ON THE SPOT
A Live Events Feature for Spotify
The Problem
Music streaming platforms allow us to listen to our favorite tunes any time, anywhere, and social media has allowed us to share music with friends instantaneously. Spotify is the global leader in music streaming, but it didn’t have a stand alone social feature. Users seeking to connect with friends via the app have been limited to its integration with Facebook, Instagram, and other apps. To elevate the social experience of streaming music and increase engagement among its 165 million users, Spotify wants to create its own social feature.
Challenge
I assumed the role of a UX Designer for a speculative project to provide Spotify with an interactive prototype of the new social feature to be embedded within the current Spotify iOS platform and integrated seamlessly with the rest of the app.
RESEARCH
Market Research
I kicked off the project with a deep dive into research, seeking to understand the problem from macro and micro points of view. Through secondary research, I examined the current music streaming market context and analyzed trends and stats for Spotify, its target audience, and competitors. I then interviewed Spotify users in an effort to empathize with their experiences.
Key Findings: Market Research
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Music Streaming Stats
• 89% of the world’s population streams music.• 400 million total streaming subscribers globally
• Streaming occupies 75% of music industry revenue.
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Spotify: Key Stats
• 165 million Spotify subscribers in 2020• 32% share of music streaming market
• Available in >170 countries by Q4 2021
• Users sharing features limited
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Spotify: Consumers
• 56% male, 44% female• 29% Millennials | 26% <24 years old | 19% 55+
• 52% listen via mobile, 10% via tablet
• 44% users stream daily for 148 min./day (on average)
Sources: MIDiA (2020), Theverge.com, emarketer.com, IFPI survey (2019), Music Business Worldwide (2021), Digitaltrends.com, Forbes.com, Stastista.com, Musicbiz.org, Verto Analytics (2020), Statista (2021)User Research
To develop a truly user-centered product, I knew that I had to empathize with the frustrations, motivations and desires of Spotify’s target audience.
My provisional personas guided my hunt for target Spotify users.
I interviewed 3 females and 3 males, between the ages of 18 to 40, who were Spotify Premium (paid) subscribers
I asked participants a set of open-ended questions via Zoom, a convenient & effective strategy given COVID limitations.
User Research Findings
What was immediately striking to me in my interviews was that discussing music conjured emotions and nostalgia in all of the users, including memories, events, and milestones they associate with specific songs or types of music.
User Research Summary
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Key Questions
• How, why, when, where do they use Spotify?• How does music play a role in their social lives?
• How do they use digital platforms to connect with others?
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Key Insights
• Access: Users listen to music in a wide range of contexts.• Connection: Users view music as a way to connect with others .
• Emotional Trigger: Users notice that listening to music can trigger certain emotions.
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User Needs
• Access:
Users need to know they can listen to music no matter what activity they are doing.• Connection:
Users need to know they can share a song when it reminds them of someone.• Emotional Trigger:
Users need to know they can find songs that satisfy their emotional state.
SYNTHESIS
Persona
My synthesis of research findings gave me a clear picture of who I’d be designing for, defining the target audience. I created a user persona who embodied this Spotify listener, who would be my constant reference when making design decisions moving forward.
How do we help Gabriel?
I pursued solutions by holding a group ideation session via the online brainstorming platform, Mural, which allows users to generate possible solutions in real time and vote for their favorites.
The idea that sparked the most excitement involved a live events feature that would showcase guest DJs spinning their own curated playlists.
The Winner: “On the Spot”
I concluded that a live events feature would meet Gabriel’s needs related to accessibility, connection, and emotional triggers AND satisfy the client’s goals. Inspired by the company name “Spotify” and the concept of real-time entertainment, “On the Spot” was born.
Information Architecture
It was critical for On the Spot to function and integrate seamlessly within Spotify’s existing information architecture. To confront this problem, I recreated the hierarchy of content and navigation in the form of a Sitemap, referencing my heuristic evaluation of Spotify’s mobile UI patterns and components. I used this structure to position the new screens in locations that would be intuitive for users.
User Flows
What would Gabriel be thinking and feeling as he explores the live events feature?
I turned my focus to how a Spotify user might interact with the live events feature, imagining typical scenarios they might face and related tasks, including attending an event, inviting a friend, and viewing a playlist. I outlined these tasks and prioritized the UI components necessary to complete them.
To better understand how the UI navigation worked and how elements related to one another from the user's point of view, I created Task & User Flow diagrams. The sample task flow below addresses this key question.
PROTOTYPE
Wireframes
I used the sitemap and user flows and referenced Spotify’s existing UI design patterns to guide my early hand sketches and wireframes. Next, I created high fidelity digitized designs, which thoughtfully mimicked Spotify’s current user interface and visual design. It was critical for On the Spot to integrate seamlessly within Spotify’s existing information architecture and be intuitive to its target users. To accomplish this, I conducted a heuristic evaluation of Spotify’s UI, navigation, and components, which provided the framework for my sitemap.
User Testing
To get feedback from real users on the design and gain insight on how to improve it, I created an interactive prototype, using Invision, which I employed for usability testing.
• How? I chose the moderated think aloud method via Zoom.
• Why? To encourage users to express their thoughts & feelings as they interact with app.
• Who? 3 Spotify Premium subscribers, 2 females and 1 male, ages 25 to 40 years
User Testing Summary
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Strengths
• Positive reaction to look and feel of app.• Noted that UI & visual design felt authentic.*
• Users embraced the live streaming concept.
*Yay! This indicates I accomplished my goal of designing a feature that fit in seamlessly with Spotify’s existing interface!
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Pain Points
• Issue #1: Users struggled to differentiate between past, present & future events.• Issue #2: Users became disoriented when trying to get back to the main screen.
• Issue #3: Users were confused about the function of certain features.
Revisions
Final Prototype
View a prototype with limited functionality
After executing these revisions, I developed additional high fidelity screens and brought the app’s design together into a final prototype. In the final stage, I pushed myself to infuse a range of Spotify’s visual design elements throughout the app, including the background I created for the live events pages, which echoed Spotify’s exclusive features such as the Daily Drive. This process also inspired me to dream up more possibilities to enrich the social aspect of Spotify even further.
Reflection & Next Steps
A turning point in my design process was the decision to elevate the On the Spot feature in the app’s hierarchy by giving it the same level of importance as the podcasts and artists tabs in the library section. Several of the navigation issues pointed out during user testing fell into place once I made that move.
Spotify seems to be expanding its original content offerings, including exclusive podcasts and compilations such as “Daily Drive,” which signaled to me that On the Spot would align nicely within that trend. The design of the main events screen motif was a riff on these Spotify-only features.
The immediate context of the COVID-19 pandemic added another dimension of meaning to On the Spot. As live music events have been out of reach for so many, this new feature offers an alternative to the social isolation of this moment. On the Spot is intended to simulate aspects of real in-person music events and foster social connections no matter where you are.
My next steps would include:
Build additional pages for featured artists, including the radio station function that creates playlists for the listener based on music of the same genre as the chosen artist.
Integrate On the Spot into the search function.
Explore additional opportunities for social interaction via On the Spot, perhaps a chat feature through the app for direct messaging during live events.