Role
UX & UI Design
Team
Feature Add Solo project
Duration
80 hours
Tools
Figma / Figjam
Overview
Project Background
A popular audio streaming service is looking to expand its features
Spotify is a globally known audio streaming and media services provider that went public in 2018 as a music-streaming platform but has expanded to streaming other audio media. A majority of Spotify users enjoy the personalization and discoverability aspects, but due to trends of this generation, social aspects have also become a strong focus.
Problem Statement
Rise in social trends and features put pressure on platforms
Spotify would now like to explore adding another social feature to their product to help the business grow by strengthening communities to keep users coming back.
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How might we create a feature that forms a sense of community and encourages greater user activity?
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Solution
iOS app design: A new section, 'Friends,' to Spotify's mobile app
'Friends' is a new feature that implements various social interactions and retains users attention in the app.
Listening Activities & Listen Along
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Easily access the 'Friends' section on the bottom navigation
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See what songs, albums, or playlists friends are or have been listening to
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Listen along with active friends in real-time
See Updates & See What's Shared With You
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Check the 'Updates' feed to see if friends have updated or created a playlist, liked a new album or song, etc.
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See what has been personally shared with you in the 'Shared' feed so you can keep track content your friends want you to check out
Research
Secondary Research
Social media is a leading method for younger adults to discover music
To start off the research process, I did some secondary research to understand the market and company better, discover current music streaming and app usage trends, as well as connections with music and social bonds. These were some of the important insights discovered:
Competitive Analysis
Compared to Spotify, competitors are lagging behind in social features
I compared two direct and two indirect competitor apps. The direct competition apps did not have as many social features as Spotify, which has features like collaborative playlists. This makes Spotify stand out already as a platform and may be leveraged for retaining users. As for the indirect competition, both utilize connections to existing music platforms to enhance their own platforms.
User Interviews
Users appreciate ease of use, convenince, and variety
I conducted qualitative user interviews with 4 users who use/have used Spotify and have experience with similar platforms. Here are some questions I asked to gauge their music streaming habits and experience with app social features:
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How do you typically stream music or other forms of audio?
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Can you tell me about the last time you listened to music with others?
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Do you typically share music with others? How so?
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What is your experience with Spotify’s social features, such as Group Sessions, Friends’ Listening Activity, etc?
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What social features do you currently enjoy using on other apps? Why?
Main Insights
Based on the interviews, I discovered that all participants mainly rely on Spotify and Youtube (not Youtube Music) for music streaming. 1 of 4 participants had experience with Apple Music but did not notice any social features.
Some common trends in the interviews included the importance of ease of use, convenience, and variety of features in apps that the participants frequently use. All participants noted that they enjoy seeing what friends are listening to and frequently share music with others. On the contrary, common pain points include having to switch between apps for sharing features, which leads to feelings of lack of efficiency and organization.
Define
User Persona
Sabrina F. is one of two personas that I created after conducting my research to capture the common goals, pain points, and motivations of Spotify users.
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Persona 1: A music enthusiast who is constantly on the search for new music, making new playlists, and recommending songs
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Persona 2: A casual music listener who appreciates a seamless way to easily put on some music or share songs
App Map and Flows
The goal is convenience of connecting with others through music
My research showed the positive links between music and social connection, making a social feature suitable for strengthening communities. Since most Spotify users utilize the app on their phones, I decided to create the product for the mobile app.
I created the site map and created flows (task and user) after brainstorming possible social features to implement, such as a messaging system, searching for nearby listeners, and a song identifier. I settled on a new social section in the app, 'Friends,' to implement a variety of functions, as noted in the brief app map below.
Design
Low and Mid Fidelity Wireframes
I sketched out possible layout designs based on the tasks outlined in the flows before creating mid-fidelity wireframes in Figma. Since I was working with an existing product, I was constantly referring to Spotify's design guidelines and screenshots of the app itself. The friends' listening activity is an active feature on the desktop app, but not on the mobile app, so I used that as a reference to create the mobile version while adding the play preview feature.
UI Design
The brand values of Spotify consist of being innovative, creative, playful, and human-centered. Using the existing color palette and components available, I created high-fidelity wireframes of my design for the 'Friends' section of Spotify's mobile app. The existing designs were recreated as closely as possible to the true design.
Usability Testing and Iterations
A believeable feature that is straight forward and engaging
Usability testing was conducted with 4 participants (ages 18-31) using two scenarios with these objectives:
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Navigate to ‘Friends’ feature and add song in ‘Listening’ from friend’s listening activity to a playlist
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Navigate to ‘Friends’ feature, interact with social features in ‘Updates,’ and view posts shared by you or to you in ‘For You.’
There was a 100% test completion rate within an average of 15 minutes. Although all the participants thought the feature was overall convenient and intuitive, some common pain points involved errors with component functions, information architecture, and content interpretation. With that being said, these improvements were made:
Final Screens
Spotify Screens
Reflection
Final Thoughts
As an avid Spotify user, it was very exciting to come up with ideas for possible social features for this project! While brainstorming ideas, I was coming up with a lot of features that I knew I would enjoy using, but I had to take a step back and try to think outside of the box for what other users may enjoy as well. This was the first project where I had to implement designs from a well-established style guide, so there were some constraints in the creativity of the design process. However, it was a good challenge and practice for being more conscious of the details of design elements.
Since the prompt of the project was to create a social feature, the idea of including social aspects for the design was already put into my head and that influenced my research as well. For future projects, I hope to be more aware and question if the feature that the clients or stakeholders are asking for really fit users' needs.
Next Steps
Given that Spotify is a well-established platform, users may be sensitive to the introduction of new features or changes in an app that they're already so familiar with. With that being said, I would like to try using more iterative design processes to further establish this feature so that constant user feedback can be used to improve usability and adhere to users' needs.