Spotify Add a feature
Making Spotify more social!
CASE STUDY
project overview
Spotify is the leader in the streaming music industry that wants to improve user engagement and retention in the app. To do that, they want to expand their social capabilities. Spotify needs help to define what is the best way to move forward in the right direction. They are interested to learn what add-on services can be added to their website to enhance the social aspect of user experience.
- Focus : UX/Visual Design
- Duration : 4 Weeks
- Role : Sole Designer
- Project Type : Student Project
- Tools : Figma, Miro, Adobe XD
Research
The research goal is to discover what the users expect from Spotify by designing a new social feature that embeds within the current Spotify platform. This also includes a variety of recommendations for additional and complementary features that could enhance the main social feature.
Goals
- How does Spotify differ from other music services?
- What kind of new features the Spotify user like to see in the app?
- What features can enhance the new social feature?
- How do they get updates on artists they adore or a specific genre?
I looked into various competitors and their offerings to music lovers. Additionally, a competitive analysis was conducted of similar products and came up with some brief provisional user personas based on the information discovered.
Methodologies
User Interviews
There is a special connection between humans and music. Everyone likes to listen to music based on their mood and activities. Each one of them uses a different music app based on their preference. Learn how these users currently use social features and what features can be helpful to them while listening to their favorite music.
Focus Group
Collect data from music lovers, and understand feasibility based on the information available. We can analyze the information and study further. The result can help us understand what music lovers miss while using the app and also what they look for that can enhance the current features within the music app.
Survey
Based on the collective analysis of different music streaming apps including Spotify, we need to understand what features are interesting and easy to use. This can help prioritize the social features that Spotify is looking for from the user's point of view. Secondary research will help in addition to the survey.
Participants
- People who would like to listen to music every day
- People who prefer listening to mood and activities
- People who use while at work, working out, leisure
- People who listen to the podcast, audio books
- People who are DJs, teenagers, connected to film industry
Assumptions/Risks
- Do the users access the app from different device types frequently?
- Does the user listen to music based on algorithm-based suggestions?
- Do they prefer new updates and recommendations for new songs?
- Do users prefer to share the music with their friends within the app?
- Do they discover new artists or genres based on their listening habits?
Competitors Research
The secondary research is based on the competitive brands that include music streaming platforms, ease of use, affordability, service, capability, solution solving, technology, overall success, feasibility, reading articles relevant to the industry, and comparing features between the leading platforms.
STRENGTHS
- Ability to create personalized radio stations
- Choose songs based on Moods and
Activities - Excellent music discovery algorithm
- Offline listening and downloads
WEAKNESSES
- Availability is limited to the US only
- Web player loads and buffers too slowly
- The user interface is cluttered and unintuitive
- Playlist creation requires a Premium subscription
STRENGTHS
- Amazon has a strong position and successful
brand image in the market - Millions of songs with new releases from today’s
most popular artists - It works on it’s homegrown Echo and Dot wireless
speakers - Ability to download music and offline listening on all smart devices
WEAKNESSES
- The user interface is not friendly
- It is not properly organized. Lack of original content
- Slow content search and difficulty finding material
STRENGTHS
- The application is installed across the majority of Apple music devices
- Apple music can be downloaded in over 100 countries
- Apple music provides a family subscription plan
WEAKNESSES
- More innovation could assist Apple Music streaming develop exclusive solutions and offerings
- Part of the mature market it will be a challenge to sustain their market share
- It has a limited distribution capability
STRENGTHS
- It allows you to enjoy free offline music and
integration with YouTube - You can download music for offline listening on
many different devices - App has a handful of features that give it a leg up over other music streaming services when it comes to music discovery and music
recommendation
WEAKNESSES
- Subscription is available to select territories and
regions, not everyone can subscribe to it. - Compatibility not as good as other music apps
- Buggy app requires constant clearing of app
cache
STRENGTHS
- Allows downloads for offline listening
- Exclusive music and video content
- Sleek, intuitive user interface
- Extensive music library and offers podcasts and
music videos
WEAKNESSES
- It is certainly one of the more expensive
streaming apps - No social features
- No free version
- Music discovery isn’t great and lacks personalized playlists
Incredibly, music can still break through and allow human interaction. These facts could help us to know what new features can benefit the music app.
Define
Drawing from my research data, a user persona encompassing everything I heard from real users in interviews and survey responses was created. By referring to this persona during the design process, I stayed focused on user goals and avoid or solve problems that are out of scope. As part of user research, I was looking for people who are interested in listening to music.
Participants: 3
Interview Duration: 30 – 45 mins
Goal: To learn and understand how music lovers listen to music
Research Debrief
Observations | Participant 1 Gender: Female Age: 37 Occupation: Home Maker | Participant 2 Gender: Male Age: 17 Occupation: High Schooler | Participant 3 Gender: Female Age: 29 Occupation: Developer/Zumba trainer |
Listen to music | Use mobile or smartspeaker to listen to 90's songs especially while cooking and doing household chores | Listen to music from laptop and mobile while doing homework. Use wireless headphones to enjoy music while playing basketball | Use laptop to listen to music while coding. Connect mobile to smartspeaker while pracitising Zumba with other friends |
App Preference | Currently using Spotify, previously used Apple Music. Prefer mobile app instead of web version | Using Apple Music now and previously used YouTube. Like to use mobile or web app | Use Spotify to listen to music. In the past, have used Apple Music and YouTube. Don't mind using any type of app - desktop, mobile or web version of the app |
Key Features | Share and like playlist with friends and family | Not sure, haven't explored much | Like the ease of use |
Managing playlists | Easy to search music and add them to playlists | It is fairly easy to find music and manage playlists | It is easy to search music but at times search retrieved no results |
Lyrics of your music | Yes, very interested | No but interested | Not aware, but interested |
Concerns or Issues | None so far | Yes, the app freezes sometimes | Yes, sometimes the desktop version freezes |
Notification and Updates | Yes, that would be great | Not very keen | Yes, interested to get updates when a specific artist or a new music for genre is published |
Research Insights
- Based on responses from all the participants, Spotify is very convenient and easy to use to listen to their favorite playlists
- Most of them are switching from another music app to Spotify because of the vast collection of music and genres
- The participants like to find songs based on their mood and activities
- Few participants are looking for lyrics of the songs and some participants are already able to see lyrics for new collection of specific regional songs
- The users can create, add, and delete songs to a playlist on Spotify
- At times, the song suggestions are wildly irrelevant to the collections compared to what they are listening to
- Suggestions from the users includes the option to see songs/music trending in each country, notification on favorite artists and genre, and limited feature parity between devices and web interface
- Some user wants to watch video and audio together to enhance their music experience
Persona Bio
Based on the empathy research, here is our featured persona’s bio from the user interviews.
Empathy Map
Looking at the featured persona we mapped the feelings and thoughts to an empathy map.
Feature Roadmap
Spotify is used widely worldwide. Based on the study Spotify has many features though some are hidden and unavailable across mobile, desktop, and web. According to competitor and user research, the roadmap can help to bring out and enhance the hidden features so that users can efficiently utilize them.
Product Feature Roadmap | |||
Priority | Features | Description | Research Supporting |
1 | Notification |
| Competitor analysis and user research |
2 | Share playlist | Provide an easier way for users to share the songs/playlist with friends/groups | |
3 | Trending song | Suggesting top trending songs based on regional | |
4 | Number of likes and views |
| |
Site Map
This shows the blueprint of Spotify’s website according to our featured persona and empathy map to understand the current and new additional features to be added. The newly added features are highlighted in green color.
Interaction Design
Based on the site map and persona the Task Flow, User Flow and Product Requirements were built as the guideline for future design.
Task Flow
A user journey to enable, add and edit notification option to get updates within the app.
User Flow
Steps to enable/disable notifications to get updates
Design
To proceed with the UI design, I reviewed and extracted from the existing Spotify branding, including logo, typography, color palette, icons, button styles, and design patterns. Then I created high-fidelity designs of the wireframes with the relevant graphics, icons, and text.
Responsive Wireframe
Once I began sketching various styles, I narrowed it down to these digitized wireframes of the website in desktop format.
Style 1
Style 2
High Fidelity Prototype
After designing wireframes, I built multiple iterations of high-fidelity design with sizing, proportions, and visual hierarchy in mind. I kept existing experience intact to add new social features to enhance the overall music listening experience.
Test
After that, I created a prototype with Adobe Figma and did user testing to validate if the new features made sense to users. Further witnessed if users can complete various tasks in the web based desktop app.
Usability Test
Participants includes those who regularly listen to the music via app or website.
These participants may have been using the Spotify music app regularly.
Test Objectives
Ensure all the features make sense to the participants and are simple to use. The users must review and complete all the required tasks without facing confusion or frustration during the process. Jot down if any issues are noticed.
Test Subject
High-fidelity design prototype from the home page to enable specific notifications to the user looking for updates. Confirm the new features do not hinder the usability of other commonly used features.
Test Methodology
Setup one-on-one user testing by allowing participants to navigate on their own using the desktop version of the web prototype and study the usability testing through a virtual or in-person meeting at scheduled time.
Test Goals:
The goal is to understand the main functionality of the desktop version of Spotify with new features added. Keeping the brand information clear throughout the progress. Record any frustration with the flow while navigating through new features.
Task completion rate
100%
Task error-free rate
97%
Tasks Completed
Like and share music
Review lyrics of music
Chat with online friends
Add songs to playlist
Affinity Map
These are the combined feedback and findings based on usability testing of high-fidelity mockups.
Key Findings
Observations
Participants are familiar with using the updated user interface. They were able to understand the new features. They liked newly added features as they could connect with friends who liked similar music choices. Ability to review the lyrics of the music was well received by them.
Insights
The overall branding aligns with the rest of Spotify’s brand guidelines. Social features like sharing music, chatting with online friends and reviewing lyrics were very helpful. The updated notification feature when music libraries are updated was exciting to music lovers.
Opportunities
Make a friends group for group interaction. Direct navigation to see the list of songs previously listened to. Users are looking for the ability to enable/disable sharing with friends. Highlight text while playing music with the lyrics feature turned on.
Priority Revision
According to the key findings, there was an immediate opportunity to enhance the overall social experience by adding a group chat functionality among friends without disrupting the overall design of the UI.
