SPOTIFY

Discover a new dimension of music sharing on Spotify. Share your favorite tracks with friends, and stay in tune with their listening habits through captivating story updates. This app enhancement brings you closer to your friends' musical world, making your Spotify experience more interactive and engaging.

My Role: UX/UI Designer
Timeline: 2 weeks
Year: 2022

 

Hey there!

I recently worked on a project for design lab’s UX Academy , aiming to enhance the Spotify experience. Although this feature isn’t currently available on Spotify, it’s based on real user feedback. Just wanted to let you know! Let’s dive in and explore this exciting concept together!

Let’s add a new feature to Spotify.

My focus was to design a captivating social feature for Spotify. I developed a functionality that enables users to seamlessly share music within the app and also provides the option to view their friends' stories showcasing the music they post. By incorporating this feature, Spotify aims to enhance engagement and retention, fostering a deeper connection between users through music sharing and exploration of their friends' musical preferences.

Research

I thoroughly researched and analyzed the features provided by various music streaming platforms. This involved closely examining the different functionalities and capabilities available. Additionally, I created provisional personas to better understand user preferences and requirements. Through this comprehensive research, I gained valuable insights into the range of features and user expectations

RESEARCH COMPONENTS

  • Secondary research

  • Feature comparison

  • User personas

  • User surveys

  • User interviews

 

Survey & interview results

  • 85% of users enjoy sharing music with friends and family, but find it difficult to do so within the app.

  • Users want a more seamless way to share songs and playlists within the app, without having to resort to third-party messaging apps.

  • Some users have resorted to taking screenshots of songs or playlists and sending them via messaging apps, which is a cumbersome and inefficient process.

  • Users want to be able to personalize their shared songs and playlists with messages or notes to provide context or express their feelings.

  • There is a desire for a more social experience within the app, where users can connect with friends and discover new music together.

  • Users want to see what friends are listening to and their recommendations.

Define

Based on the insights gathered from my research, I took the initiative to create a user persona that synthesized the feedback obtained from interviews and surveys. By consistently referring to this persona throughout the design process, I successfully prioritized user goals and proactively resolved any challenges they may encounter. This approach enabled me to develop a solution that significantly enhances the overall user experience.

JOB STORY

Using the job stories framework , I further defined this feature by coming up with this simple statement:

“Many users enjoy sharing music with friends and family , but find it difficult to do so within the app.“

Sitemap

The challenge at hand was to seamlessly integrate the new feature into the existing Spotify product while preserving its design patterns. To address this, I created a basic sitemap with black boxes representing the new screens. This visual guide helped to determine the optimal placement and flow of the feature within the app.

Task Flows

Wireframes

Once I established the typical task and user flows, I proceeded to create low-fidelity wireframes showcasing the new features: the story feature on the homepage and the enhanced music sharing options in their existing location within the Spotify app. By placing the story feature on the homepage, it ensures high visibility and encourages user engagement right from the start.

To maintain consistency with Spotify's existing design patterns, I retained the music sharing functionality in its original location while adding new options to share music with friends. This approach enables users to seamlessly navigate and interact with the enhanced sharing capabilities without having to learn entirely new interactions.

Design

To ensure a cohesive UI design, I developed a basic UI kit specifically tailored for the Spotify app. This kit included examples of existing typography, color palette, icons, button styles, and design patterns. These visual elements served as a foundation to maintain consistency throughout the user interface.

Prototype & Final Design

Upon finalizing the UI design, I eagerly proceeded to prototype the screens, excited to witness the new feature in action. With the prototypes and the screens ready, my anticipation grew to conduct usability testing. Click here to check out the prototype. View clickable prototype

Test

After finalizing the prototype, I conducted usability testing to ensure the feature's user-friendliness and assess task completion.

  • 100%

    TASK COMPLETION RATE

  • 95%

    TASK ERROR-FREE RATE

  • Tasks

    Share song with friend

    View friends notifications

    View Friends Story

What I've learned from this project

Through this project, I gained valuable insights into designing a social feature for Spotify, it taught me the importance of working within the constraints of an existing product and adhering to established design patterns . I learned to challenge my assumptions , test ideas, and prioritize user needs to create a feature that enhances social interaction while respecting the intimate nature of music listening.