Add a Feature for Spotify:
“Lend an ear”
In today's digital music landscape, Spotify stands as a titan, offering users a vast library of songs and personalized playlists. However, amidst its success, several user experience challenges persist, hindering seamless music discovery and interactions. The “Lend an ear” feature allows users to identify music through external sources with a single tap.
Roles: UI/UX Designer, UX Researcher
Agency: Design Lab
Duration: 4 weeks (~80 hours)
Tools Used: Figma, FigJam, Zoom, Discord
Design Process
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Overview
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Competitive Analysis, User Interviews
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Affinity Mapping, User Personas, POVs & HMWs
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Low-Fidelity Wireframes, High-Fidelity Wireframes
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Usability testing for High-Fidelity Wireframes, Revisions & Follow up Usability Testing
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Conclusions and Discissions
Problem
Research indicates that these issues stem from:
Difficulty in Identifying Music: While Spotify offers various features for music discovery, users often struggle to identify unfamiliar songs playing in their surroundings. In comparison to standalone music identification apps like Shazam, Spotify lacks a robust and intuitive mechanism for instant song recognition, leaving users frustrated and disconnected from the platform's ecosystem.
Importing Music from Shazam: Many users rely on Shazam for on-the-go music identification, yet face challenges when attempting to seamlessly import identified tracks into their Spotify playlists. The current integration process between Shazam and Spotify is convoluted and cumbersome, deterring users from transitioning seamlessly between the two platforms and hindering the cohesive music discovery experience. Additionally, Shazam has a business contract with Apple Music (one of Spotify’s major competitors) which prohibits Shazam from integrating itself within the Spotify ecosystem thus, introducing barriers to accessibility.
Discovery (Research)
Competitive Analysis
To define both the problem and our target audience effectively. I scrutinized Spotify alongside its rivals such as Apple Music, Soundcloud, and YouTube Music. This exploration allowed me to grasp Spotify's strengths and weaknesses, illuminating areas primed for enhancement.
A recurring issue emerged during this analysis: the complexity surrounding music search and identification processes within Spotify's platform. This discovery prompted a deeper investigation into potential avenues for improvement, focusing specifically on refining Spotify's music search experience.
User Interviews:
Next, armed with insights gleaned from the competitive landscape, I engaged in user interviews. These conversations were invaluable, providing firsthand accounts of everyday Spotify users' experiences and shedding light on additional pain points and moments of delight within the platform.
Features Roadmap/Matrix:
Before deciding on design features, I revisited my business goals: boosting sales, user retention, and user experience. I then set research goals and formed hypotheses to pinpoint issues, helping prioritize features within the constraints of time and budget. Understanding my target audience—users who want to explore new kinds of music and want a refined music search experience—was crucial. Based on this, I focused on refining the search experience by incorporating a similar to Shazam to improve the music search experience. These changes aim to improve the accessibility of the music search process by allowing users to record and sing to the music search on Spotify to identify music and address the issue of shazam not being integrated within the Spotify ecosystem due to their binding contract with Apple Music.
(Incorporating a feature that would allow for users to easily record or sing using the Spotify app to identify music.)
Business Goals
A refined music search experience
Reinforce brand trust and satisfaction within the existing Spotify users, and create a strong community that incentivizes users to keep using Spotify
Boosting sales (Lend an ear can be part of the subscription services”
Research Goals
Discover potential and current users’ needs and motivations to use Spotify for streaming music
Understand what services/features are most important to the users
Understand pain points that may discourage users from choosing Spotify
Explore key features that are successful in other music streaming platforms through competitive market research.
Target Audience
Users who want to explore more kinds of music to add to their taste
Users who want a refined music search experience
Users, ages 18-34 data shows most Spotify users tend to be on the younger side)
Define (Synthesis)
Affinity mapping:
Synthesizing the interview findings through affinity mapping, I distilled the plethora of data into
Three prevalent issues:
Search bar complexities
Explore feature inaccuracies
Challenges associated with music identification and importing from Shazam.
Based on the research, it seems that the biggest challenges for users stemmed from their inability to easily identify music in a way that other platforms can do through integrations. This is what led to the idea behind the “Lend an Ear” feature-- an approach towards storing and identifying all types of music and offering a way to integrate within the Spotify ecosystem.
User Personas:
To frame the direction of my work, I crafted Point of View (POV) and How Might We (HMW) statements, ensuring clarity and focus in addressing user needs. Additionally, the creation of detailed user personas helped to classify and emphasize the diverse range of user needs, ensuring solutions were tailored to their requirements.
Develop (Design)
Task Flows:
I proceeded to chart the user journey by delineating a task flow depicting the streaming and music discovery process within 'Lend an Ear.' This visual representation offered deeper insight into user activity and interactions.
Low Fidelity Wireframes:
At first, I designed a wireframe solely for the 'Lend an Ear' feature. However, after finalizing the designs and conducting usability tests, I noticed some participants struggled to locate the feature. This prompted me to reassess and enhance its visibility and user-friendliness.
Onboarding
“Lend an Ear”
Delivery (Testing & Revisions)
Usability test for High-Fidelity prototype:
Testing was pivotal in shaping the final deliverables for the 'Add a Feature to Spotify' project. Through usability tests post-prototype, I observed initial struggles in locating the 'Lend an Ear' feature. A statistically significant amount of participants reported confusion on where to locate the lend an ear feature thus resulting in lengthy task completion rates. This feedback prompted the creation of an onboarding process to enhance visibility and user understanding.
Revisions and Follow-Up Usability tests:
Subsequent tests showed a significant improvement in task shorter completion rates. This experience underscored the importance of user onboarding, especially when introducing new features to an existing platform. It highlighted the challenges users face with navigation and the value of providing a seamless introduction to enhance usability and accessibility.
Before changes
After changes
Changes
An Onboarding process was included to help users learn about the new feature.
A re-entry point was added for users to review the onboarding as needed
The Solution
Conclusion:
In summary of the project, I navigated the complex digital music landscape to enhance the Spotify experience with the introduction of the "Lend An Ear" feature. Challenges included users' struggles with feature location and complexities with Shazam integration. Through meticulous research and user interviews, I identified pain points and crafted innovative solutions tailored to Spotify's needs. The creation of "Lend an Ear" aimed to streamline music discovery, culminating in a seamless user experience. Iterative design and usability testing were pivotal in refining the feature, ultimately enhancing user engagement and accessibility. My favorite part of the process was immersing myself in the user perspective and crafting solutions that resonate with their needs. The insights gained from testing underscored the importance of user onboarding in introducing new features, shaping my approach to future projects. Through proactive user-centric design and iterative refinement, I'm proud to have delivered a solution that enhances the Spotify experience for all users.
