a blank space where creators can work their magic and craft the experience they envision!

Time to put words into visuals 👩🏻‍💻

After several rounds of brainstorming and ideating, we had clarity and solutions for our problem statement. Let’s break it down.

1.Respecting and making space for all the elements: This translated for us in design as each element like Canvas, the Activity board, the show information, or the presentation area of the creator, all have its own well-defined space on the screen.

This also implies that nothing is concealed by gradients or overlaps. Each element is boldly presented and stands firmly on its own.

2.Bringing the uniqueness of the Creator & Shows : As we were moving away from the unnatural square, we went back to the basics of design and used shapes to bring out the uniqueness of a show and give the creator the power to choose their expression.

Let’s pause for a moment and marvel at the sheer beauty of Shapes.

Shapes and colours are incredibly potent tools for expressing emotions, as they have the ability to communicate on a subconscious level.

For instance, sharp angles and lines can evoke tension and unease, while curved shapes can be soothing and comforting. When creators purposefully incorporate specific colors and shapes into their live show they can harness these emotional associations to effectively convey the intended mood. This allows creators to establish the vibe for their live shows even before it begins.

3. Multicast shows need attention as well : We noticed that live shows often focus on solo casts, while multicast shows may lack innovation and thoughtful design.

To address this, we aim to develop a user-centric platform that fosters an inclusive and interactive experience for multiple creators, promoting seamless collaboration similar to a round table discussion. Moreover, we’ll cater to users who want to present something during the ongoing discussion without breaking the flow of the show.

And it’s time to wrap

With that, we have our Live Destination ready for users to explore, allowing them to like it, love it, or even hate it (as badly we want it to succeed, we are open to all possibilities and learnings). This is something new and fresh, born, grown, built, disintegrated, and rebuilt numerous times by a team of incredible people in Roposo’s product and design : Naveen Ramaswamy, Kanishk Mehta, Shrey Soni, Vaibhav Anand Gupta, Siddharth Chattar, Rup Kumar from the product front and Swapnil Sharma & Lavanya Gopalaswamy and I from design 🖤

Stay Tuned for What’s Next

Drawing an analogy from human anatomy,

We have our skeleton and muscles firmly built for our Live Show Experience. Its brain and heart are functioning smoothly too. Now, let’s explore the driving forces that propel our world’s motion.

We’ll delve into how our work moves, designing the motion of our world. Exciting developments on your way……