Spotify: Adding a social playlist feature that allows users to discover new music from friends
The Project
Project Goal
While Spotify doesn’t want to be the next social network, there’s an undeniable truth that music brings people together and Spotify wants to help that connection further.
This new feature should enhance how users share music with one another and deepen engagement within the app.
Brand Overview
Spotify is the leader in streaming music. With over half of their users paying for a subscription, they have a devoted fan base that continues to grow despite other players entering the space.
Their dedication to user personalization alongside a captivating a brand breeds a loyal user base.
Role
User Research, UX/UI Design, Prototyping, Usability Testing
Tools: Figma, Maze, Zoom
The Process
1. Empathize
Understand how users currently share music, the pain points, and conduct market research.
2. Define
Get specific on the problem we’re trying to solve and who we’re solving it for.
3. Ideate
Start to create the UX design and visual design based on Spotify’s current design.
4. Prototype + Test
Test the designs with real users and iterate as needed.
1. Empathize
Overview
My first goal was to understand the music streaming space. Who were the competitors? How much of the market share did Spotify really have? How could you currently share music within the app? How did other services let users share music?
Once I had a solid lay of the land, I began user interviews with my selected demographic. My first round of interviews was to understand how users currently share music and the second round focused on diving deeper into the pain points that exist when users share music.
From there, I built out my persona and an affinity map to set the tone for who we’re designing this feature for and what we’re trying to solve.
- Secondary Research + Competitive Analysis
- Primary Research: User Interviews + Findings
- Persona
- Affinity Map
Understanding the landscape + competitors
Spotify is hands down the leader within the music streaming world. They occupy over 40% of the market share amongst the top streaming services with a paid subscription base.
As the leader, Spotify has explored multiple features that promote sharing their product. Whether it’s creating collaborative playlists or sharing a Spotify song right to your Instagram story, there are multiple ways to share music; however, receiving music still remains an off-the-app experience.
Spotify has invested a lot of time in curating music for users. The software uses a smart algorithm to put together playlists based on a user’s listening habits. The Spotify experience encourages users to discover new music through these playlists, artist or song radios, and mood-related playlists.
Right on Spotify’s tail is Apple Music. Launched in 2015, Apple Music quickly jumped to second place, and even surpassed Spotify when it comes to U.S.-based users. Apple Music users appreciate the seamless integration with their Apple products and the wide catalogue of music.
What remains a constant frustration across services is how to share music with someone who may not listen with the same service. While previews are available, many users are very local to their listening platform, creating a bit of a divide between users.
Breakdown of music streaming services by paid users
Understanding how users share music
My research was split into two phases:
Understanding how and why people share music
Digging into the pain points that come up when sharing music
I decided to focus my research specifically on men, aged 28-38, who use Spotify on a weekly basis.
I conducted a total of five remote user interviews to learn more about how men listen to, share, and connect over music, specifically using Spotify. Although all were Spotify Premium users, all men reported using some other service (SoundCloud, YouTube, etc) to supplement their music listening.
These interviews unearthed how these men use Spotify, who they look to for new music, and how they share music with people. I also learned so much about how the context, as well as the relationship to a person, plays a huge part in why and what a person shares.
After all interviews were conducted, I transcribed the recordings and pulled out key quotes from each interview. From there, I organized the quotes based on the theme to distill them down into goals and needs, pain points, motivations, and opportunities.
- Discover how people share and discover new music
- Understand the relationship between the sharer and the sharee
- Unearth any pain points or barriers in the music sharing process
User Research Round 1: Learnings
“I’ll very rarely put together playlists anymore.”
“The context of why a song is sent or shared gets lost.”
“I have go to people I trust for specific types of music.”
“It’s a great way to share a moment with someone.”
Goals + Needs
Music is personal. People have a very emotional attachment to songs and find their taste to be unique to them.
Users need to trust who is sharing music with them. People typically only have a few people who they think really know their music taste.
Motivations
Sharing music feels special. Whether it’s shared as a road trip playlist or at the start of a new relationship, music plays a part in relationship building.
Users share music when they are reminded of someone. A meaningful music share is more about the sharee, less so the sharer and their preferences. “I think you’ll love this” is more powerful than “I like this.”
Pain Points
Creating a playlist for someone else is a big lift. Just like creating a mixtape, users feel that playlist making is reserved for special occasions.
How music gets shared with a user gets lost. Users wish it was easier to revisit songs that were shared.
Opportunities
Find the overlap in listening. The initial barrier is trusting that a person has a similar taste. How could users find people who overlap with their interests easier?
Playlists aren’t easy to make, but they’re wanted. How do we make creating a playlist for the purpose of sharing easier?
User Research Round 2: Learnings
“I like the happenstance of listening to one song in the moment.”
“I wish there were more personalized recommendations based on my friend’s thoughts.”
“I know my tastes to an extent and only trust certain people to send me stuff I’m going to listen to.”
“Making a playlist is a lot of effort.”
Motivations
Sharing music commemorates an event. Going to a concert together or going on a trip is a reason to create or collaborate on a playlist.
Listening out of respect. When someone shares music with you, it’s respectful to listen to it, even if it isn’t immediately.
Opportunities
Curating a music collection. We don’t really see people’s music collections anymore since it’s much more watered down than having an album collection. How is there a way to showcase what you’re listening to?
Making sharing music more meaningful. How do we go back to the concept of gifting and sharing music?
Goals + Needs
Users create playlists to remember. Everyone has their own system, but all participants reported making playlists to remember a specific time in their life.
Users have to trust whoever is sharing music with them. This trust is usually built off of a long history or a shared moment with music.
Pain Points
Mixtapes are not the same as Spotify playlists. Mixtapes are fond memories, but haven’t been exactly replaced by Spotify playlists.
Sharing music is almost too easy. Because it’s so easy, it’s a little less meaningful when someone sends you a link.
Creating a persona
Meet James.
Based on my user interviews, I gathered some of the most prevalent "features" to create this persona. I used quotes and pieces of the interview to create the pain points, motivations, and goals. I also used brands referenced in interviews to build brand affinities that will help guide the design in terms of patterns and integrations the user might be familiar with.
I think that this group — men aged 28-38 — have a really interesting perspective on the concept of sharing and listening to music. They’ve seen music go from records → tapes → CDs → Napster + iTunes → Spotify. They know how difficult it used to be to make a mixtape or transfer a music library.
Click to enlarge
Designing an empathy map
To get a better sense of my persona, I pulled together quotes and personality traits from my interview. The empathy map showcases key quotes about how my persona listens to and shares music.
2. Define
Overview
My research provided a great base to start ideating on how to solve some of these pain points for users. I used rapid ideation exercises to bring ideas to the surface and find a viable solution. Once I landed on a solid solution, I built out a few different storyboards and finally a user flow the address the problem.
- How Might We Statements
- Crazy Eights Ideation
- Rapid Storyboarding
- User Flow
Uncovering the problem to solve
Overview
To dig deeper into the actual problems that users have with sharing music on Spotify, I went through an exercise of creating How Might We Statements. After reviewing all of the interview transcripts, secondary research, and my interview findings, I began to list out a bunch of How Might We statements that stated a problem to solve.
I started by writing down everything that came to mind, including different variations of a problem. After creating over 35 statements, I distilled it down to 20, and then the top 3 statements that I found to be the most interesting problems to solve:
How might we make it easier to revisit music that has been shared?
How might we make it easier for people to see where their friends overlap with their music taste?
How might we show users what their friends are listening to and liking right now?
Ideating on the problem
Using the 3 how might we statements, I began to sketch out ideas using the Crazy 8 method, taking 5 minutes to come up with 8 different ideas for how one of the problem statements could be solved. I built upon ideas throughout the process and combined some to address multiple of the How Might We statements.
Storyboarding the solution
In reviewing my Crazy Eights ideas, I found that there were a few ideas that kept popping up or were created multiple times in different ways. Now it was time to storyboard. With a few ideas front of mind, I began to sketch out storyboards for the ideas that were identified. Similar to Crazy Eights, I kept each sheet of 8 moments in the story to five minutes to make sure that the flow was streamlined and simple.
Ideas
Creating a playlist based on a user's preferences and theme of music
Saving a shared song in iMessage to a new playlist
Creating a user flow
Upon reviewing my storyboards, I found that I really resonated with the idea revolving around co-creating a playlist with a friend based on the overlap in music taste, plus a mood or type of music. Using the storyboard, I fleshed out a user flow for this feature any any necessary screens that would need to be designed.
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3. Ideate
Overview
Using Spotify’s design guidelines and developer resources, I set out to take my designs from low-fi to hi-fi. I aimed to reuse design patterns where possible and keep the interface simple so that learnability from the user’s perspective wasn’t a hurdle.
The first step was translating my user flow into mobile wireframes and taking those wires through a usability test. The feedback from this test helped form the final designs and allow me to move confidently into hi-fi designs.
- Mobile Wireframes
- Low-Fi Prototype + Usability Test
- Hi-Fidelity Designs
Designing wireframes for mobile
With the user flow in place, I began to create wireframes for the screens of this new feature. I tried to keep Spotify’s brand feel in mind even with the wireframes and utilized already designed elements where possible. I also utilized bootstrap grids to make sure that the development of this feature would be as seamless as possible.
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Prototyping + testing low-fi designs
To ensure that users understood the concept of this new feature and my overall designs made sense to users, I decided to conduct a usability test with the low fidelity wireframes.
Using Maze, I created a test that asked users to complete a series of tasks and answer a few questions regarding the task and prototype in general.
Recapping the usability test
Completion Rate
Choose to create a Combo playlist: 84.6%
Select friend and vibe for playlist: 100%
Invite a friend to playlist: 84.6%
Participant feedback on ease of use
Learnings
Overall, users didn’t have trouble moving through the flow of the feature; however, a lot of users got tripped up on the name of the feature, as well as the difference between adding vs. inviting friends to the playlist.
Adding vs. Inviting Friends: Participants were unclear on the difference between the first step of finding and adding a friend and the second step of finding and inviting a friend.
Quotes
"I was confused by adding Ryan twice - before creating the playlist, then inviting him?"
Changes to make
Create two different visual experiences for the first step (curating music based on friend’s taste) and second step (inviting a friend to join the playlist)
Combo Playlist / Feature Name: 4/12 participants understood that the Combo Playlist would take your and a friend’s music taste to create a custom playlist
Quotes
"Creates a list of songs based on music taste, it isn't clear up front that it's combined with friend's music. Didn't understand that until the next screen."
"Doesn’t feel intuitive, but am I combining playlists I already have with one my friends have?"
Changes to make
Update name to indicate an overlap between things to improve understanding of feature capability, i.e. Venn, Crossover, Overlap
Naming the feature
The most common issue in the usability test was that users didn’t know exactly what the feature did. The name ‘Combo Playlist’ was unclear and didn’t signify an overlap in music taste with a friend.
So, I did a bit of brainstorming and landed on the Venn Playlist, based on the concept of a venn diagram.
What is a venn diagram?
“A Venn diagram is an illustration that uses circles to show the relationships among things or finite groups of things. Circles that overlap have a commonality while circles that do not overlap do not share those traits.” via Investopedia
Using the term ‘venn’ could help with the following:
Creating a visual representation of what the feature does
Adding interaction into the experience
Giving users more ownership of the experience
Create less resistance in feature engagement
Reinforce that only one friend can be selected
Designing for hi-fidelity
Taking the learnings from the low-fi usability tests and using Spotify’s existing branding and design patterns, I began to translate my wireframes into hi-fidelity designs. I renamed the Combo Playlist to Venn Playlist, nodding to the concept of a venn diagram and finding the overlap in taste between two users.
In the visual designs, I decided to introduce more visual cues to help reinforce the capabilities of the feature. The hi-fi designs showcase the user’s image next to an open circle in a venn diagram, soon to be filled with whichever friend they choose. My intention here was to make it so that the user wouldn’t need to rely as much on the helping text to understand the feature. I think it’s also a bit of a branding opportunity for Spotify, as the venn diagram could be used in the final playlist, as well as across future marketing materials.
4. Prototype + Test
Overview
Once my hi-fidelity designs were in a good place, I wanted to test the overall experience, as well as the updates to explaining and visualizing the feature. I created a prototype to test the user flow of creating a Venn playlist. In usability testing, I would be able to audit any confusion on the feature in general, as well as make sure the understanding of the feature was solid. From there, I prioritized changes and created the final designs.
- Hi-Fi Prototype
- Hi-Fi Usability Test Findings
- Final Hi-Fi Designs + Prototype
Understanding + integrating the hi-fi usability test results
To fully understand how the designs functioned in the hands of the user, I organized remote usability tests (both remote and in person) with 5 different participants. Each participant was asked questions around the feature’s assumed functionality, as well as tasks to go through the flow of the feature. I recorded all participants’ paths and any comments, feedback, confusion, or frustration they had during the process. This usability test helped gain a better understanding of what users thought the feature did, any expectations they had, and any potential blocks in the user experience.
Taking the participants’ feedback, I implemented key changes that help with the overall usability of the app.
Visuals of a venn diagram help users understand the feature
Vibe is too subjective
Users expect to be able to do this with more than one person
Creating the final designs + prototype
Using insights from my final usability test, I created the final designs for the Spotify Venn Playlist feature. In my final designs, I introduced more visual cues to reinforce the feature’s functionality. I also cleaned up some of the visual design to be more in line with the colors and images used throughout Spotify. One of the bigger changes was switching ‘Choose a vibe’ to ‘Choose a genre’ to be less subjective. This screen also includes icons and images from the existing Spotify app.
So, what did I learn?
Creating something for an app that I personally know, love, and pay for was a really rewarding experience. I enjoyed talking to people about their music listening and sharing habits. I definitely uncovered some interesting findings, especially around playlists and mixtapes, which feels very particular to the demographic of my research group. Following the research and going into rapid ideation was also a great exercise in letting the research do the talking and find problems from research, rather than just set out to design and build a solution. While that was challenging at times, it proved to be a very rewarding process.
This was also a valuable experience in terms of designing within existing design guidelines. Spotify’s UI is quite minimal, so sometimes it became challenging to find design patterns that worked with what I was trying to use.
Next steps for this project would be to enhance the sharing functionality and perhaps an in-app messaging or reacting feature so that users can comment on songs within a certain playlist. Additionally, a lot of users expected to create the Venn Playlist with more than one friend, so allowing for that would be next on the list.
👋 Hey Spotify, if you’re reading this: let’s chat!