Spotify’s mission is clear: “to help people listen to whatever music they want, whenever they want, wherever they want—in a completely legal and accessible way.” As a streaming music service, Spotify is the group lead and it wants to stay that way. To improve engagement and retention, we look at the social capabilities within the app and how those can be enhanced.
The music streaming industry is a beast. There are many players in the industry but Spotify definitely leads the way. The majority of Spotify's users fall within the 25 - 34 year old range followed by a close second with the 18 - 24 year olds. Spotify users have a high daily listening rate with the majority choosing mobile as their preferred device.
Next, I looked into other players in the music streaming industry and compared each one with the other. Choosing a handful of the more popular services, it was interesting to see how they matched up. Spotify's users tend to use the service more within a given month compared the competitors in part because of how user-friendly the interface is.
I conducted several user interviews in order to collect information about their overall experience with Spotify. Of the interviewees, 3 were male and 2 were female. All the interviewees fall between the ages of 27 - 42. Through these interviews I was able to learn more about who the users are and the experiences they have using the Spotify.
To familiarize myself with the current design and interface of Spotify, I conducted an app audit. This gave me a better understanding of the main features and social capabilities that are currently offered. I conducted the audit based on Jakob Nielsen's Usability Heuristics.
With the main objective of adding social capabilities to the Spotify app, it was important to gain insight into how users currently use that app and to what extent they use it socially. I found that a large portion of those interviewed, either did not share music or did not fully understand the sharing options within the app. By using an empathy map, I was able to identify the user needs and how I might be able to improve social interaction.
Next, I created a persona "Michael" based on the findings from the empathy map. Michael represents Spotify's target demographic. With Michael, we can better empathize with the target user throughout the design process.
After defining the target user, Michael, I needed to better understand how I can help Michael with Spotify and its social capabilities. I created point-of-view statements and how-might-we questions to help encourage solutions for those needs.
To start, I referenced the how-might-we questions, and conducted a short, individual brainstorming session to generate possible solutions. I followed this up with a group brainstorming session that included 5 Spotify users to help discover potential solutions to Michael's problems. I presented the group with our persona, Michael, explaining the context and reasoning for the brainstorming session. As a group, we were able to discuss and generate a number of ideas. Pizza and cake were provided!
To start, I organized both business and user goals into one document by taking goals from the Persona and business goals from the brief. I then identified shared goals and added some technical considerations as well.
After the brainstorming sessions, I was able to gather all the suggested features and create a product roadmap focusing on several of the features presented. I took into consideration feasibility, ease of integration and how many users the new features would affect. I limited some of the goals to just one feature solution as to not introduce too much to existing users.
Next, I created a sitemap in order to visualize the information architecture of the app. This helped me determine the best location for each new feature.
To better understand how users will navigate through the site performing specific tasks, I produced a task flow diagram. This allowed me to think through the user's process and make sure all possible pages are developed to help the user gain the information they need.
I also created a user flow diagram. This helped me think through different scenarios while a user explores the site and gets the information they are searching for.
To begin generating ideas for these new features, I sketched out several low-fidelity wireframes of various sections within the app. Sticking to Spotify's design patterns was a challenge when conceptualizing these new features, but feel the end result was a success. I added annotation so that sections were clearly defined allowing me to gather quick feedback.
I conducted 5 in-person interviews and had each participant perform certain tasks. I was able to collect valuable usability feedback from each participant.
After conducting the usability testing, I was able to identify key insights and generate the top recommendations from test users through an affinity map. Taking these recommendations, I now had areas of the site I could improve upon, making for a better user experience.
Before moving into the high-fidelity wireframes, I researched Spotify's brand guidelines to fully understood the constraints. To help with this process, I created a mood board and studied various sites and articles regarding the Spotify brand.
Finally, I applied the branding and styling to the wireframes in Sketch and made an updated prototype using InVision. The new prototype shows the updated look and feel.
Once I began prototyping, I maintained a UI kit throughout the process to document UI elements and patterns for future reference. I recreated all Shopify elements using Illustrator and Sketch for use in my high-fidelity wireframes.
