ROLE:
Designer
TOOLS:
Figma Figjam Procreate
SCOPE:
3 weeks
TIMEFRAME:
March 2023
Homie Sound-track
SKILLS:
User Research, User Testing, Mobile
COURSE:
Interaction Design 1: Responsive
about.
How might we identify unmet needs of Spotify users and enhance the user experience?
"In this assignment, you are tasked with exploring the Spotify application – its features, functions, visual layout, color, and typography. You will be asked to identify an unmet need or challenge in the existing Spotify application and address it by either (1) designing a new feature or (2) redesigning an existing feature."
empathize.
Competitive Analysis
First, our assigned group conducted a competitive analysis. We all had the task of creating a collaborative playlist.
I did the analysis for Spotify, noting its positive and negative features when completing the task. Other group members did the same for applications such as Apple Music, Amazon Music, and Tidal. By comparing Spotify's user experience to other popular music apps, it can help identify what features make Spotify stand out and where it stands compared to other apps.
Key Takeaways
1. Functionality: None of the other three platforms allow you to add collaborators to a playlist like Spotify does.
2. Unique Features: There are a lot of features within the app that aren’t offered on the others, such as the sleep timer and the enhanced button.
3. Error Prevention: In comparison to Spotify and Amazon Music, Apple music includes more significant and streamline error prevention.
Interviews
How can we gain more insight on Spotify's user experience? Talk to people directly.
Our group conducted five interviews with active Spotify users within our combined social networks.
Key Takeaways
1. Most people find it difficult to switch to a different music streaming platform after already investing time into one.
2. People really enjoy seeing the music that their friends are listening to and discovering music through them.
3. Music players are often used as background to activities, such as hanging out with friends, working out, showering, etc.
define.
Affinity Mapping
In class, everyone wrote their own "how might we.." questions based on their group's user research. We then sorted everyones questions into different categories through out the classroom.
Key Takeaways
After examining the affinity cards, I started to brainstorm different routes that I could take for addressing one of the many user needs that have been identified.
Incentive for Long-Term Users
Personalization? Flashbacks? Archives? Spotify wrapped but more than a year?
Understand your Music Tastes Better!
Music Timelines? Feature to identify music? Music Organization Feature?
Make it more Collaborative
Friends feed? Top 10 of the week? Private Chats?
User Persona
Name: Snehaa | Age: 19 | Location: Boston | Occupation: College Student | Values: curious, responsible, active
Lifestyle: Snehaa is a college student in Boston currently. At home, she was used to driving around, going to school, and going to the gym while listening to music. While living in Boston, she has had less time to dedicate towards music as a full-time student. She is studious, and finds music distracting when doing her work. She primarily listens to music when she is cleaning, walking from class to class, with her friends, and when she has free time. Snehaa is trying her best to balance her student life and music, but because she has much less time to listen to music and much more academic expectations, she hasn’t been able to discover new music as frequently, and her playlists are not as good as she would like it to be.
Scenario/Challenge: How can Snehaa make more time for music? How can she discover more music and keep up to date on what she loves to hear?
Problem Statement
As a frequent music listener, Snehaa would love for an easy way to see what people are currently listening to and enjoying, so she can discover new music and expand her music taste.
ideate.
Sketches
Workflow:
Open friends tab
Press top right corner icon to open song ratings
You can see which friends are active, their most recent songs, different friend groups, top songs and more.
When you go in a specific friend group tab, you can add songs to joint playlists, rate songs, and view top artists and songs.
Additional Features include most played songs, trending songs, different user personas and more.
Low Fidelity Wireframes
Ideation:
A shared Spotify feature where you can see songs that your friends are listening to. You can rate the songs and organize them as well.
User Testing
I conducted user testing and identified a couple of problems with the low-fidelity design, and then I addressed it in the high fidelity.
Takeaway 1
Problem:
Including your friend's name, the artist, title of song, and a comment on the main page does not go with the design Spotify already has, and is overall way too much information.
Solution:
Focus on a design that highlights the actual feature more than the content the feature includes. It will be easier and more engaging for users to interact that way and it stays consistent with Spotify's design.
Takeaway 2
Problem:
The overall interface is pretty different from Spotify's, and not as intuitive. Users wondered how to do tasks that Spotify already has, such as the play button or more icon options.
Solution:
Make it easy for users, but in a way that is already familiar. I added a play button and more features Spotify already has. Additionally, I created playlists on the feature so that it is easier to visualize the concept of the star ratings.
Takeaway 3
Problem:
Users didn't understand what history meant and the way this whole interface was organized.
Solution:
When creating the playlist for the history feature, I made the feature pop out the way Spotify usually organizes it. I let the ratings be organized the same as genres, and it was much easier for users to use.
prototype.
High Fidelity Wireframes
final deliverables.
Video Walkthrough
Conclusion
What were the most important parts of your process?
Based on the initial research and interviews, there was a notable theme of users enjoying the friends activity tab, and being able to collaborate with their friends' music taste. This ultimately influenced the creation of the user persona to be a student who enjoys discovering music, using Spotify features that already exists effectively (i.e. making multiple playlists), and discussing music with their friends. I started with two possible refined statements. The first refined statement was to be able to organize playlists more in depth for users who organize their music on Spotify frequently. The second refined statement is to allow people to be more in touch with other users to discover new music: the first idea allowed you to upvote and downvote music that is trending, and the second idea was to have a place where people could see "Artists of the Week" or "Song of the Day," so they could discover new music. After conducting user testing and further evolving the idea, I decided my final idea to be a Spotify feature that allows people to share music with their friends, and for Spotify to create playlists based on the ratings done by the user.
What did you learn about designing for the screen?
I organized the screen in a way that would be easy to understand for users. I put the Homie Soundtrack feature on the main page so that it was easy to find for users. Originally, when I created the design I had put it as a playlist on the search page, but found that users' were having a hard time to find it and it was out of place. I also realized that my original ideas were overwhelming to the user, in which they had no idea what to do when they reached the interface. This guided my final design, in which I matched Spotify's design that is already placed and formatted less confusing and new features so that users could easily understand. Moreover, when I created the design of the rating system, I made sure to provide feedback to users on the rating they chose for a song by changing the color of the stars.
What succeeded and what could be improved?
The most successful aspect of my feature is the friends activity at the top of the feature's interface. Being able to swipe and see different friend's music that they have recommended is exciting, and many of my friends have expressed personal interest in the feature. A lot of people who use Spotify on their laptops really enjoy the friends tab, and so having it on the phone gets people interested. Adding the rating aspect of it, and organizing all the new music you are finding from people you care about, is all the more effective. If I were to continue this project, I would definitely create the design for how users can actually recommend a song to their friends and share it. Additionally, I would probably create more playlists that "Spotify" would create, implementing some of their newer updates, such as blends.
