Ableton Live is computer software for creating and performing music. First released in 2001, Live is used by artists who make everything from techno to orchestral scores and can be found in studios and on stages around the world.

Since joining Ableton in 2015, I’ve worked as a UI Designer on three major releases of Live. Features I contributed to include Tempo Following, Multi-Clip Editing, MPE Editing, MIDI Capture and Link, as well as the Drum Buss, Bass and Poli devices. Along the way I helped to evolve Live’s icon system, branding and typography.

For Live 12, I was focused on improving some of the fundamental parts of the interface by reducing unnecessary visual detail, emphasizing musical content and streamlining workflows. The view design system—including the appearance of views, view focus and scrollbars, along with responsiveness of views and how they are toggled and managed—was refined and made more flexible. Live’s default themes were redesigned to be compliant with accessible contrast standards and adaptive to various system settings and lighting environments. Overall readability was improved by rebalancing core colors and placing emphasis on design elements and information in a more systematic way.