This is the major project of my MA in Graphic Branding and Identity at London College of Communication.
The brief was to create a brand from scratch and explore its identity. I made a product instead.
Because of my keen interest in music and sound, I started exploring the correlation between sound and identity until my focus was brought onto the sound of the human voice, a very personal and distinctive trait that “brands” us acoustically.
I then identified a problem, which is the impersonality of present social internet communication. This is because of the prevalence of written communication, which lacks the naturality of oral communication, the dynamicity and the interiority of sound, in other words the identifying power of the human voice.
So I came up with Babble, a live vocal chat and a proper social space beyond the screen.
By focusing completely on oral communication, the experience is almost purely auditory. Through speech, users are given a deeper and more personal social interaction.
Babble is a move towards a natural, transparent and sincere communication over the internet.
In terms of UX, it was very interesting to see how much I could simplify in order to let oral communication shine.
There are no user profiles, no feeds, no direct messages. There is no written language at all.
On Babble, you are just your voice.