Flymachine · Live Music
A virtual venue is empty without your friends in it.
Flymachine streamed live concerts. People came for the music and left because nobody they knew was there. We designed the social layer: friends, messaging, and rooms.
The situation
Flymachine is a virtual venue for live entertainment that brings the immersion and community of real-world performances to the digital realm. The challenge: make the experience social before, during, and after events, so fans keep coming back.
The platform went quiet between shows
Socializers came to Flymachine to connect with friends through live music but lacked ways to interact outside the at-event experience. We needed social interaction to be core to the platform, even when no concerts were happening.
Design Question: How can we bring users back to Flymachine when there isn’t a concert happening?
“I love seeing my friends at shows, but when there’s no event, I kind of forget the platform exists.”
Design for the person who brings everyone else
I focused on understanding the motivations of our most social user type, the Socializer, and how Flymachine could better serve them through ongoing connection, discoverability, and shared experiences.
Goals
- Inspire and engage others through shared musical experiences
- Enjoy live music as a social event
- Communicate easily with friends during and outside events
Challenges
- FOMO: missing out on events and social moments
- Limited discoverability of new artists or shows
- Lack of connection between events
Mapping the social journey around an event
This visualization represents how users engage with Flymachine’s new social layer, highlighting key touchpoints of the “Friends” experience.
Three features made it social
We designed and validated three major features to strengthen engagement and community.
1. Friends List & Messaging
- Persistent friend system across events
- Real-time messaging with lobby and direct chats
- Activity indicators showing where friends are watching
2. Hero Feed Social Integration
- Social posts tied to event replays
- Easy sharing to other platforms
- Embedded “join friend” actions from the feed
3. At-Event Chat Rooms
- Lobby-based public rooms and private DMs
- Simple, unobtrusive chat during performances
- Lightweight architecture to support high concurrency
People stayed longer and shared more
The “Friends” feature successfully transformed Flymachine from a passive streaming platform into a social hub: increasing engagement, extending watch sessions, and fostering community retention.
What this project taught me
Social context extends engagement
Adding friend and chat systems encouraged users to return between events, improving long-term retention.
Simple chat mechanics can drive deeper community
Even lightweight messaging significantly increased user connection, proving you don’t need complex social layers to spark meaningful interaction.
Design for both event and non-event moments
Creating a reason to return outside live performances is critical to platform stickiness, a principle now guiding Flymachine’s roadmap.