Spotify
Spotify is a leading global streaming entertainment company that prioritizes providing audio tracks for music, podcasts, and audiobooks alongside artist profiles and upcoming concert dates. The platform works to fit a user's needs and tastes when it comes to entertainment and streaming on system applications and web browsers.
I am introducing Tuned In, a new feature designed to elevate a listener's experience by seamlessly integrating a live audio listening feature to the Spotify mobile app.
I created a Spotify feature add-on, enabling live audio listening where the product can discover the song, adding it to a improved listening history screen.
UX/UI DESIGN
UX RESEARCH
BRANDING
THE PROBLEM
While Spotify works to encourage a user to explore, there is an overload of information in that showcase, while missing an opportunity to foster current and new music genre interests.
To better understand how to improve a user's experience, I looked to discover a user's relationship with the platform. This prompted a deeper dive into accessibility, design preferences, discovery, social networking, and how to bring that into the physical act of listening to music.
THE SOLUTION
an opportunity to explore and engage, giving past experiences a moment to be replayed
A Spotify add-on feature that enables live audio listening, taking that information from reality to your screen.
Users will have the opportunity to engage with the application to discover music in their daily lives
Tuned In will live listen to find the desired audio, providing accessible data for a user to return to
Users will receive curated suggestions based on their discovered tracks
This relocation will include listening history, tuned in history, and what's new when it comes to music discovery and search
Considering heuristics, users will be able to access their listening data in a more seamless and accessible fashion
THE RESEARCH
Quantitative and Qualitative Data
I conducted a competitive analysis, user surveys, card sorting, user personas, and storyboarding to drive my research. These categories of research allowed me to dive deeper into a globally renowned platform while understanding and organizing the details of my esearch participant’s experiences. This information contributed to my overall design and feature implementation.
1
Understand what a user’s relationship with Spotify looked like
common uses, how they approach music discovery, how they felt, how it incorporated into their lives
2
Determine common goals users have seeking music discovery
users felt option overload with the amount of new music and feature offerings
3
Understand the barriers and triggers that hinder one’s ability to explore
screen fatigue, limited time, lack of data access, poor user- experience
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
DISCOVERING PATTERNS
I decided to pursue user research in the methods of survey and card sorting for this study since Spotify is a widely popular and used platform, creating space to pursue more data-driven results and insights.
USER PERSONAS
Defining Personalities
STORYBOARDING
Telling A Story
After understanding the user and their needs, it was time to understand design requirements to prepare how to better fulfill their goals.
ESTABLISHING DESIGN GOALS
Integrate and Engage Effectively
Through my research, I began to turn my objectives into design goals. I was looking to integrate this new feature with the existing platform to alleviate choice overload while providing engagement for users.
SITEMAPS AND STRUCTURE
Seeking to implement structure before designing, these diagrams provided me direction to getting closer to a solution. Envisioning the path defined answering the problem.
TASK FLOWS
USER FLOWS
APPROACHING DESIGN
Inspired by Spotify's existing branding to incorporate a new feature
Drawing inspiration from Spotify's approach to designing new features, I looked into those past products to create a similar visual system.
REIMAGINED UI KIT
USABILITY TESTING
1, 2 Testing
Participants completed 2 tasks, where we observed and discussed their train of thought, movement patterns and enjoyment of the experienced. Based on their feedback and findings, I prioritized improving direction and existing design.
DESIGN ITERATIONS
I created space for significant change
Working with a popular platform, I found participants were so familiar to the point of innovation. I was able to discover opportunities that I did not see from my own familiarity, and this empowered design changes that focused on user integrity and physical functionality.
INTRODUCING TUNED IN
As a new feature, it was important to be eye-catching and provide opportunities for engagement.
Building upon existing Spotify components and branding styles, I was able to develop this feature to exist as a button, remixing the existing design style to transform with the button to initiate live listening.
TUNED IN = DISCOVERY
Branding for this new feature came alive when initiated, considering motion, color and design systems.
Iterations included branding elements and the Tuned In screen, where history and suggestions live, while honoring Spotify’s intention to remain simple and clean while offering discovery opportunities.
PRIORITY: ACCESSIBILITY
Spotify launched this swipe menu to provide users the opportunity to explore new content, view their listening history, and review their settings. Through research, this was found to be inaccessible.
I reimagined this feature to exist within the “Search” screen, empowering this page’s utility to include search history, listening history and tuned in history.
