Spotify

Adding a new feature

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Project Details: 

  • My Role: User Researcher, UX Designer and UI Designer

  • Tools: Sketch, Illustrator & Marvel POP

  • Project Timeline: 4 weeks/ 20 hours per week

  • People Involved: DesignLab Mentor

Problem:

Spotify needs a new social feature integrated into their current design in order to improve customer growth and engagement. 

Solution:

To seamlessly integrate social feature into Spotify’s existing UI while maintaining branding that aligns with the clients and current customer experience. 

Phase 1: Research

The research phase included gaining an understanding of the music streaming market and its customer base. This was accomplished by identifying challenges and trends in the current market place and obtaining direct feedback from users one-on-one. 

Goal:

To understand the current music streaming market and its users. 

Deliverables: 

Market Research, Competitive Analysis, Heuristic Evaluation, and User Interviews 



Market Research:

Using online resources, research was conducted on existing music streaming services— key statistics, customer demographics and market place trends. 

Key Statistics:

  • Spotify has 217 million monthly active users

  • 100 million of Spotify’s monthly users are premium subscribers

  • Average users listen to 41 unique artists per week

  • Average hours spent listening to Spotify per month stands at 25 hours

  • 44% of users listen to Spotify on a daily basis

  • Around a third of Spotify listening time is pent on Spotify-generated playlists, with another third going on user-generated playlists

  • “Todays Top Hits” playlist is followed by nearly 20 million people

Demographics:

  • Millennials account for 72% of all weekly streams on Spotify

  • Millennials listen to just user 1.3 billion tracks every week

  • 52% of all streams consumed by users take place on a phone

  • 29% of Spotify users are between the ages of 25-34

  • 26% of users are between the ages of 18-24

  • The 3rd largest group of users (19%) are 55 or older

  • In the US, 23% of users are male/ 20% are female

  • Spotify reaches almost half of 16-24 year olds un the US per week

Market Trends:

  • Spotifys largest competitors are Pandora and Apple Music

  • Spotify makes up 36% of the global streaming market

  • Europe makes up 40% of Spotify listeners

  • North America makes up 30% of Spotify listeners

  • From 2014 to 2017, the number of hours spent listening to Spotify increased 25%



Competitive Analysis:

A competitive analysis was conducted to identify strengths and weaknesses with existing music streaming services. Direct competitors were established by those owning a majority of the streaming market and with 20 million+ monthly subscribers. Indirect competitors were determined by those that offer similar services but cater more to artists than customers. 

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Heuristic Evaluation

In order to understand Spotify’s existing interface and design patterns, we evaluated each screen. 

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User Interviews

Primary research was conducted in the form of 1-1 interviews. This provided insight from users directly— their experiences and frustrations. A script of open-ended questions was created to allow users to share information about their interaction with Spotify and other services. To view full interview guide click here.

Summary:

  • 5 participants

  • 3 female, 2 male

  • Ages 26-33

  • All participants use Spotify on a daily basis


Phase 2: Define

After completing research we synthesized our findings and established our users problem. This provided a clear direction for solving our users problem during the ideation phase. 

Goal:

To identify our target user and the problem from their point of view. 

Deliverables:

Empathy Map, User Persona, POV Statements and HMW Questions


Empathy Map

Individual behaviors, experiences and comments from participants during interviews were organized into groups of major patterns. These patterns provided insights and needs for our target users. 

Insights:

  • Users enjoy conversing with friends about the songs that they share. 

  • Users dislike working around Spotify to share songs with friends. 

Needs:

  • Users need to know that their listening habits have meaningful impact with those that they share with. 

  • Users need a more seamless way to share music with friends. 

 

User Persona

With a clear understanding of our users we were able to synthesize our data further by creating a user persona— illustrating major patterns uncovered from our empathy map. 

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POV Statements & HMW Questions

To fully understand our users problems we created point of view statements. Each statement was formed from the needs and insights uncovered in our empathy map. With POV statements established we then created how might we questions to inspire solutions during the ideation phase. 

 

Phase 3: Ideate

During the ideation phase we utilized multiple methods to problem solve for our specific users needs. 

Goal:

To brainstorm solutions, features, information architecture and flows.  

Deliverables:

Brainstorming, Product Roadmap, Site map and User Flows.


Brainstorming

Brainstorming was completed in two separate sessions— individual and group sessions. This allowed us to cover a much broader range of solutions. All individuals were given the same POV statement and HMW question, and asked to provide as many solutions possible to address each HMW question within 10 minutes.

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Product Roadmap

After completing the brainstorming sessions we selected specific solutions that would address our users needs. These solutions were listed out into a product road map and organized by priority level for the following phase. 

 

Sitemap

To provide the structure for the new feature, we created a site map to illustrate how those features would be integrated into Spotify’s existing design. 

 

User Flow

With our persona in mind, we developed a variety of user flows demonstrating how they might accomplish a task given a range of different scenarios. 

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Phase 4: Design

With solutions in mind, we then began developing the visual layout of each new feature. 

Goal:

To create the UI for new Spotify feature. 

Deliverables:

Low-Fidelity Wireframes and High-fidelity wireframes. 

Low-Fidelity Wireframe Sketches

Sketches of low-fidelity wireframes were created to consider elements, and placement of elements that would assist our users. 

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High-Fidelity Wireframes

Based on our sketches we designed high-fidelity wireframes that fit within Spotify’s existing design patterns. 

Phase 5: Prototype

We wanted to see how users interacted with the new features, allowing us to uncover any issues with the design early on.

Goal:

To create a prototype for usability testing.

Deliverables:

High-Fidelity Prototype and Usability Testing 


High-Fidelity Prototype

Using our wireframes we created an interactive prototype to test on our users via Marvel POP. 


Usability Testing

We conducted moderated usability testing on participants to identify pain points with the design, and gain feedback from users directly. Before testing we created a testing plan to outline objectives we were testing for and who we would be testing on. To view full testing plan click here. 

Objectives:

  • To identify any pain points as users navigate mobile application

  • To identify any issues as users search for newly integrated social features

  • To see how long it takes for users to complete a task

  • To identify any errors in the design of Spotify’s new social features. 

Testing Results:

Testing was completed on 5 individuals, 2 male and 3 females ages 26-33. With their permission we recorded their feedback, as well as their interaction using the mobile application. This provided insight into the updates that we needed to make before passing our designs off. For a full view of usability test findings click here. 

Phase 6: Iterate

We then synthesized the data from usability testing to identify updates that needed to be made.

Goal:

To identify priority updates for Spotify’s social features. 

Deliverables:

Affinity Map, UI Kit, High-Fidelity Wireframe Revisions


Affinity Map

Using information from usability testing we organized observations into major patterns and insights. These insights were then translated to recommendations for updates. 

 

UI Kit

To maintain consistency in the new feature designs we created a UI kit we could later hand off. 

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High-Fidelity Revisions

With recommended updates from testing, we made improvements to our high-fidelity wireframes. 

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Reflection

While working with Spotify, we were able to provide a new feature that address our users needs and expectations while using the app. Spotify’s users now have the ability to interact within the mobile interface. 

Next Steps:

  • Conduct further usability testing

  • Make updates to wireframes from testing 

  • Hand off designs to developers