Introducing a new way to collaborate with friends.
With over 345 million active users, Spotify leads the pack for music streaming. Spotify wants to add a feature to the platform, stay ahead of their competitors, improve the user experience, and drive new user engagement.
Uncover what users want the most out of Spotify and how they feel about listening discovering music and collaborating with other users.
Introducing ‘Make Collaborative,’ a new feature that enables users to collaborate on playlists and share playlists without sacrificing control.
This is a project that I completed for DesignLab’s UX Academy and is not a functional feature implemented on Spotify. However, the research is organic, and the design is based on real user voices. ✌️
I began by conducting secondary research: looking into competitors' music streaming platforms, reading articles relevant to the industry, and comparing features between the leading platforms. Many streaming platforms have overlapping features but none of them do it all.
The challenge now is to figure out what new feature would benefit Spotify the most and help it rise above its competitors.
I analyzed what features Spotify's competitors offered and see what features Spotify users missed and/or wanted.
After distributing surveys and conducting interviews, I discovered common user goals and pain points. My participants said that they liked to chat and share music before the pandemic and lockdown, whether in-person or by sharing a playlist. With everyone remote, they lost the sense of community and camaraderie of in-person music sharing.
Another complaint my users had was that by sharing a playlist currently, they had to be mindful of who they were sharing a link with since the link granted admin privileges. I determined that adding a make collaborative feature to share a playlist with a friend in-app allows multiple users to collaborate on a playlist simultaneously. I solved the second issue by creating a public link that copied a non-admin link to share on social media platforms. My user research backed this up.
Using what I learned from my search and this new feature in mind, I created a user persona representing all of the feedback I heard from streaming music platform users. Referring back to this persona during the design process allowed me to keep myself aligned with the users’ goals and helped me to solve any user pain points or frustrations.
Say hi to Blair, a film producer based in Miami. She’s always looking for the best music for work or friends. She loves to collaborate with others to expand her music horizons.
With the who established, it was time to figure out why and how Blair would utilize the new feature. I created storyboards for scenarios on how Blair would use the new share features.
With the stories created on how Blair would share and add collaborators to her playlists, the next step was to transfer those actions into two task flows that encompass the functionality of these features. Doing so helped me establish what screens are vital in making these features come to life.
Once I worked out the storyboards and user flow, I created mid-fi wireframes for all the main pages and how they would interact inside the app. I put the new features on the playlist page, where Spotify placed similar features.
The challenge was using Spotify’s existing design patterns to intuitively place the new feature without having the user hunt for it. Also, I had to be mindful of where the feature would go since Spotify had an existing setup that users were already familiar with.
Add a friend as a collaborator
Get a sharable public link
After creating the wireframes, I designed a prototype with key screens using InVision and Maze for user testing. I implemented two tasks to encompass the new features' usability and how these features would affect established user flows.
Invite a collaborator on a playlist that you've created called Kiss on Broken Sidewalk
The test was successful because the feature was built on existing user experiences that Spotify created, and the icon to add a collaborator was in an expected place. The only issue users ran into was unsure if the sent button worked. The solution was to link back to the playlist page and add a message sent toast.
Share a playlist with your friends via social media by getting a public link
This one was difficult for users to complete out of the two tasks. The main issue was that getting a public link button was hidden behind the Make Collaborative modal. Users said that if they’re getting a public link, they don’t think to check behind a collaborative feature. The issue was resolved by moving the public link icon to its separate icon next to the make collaborative icon on the playlist’s homepage.
After testing a hi-fi prototype with my testers, the next step is designing how the Make Collaborative feature looks. Since there is already a design system in place, I focused on building out the Make Collaborative components to match the existing identity.
To help integrate the new features with Spotify’s existing UI Kit, I created a basic UI Kit containing examples of existing typography, color palette, button styles, and design patterns. I added some of Spotify’s duotones into the UI kit to bring attention to the new ‘Make Collaborative’ feature.
With the added changes to Spotify’s existing brand identity, the following steps were to kit out the wireframes and polish them for the testing phase.
Add a friend as a collaborator
Get a sharable public link
This project taught me to work within an existing product and design within an established system and rely on already created design patterns and components. Since users were already familiar with navigating within these conventions and breaking or changing them could hurt usability.
One challenge I overcame during research was gaining insight into user needs without asking them directly, which led to wishful thinking. Indirectly asking users and probing users to tell stories about their experiences allowed me to effectively learn what problems users faced and how to best solve them.
When I began this project, I assumed people would want more sharing features, such as a message feature and sending music to friends. They wanted to share certain aspects, such as collaborating on playlists or sending friends a song they might enjoy. Beyond these two scenarios, music, I found out, is highly personal, and people don’t want to share how weird their music tastes are.
