Spotify Redesign –– Cassie Jiayi Xu

DATE
Sep 2021 - Oct 2021

TEAM
Cassie Xu, Ashley Heo, Irene Xu

ROLE
User Research / UI/UX Design

Spotify’s mission is to help people listen to music whenever and wherever they want and it aims to provide an easy way to find the right music or podcast for every moment. However, while Spotify does a great job at bringing people together through music, it also keeps them apart. Spotify has an existing feature on its desktop version called Friends Activity, which enables users to connect with Facebook and see friend’s activities, however, the social connection this provides is limited. Currently to share music or podcast on the Spotify app, one needs to go elsewhere. Users need to use other apps like WhatsApp or Instagram to connect and share music with others.

Challenge ——‍

How might we create a feature that helps Spotify keep their listeners captivated with the Spotify platform that they encourage their friends to join, connect, and share?

Research ——‍

To add a new feature connecting people on Spotify, we analyzed Spotify's current social features and its usability to better understand what is lacked and how we can improve this experience.

We analyzed how users share music on Instagram story and found the experience to be struggling and not satisfying when there are multiple actions needed(e.g., users are not able to listen to shared Spotify music directly on Instagram Story).

Interview Documentation ↑

We held nine interviews with Parsons students to obtain in-depth qualitative responses regarding the key aspects of their experience with Spotify.

Some sample questions are:
- What do you like about Spotify?
- What are some inconveniences when using Spotify?
- If you have used other music streaming platforms, how were they compared to Spotify?
- Would social features in Spotify enhance/enrich your listening experience? Why?

User Persona ——‍

Solution ——‍

Spotify Moment
Moments is a feed of music stories that empower users to connect and discover more new music. We are moving beyond the algorithm.

Spotify Moments Enables ––Sound Recommendation
We are making the recommendation and music discovery experience more human. It’s not just Spotify recommending music, but also friends and artists they follow.Sharing with Friends
Moments allow people to soundtrack and share their current music moments with audio snippets or lyric quotes. Unlike other social media platforms, Spotify moments focuses solely on the music itself to help users continue enjoying their smooth listening experience on the platform. Music Community & Network
Spotify moments encourages users to spend more time on the app and expand the Spotify platform to a wider audience.

User Flow ——‍

01 –– From homepage, user can access Spotify Moments and like songs, add to queue or playlist. If users like the moment, they can save the moment to the library. 02 –– Users can create moment in three ways: first, selecting their profile on the home page ; second, highlighting the lyrics when listening to music; third, clicking the three dots menu when playing music and select create moment.03 –– When creating moment, users can select from three layouts: album cover, lyrics, or video snippet if available. Users can also add 1-2 sentences to express their thoughts on the music.