Add-a-Feature:
Spotify
A Spotify mobile interface conceptual design to encourage listeners to discover new podcasts.
Timeline
12 Weeks
Figma
Canva
Mock
Tools Used
UX Researcher
UX/UI Designer
Product Testing
My Roles
Currently on Spotify, users are not able to filter podcasts and/or songs based on popularity or ratings.
When navigating through a podcast page, the episodes are featured in chronological order, and can only be sorted by all episodes, unplayed, downloaded, newest to oldest, oldest to newest.
When navigating through an artist’s page, the artist’s top five songs are featured, but not in order of popularity. After the 5th featured song, there is no way to see the subsequent songs in order of popularity.
Project Background
Without the ability to filter podcasts and/or songs based on popularity or ratings, users feel discouraged to explore new artists or podcasts because they don’t know where to begin.
This is a problem for both podcasters and artists because it can put them at a disadvantage to get discovered by users.
Users who want to search through a list of songs are unable to do so because songs are only listed by album. With a full song list available for each artist, users would be more easily able to add individual songs to their library.
The Problem
With an option to sort podcasts and/or music based on popularity or ratings, users will not feel overwhelmed when listening to a new artist or podcast. The ability to filter songs and podcasts based on these options will encourage users to discover new music and podcasts without a sense of overwhelm due to not knowing where to begin.
The Solution
The Approach
Empathize
Define
Ideate
Prototype
Test
Empathize
Conduct research to more deeply understand the needs, thoughts, emotions, and motivations of users.
We want to understand what is most important to users when discovering new music or podcasts, and learn about what users currently do to get acquainted with new music/podcasts when they don’t know where to start.
Research methodologies: Competitor analysis, user interviews
Research Goal
Encourage users to discover new music and podcasts by allowing users to sort through podcasts and/or songs based on popularity or ratings. This will motivate listeners to try out new podcasts or artists without the overwhelm of not knowing where to begin.
Business Goal
In order to gain a deeper understanding of how users listen to new music and podcasts, we conducted an analysis on popular music and podcast streaming platforms.
This research served as a source of inspiration for potential solutions and allowed us to identify the strengths and weaknesses of existing products: Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music.
Competitor Analysis
Business advantages:
World’s biggest music streaming platform by number of subscribers.
Users are extremely loyal to Apple products which places Apple Music at an advantage for purposes of brand consistency.
Customers who purchase Amazon products (like the Echo, Alexa, etc.) are more likely to subscribe to Amazon music.
Strengths:
Spotify has brand loyalty and name recognition. Spotify also offers exclusive content with celebrity podcasts that are exclusive to the platform. Provides a discover tab and curated playlist suggestions.
Apple music has a huge music catalog, offline listening, and the connect tab. Also there is an extensive list of songs on the artist page that Spotify does not have.
Amazon Music provides 3 tiers of audio quality.
Weaknesses:
Spotify operates on a freemium model. Free Spotify access comes with lower sound quality, advertisements and requires an internet connection. Those who pay for Spotify Premium can listen uninterrupted to high-quality recordings and are able to download songs for offline listening.
Apple Music doesn't have a free option outside of the free trial they offer. Users also cannot access podcasts- have to download Apple Podcasts
Amazon Music doesn’t have a lot to differentiate themselves from other music/podcast streaming services like Spotify...and it came around later.
By researching the strengths and weaknesses of other music and podcast listening platforms, it became clear that brand loyalty is a strong indicator of what streaming products users engage with the most.
At this point in the research phase, we set our focus on understanding how users interact with their listening platform of choice to discover new music and podcasts.
Research Findings: Competitive Analysis
Our research objective for the user interviews is to understand how users could benefit from being able to sort their favorite podcasts/artists based on the amount of plays or highest ratings.
We also want to understand what current practices users do to figure out where to start on a new podcast or a new artist. For example, when listening to podcasts do users Google top podcast episodes, search through the titles, or choose an episode based on its description? When listening to music, do they listen to the most popular song featured in the 5 highlighted songs? Do the users listen album-by-album? Do they google the artist’s most popular songs?
With the findings from the interviews, we will be able to better understand how to encourage users to explore new music and podcasts.
User Interviews
Interviews were conducted in-person among three individuals who regularly listen to music and podcast streaming platforms.
Participants
Research Findings: User Interviews
After conducting user research, there were some notable findings:
When listening to a new music artist on Spotify, users often start with the top featured songs on the artist page.
Users have difficulty choosing the first podcast episode to listen to when discovering a new podcast show.
Currently, when users want to start a new podcast show, they tend to scroll through the episodes and base their decision on the episode title and description.
Users have expressed a desire to filter podcast episodes to help them pick an episode to listen to. This would apply to episodic podcasts– ones that are not intended to be listened to in any particular order.
Define
Synthesize research findings to define the problem that will be solved for the user.
POVs and HMWs
After conducting the interviews, we put together various inferences and hypotheses to get a stronger sense of the user’s needs and pain points.
We decided to focus on the most consistent pain point highlighted by users in their listening experience: feeling a sense of overwhelm when selecting a new podcast episode to listen to.
Point of View (POV) Statements illuminate who we are designing for, what they need, and something remarkable that was uncovered about why the need is there or why the user is the way that they are.
We would like to explore ways to encourage podcast listeners to discover new podcast shows because users tend to feel overwhelmed in selecting which episode to begin with.
How Might We (HMW) Statements respond to the needs and insights uncovered during the research phase.
How might we encourage listeners to be more intentional when selecting podcast episodes to listen to?
How might we allow listeners to have more utility in choosing the first podcast they want to listen to when listening to a new series?
User Personas
With a better grasp on the user insights, it became time to put a face to who the design solution would be created for.
We decided to create a persona based off of the research findings to personify our users and to better convey the user’s decision-making process. The persona provides a brief description of the user’s interests, and incorporates their goals, motivations, and challenges.
Ideate
Generate ideas for potential solutions that address the defined problem.
With a better grasp on the user pain points, we decided to hone in on improving the podcast listening user experience. Because the majority of participants used Spotify to stream their podcasts, we chose to focus on enhancing the Spotify podcast experience.
We created a task flow to show the step-by-step process of completing a filtered podcast search function. Based on information gathered in our research, we decided to incorporate three new filters options in the podcast search experience:
Duration filter
Most played filter
Highest rated filter
Task Flow
Wireframes
At this point we began bringing the product solution to life by creating low and high fidelity wireframes.
We started with our low-fidelity wireframes and sketched out the necessary screens in line with the task flow that we created.
LoFi Wireframes:
Next we created high fidelity wireframes to execute the task flow.
HiFi Wireframes:
Prototype
Design an early version of the solution to bring an abstract concept to the real world.
Test
Observe how users interact with the product to gain valuable insights, better understand possible flaws, and make improvements.
Usability Test Goals
Through testing, our goal was to evaluate the usability of the added Spotify feature.
Usability Test Insights
Participant 1
On the first screen, user gravitated toward the search bar on the footer to type in “podcasts” rather than clicking the “podcasts & shows” filter button.
When getting to the filter screen, the user had trouble distinguishing the difference between “highest rated” and “most played” to complete the task flow.
Participant 2
On the first screen, user gravitated towards scrolling through the featured podcasts and using the search bar on the footer to search for podcasts.
Participant 3
User was able to easily complete the task flow, but was uncertain when choosing the filter options. She was uncertain on whether to choose the “highest rated” or “most played” filter.
Participant 4
User was able to easily complete the task flow, but was uncertain when choosing the filter options. She was uncertain on whether to choose the “highest rated” or “most played” filter.
Priority Revisions
Based on the insights gathered from usability testing, we synthesized our findings into a few recommendations to improve the user’s experience with TASTI.
Allow user to navigate through the task flow by including a screen with a search bar function that the user can access from the search icon in the footer.
Recommendation #1:
Flow before testing:
Flow after testing:
Adjust the filter options by removing “most played” as it seems duplicative to the users.
Recommendation #2:
After
Before
Prototype with Priority Revisions
Reflection
Small changes can enhance the user experience in a big way.
Through this add-a-feature case study, I have learned about how current Spotify users interact with the platform and how their user experience could be improved with small adjustments to the interface. For example, during my interviews I learned that when users are listening to a podcast channel for the first time, they often don’t know where to begin. One pattern I noticed was that users spend time scrolling through and reading the episode descriptions to inform their decision on where to start. With a small adjustment to the available filters, in this instance by adding a duration and “highest rated” filter, users can have more of a say in their podcast listening experience. Additionally, a small change like this will encourage users over time to explore new podcasts and widen their horizons because they won’t be overwhelmed when choosing where to begin.
