Spotify, Project Overview
Spotify has recently rolled out some major UI and feature updates for premium subscriber. The updates include a streamlined navigation from 5 tabs to 3 (home, search, library), revamping of the search page and experience with the expectation that it would yield better results, and the new artist radio feature. As an avid premium subscriber, it’s clear to me that the brand is always trying to improve the user’s experience with more personal, customizable, and empowering listening sessions. However, based on frustrating experiences of both my own and other users, I saw an opportunity to pursue an independent project to build on Spotify’s recent updates and discover a solution that would improve the experience even more.
The Challenge
Although the app is one of the most widely used music streaming app, there is currently a disconnect between the user’s experience with the app and the natural behaviors and habits of music listeners. While using Spotify, users tend to browse recommendations, discover new music, create personal playlists, all while listening to music in a single session. Users perceive music listening or discovery as more-or-less a passive activity that should require little to no effort. However, switching between their different goals isn’t a linear transitions and is sometimes perceived as disruptive.
My challenge was to find a solution to seamlessly integrate the different types of experiences that Spotifiers pursue when interacting with the app into one cohesive experience while also improving the app’s search process to mirror the way that user’s naturally discover music.
Goals
Integrate a new feature that allows users to seamlessly transition between discovering/browsing through new music and accessing their personal library of playlists without disrupting their experience.
Reimagine Spotify’s search experience in a way that genuinely mirrors user’s mental process and natural behaviors when searching for new music or playlists.
Research Kickoff
User Interviews
Usability Testing focused on –
Search for a playlist on any mood of their choice
Adding any song to one of their playlists
Accessing a song that was recently saved
“Put your consumers in focus, and listen to what they’re actually saying, not what they tell you.”
Early Discoveries
All users tend to switch between different goals, like looking for playlists saving songs, and accessing their own personal during one interactive listening session.
All users discover new music in the application through the search function or from listening to existing playlists.
The averages number of hours users interact with the app during a given listening session is about 2 hours.
User Goals
Existing Friction In The Experience
Key Insights
Although Spotify provides countless opportunities to discover music, they all lead to the same problem of users needing to restart their search if they get disappointing results–the process doesn’t feel continuous for users.
On the other hand, if they like a song and decide to save it to a playlist, their positive experience is interrupted because of the long process to add a song.
Different items like the playlists or radio stations that you follow, songs that you have saved, playlists you have created, or search experience are codependent on one another when creating a great listening session. However, Spotify’s UI design places tucks away each feature in its own screen or a separate folder making them feel independent from one another and irritating for users to access.
Further Discovery On Audience
Design Kick Off
Users associate Spotify with curated playlists, active music discovery, and passive listening sessions. Using the insights discovered during my research, I started my design process by sketching out different ideas.
My main focus was to design an experience that gave users more control of their music discovery experience with an easier transition to access their library. Based on my research, it was clear that both accessing library and discovering music were crucial to the users’ experience and often times, they switched between different goals that required easy transitions. I wanted to ensure that these transitions were seamless giving users more control of their music discovery experience and customization of their library.
Most importantly, my goal was to create a solution ensuring that enjoyable listening sessions were no longer interrupted by changes in the users’ intent.
The Solution
To users, music is a passive activity that’s paired with active intentions. It’s something that’s played in the background to keep you company while you’re performing some activity–studying for an exam, finishing a presentation, driving, taking the subway, or even while doing absolutely nothing.
This new experience was designed to capture the natural streaming behaviors, discovery process, and search expectations that users have during their Spotify experience.
Easier Access to Library: I redesigned the interface with the user’s library locked on the top half of the interface. This decision was spurred by my research where it was clear that user’s listened to Spotify for an extended period of time while switching between different music- listening goals. My goal was to decrease interruptions for the user whether they are jumping between discovering new music, curating personalized playlists, or accessing existing content in their library.
Enhanced Search Experience: Spotify will now assist users in their search experience to discover the perfect music for their particular taste. Now, playlists and radio stations can be searched by easily selecting multiple categories that fulfill all factors that users take into consideration–current activity, emotional state, the genre, artist, the tempo, all the way down to the season of the year, cultural events, and decade.
