Spotify Feature Design
This is a concept social feature design for Spotify, that improves the customization of concert searching while allowing users to see the concerts friends are attending.
To improve engagement and retention in the app it would be a great idea to expand their social capabilities by adding a new feature.
The new social feature should be in favor of the human and primarily centered around music. I was responsible for conducting user research and secondary research to dig deep into the needs and pains of users that could be solved through the social feature. I was also tasked to design the feature in a seamless way within the existing brand.
Research & Findings
- Understand users' listening habits, including listening times and devices used.
- Learn about user's frustrations when using Spotify
- Identify and compare key competitor platforms and their social features.
- Learn about Spotify's influence and impact in the music streaming industry and identify their new ventures.
- Analyze Spotify's current social features and past failed attempts.
Primary Research:
User Interviews:
To identify the motivations and frustrations of Spotify listeners.
To gain insight on the social features that might/might not integrate well on the platform.
Secondary Research:
Analyze Spotify's social feature attempts and understand their success and failure.
Competitive Analysis: Determine the strengths and weaknesses of competitor music streaming services.
“I don’t always want Spotify to predict the concerts I want to go to. I’d like to see which concerts my friends are going to. ”
Persona Development
From the Spotify's target audience, I elaborated the concert-going persona who enjoys interchanging music with friends by expanding social interaction in the physical space of concerts. Our persona, Harold, a 30 year-old male from Denver, helps address the major needs and aspirations of the user group.
User VS Business Goals
Sketches
IDEATE
User Flows
I created visual screens with annotations to illustrate the user flow. It illustrates the steps and options the user has for a customizable experience when looking for concerts near by.
PROTOTYPE
High Fidelity Responsive Screens
Usability testing & refinement
I created a high-fidelity mobile prototype using Invision to bring the wireframes to life and conducted a usability tests to 8 Spotify users. I tested the following tasks
User will explore concerts near them.
User will select a date range and genre to narrow the concert search results
User can see which concerts their friends are attending
User can save concert and artist to account
From the usability tests, I noticed confusion on the introduction of a defaulted map view when users accept location setting for accuracy.
Many participants mentioned that though they want to control the genre and dates of the concerts they attend, the do appreciate recommendations from their library.
With the feedback I iterated the screens and created a Concert landing page with a call to action to explore concerts near the user and with a snapshot of recommended concerts based on their favorite artists, and an option to see friends' saved concerts.
Next Steps
There was positive feedback with the new iterations of the screens and many participants also mentioned that this feature improves the Concert section of Spotify, making it useful and interactive. It encourages subtle social engagement and facilitates connections outside of the app at concerts. For my next update, I will design how saved concerts are viewed under "My Library."