Adding a Feature
Enhancing the Spotify app's functionality by integrating a new socials feature, enabling users to connect and share music experiences with their friends.
Product Design
UX Research
UI Research
Prototyping
Figma
Procreate
Spotify
2 Weeks
We have identified a disparity between the features available in the mobile version compared to the desktop version of Spotify.
Spotify users find it frustrating not being able to view mutual follower activities.
Introduce a social feature that seamlessly integrates into the existing product layout, ensuring a smooth user experience with minimal learning curve.
Spotify is a popular music streaming platform that allows users to access and listen to a vast library of songs, podcasts, and audio content.
456
million users
195
million subscribers
In December 2020, Spotify experienced a remarkable surge of 21% in mobile app downloads following the highly-anticipated release of the year's Spotify Wrapped.
Using this data, I decided to analyze if there were any opportunities for enhancing Spotify's app, considering the upswing in user activity during that time.
Spotify users based by gender
Average age of Spotify users
Years old
This age group accounts for approximately 62% of the total user base
Individuals within the same age group represent the largest segment of Spotify users in the United States, constituting approximately 55% of the total user base in the country.
Utilizing the data collected from Spotify's demographic analysis, I have crafted this user persona, providing a image of the target audience for our feature.
As an active Spotify user, my initial focus was on integrating a song recognition feature.
However, during user interviews, a common concern emerged - the absence of social features in the Spotify app, which many interviewees emphasized.
50%
mentioned unhapiness towards a significant lack of social features
Their primary concern revolved around the lack of access to their followers' activities and the inability to engage with them, particularly when comparing it to the desktop version.
User flows were created to map out how users interact with the Spotify app to achieve various tasks. Through this process, we identified a notable gap in functionality related to the visibility of Friend's Activities.
Audrey is riding the train while listening to music. She's tired of the songs she's listening to. She wants to listen to her friend's playlist.
Audrey is still on the train listening to music. She's curious to what her friends are listening to and she wants to view their real time activity.
I began by examining the existing layout to determine potential locations for enhancing access to the socials page. This adjustment aims to reduce the unnecessary clicks users currently need to navigate through in order to view their profiles.
I observed that the navigation bar featured only 3 buttons and decided to put the new socials buttons. This arrangement grants users swift access to their profiles and friends' lists without disrupting the overall layout significantly.
The provided screenshots include annotations that analyze the layout and demonstrate different approaches to integrating a social media page.
After examining Spotify's interface and screen layout, I created rough sketches outlining the elements I wanted to incorporate and their placement within the app. Still keeping certain aspects of Spotify's existing pages, I created the most of the interface from scratch.
The intention was to maintain a familiar layout, minimizing the learning curve for users.
• Users' listening activity is showcased in the top
• This feature provides users with the insight into how they are currently perceived in terms of their online presence
• Users are given the option to display their status as either "Online" or "Offline." The "Socials" icon changes to green hue to signify an active online status
.gif)
• Users have the option to apply filters that display only those individuals who are online, making it simpler to identify whose activities they can view.
Rather than users having to click on each friend individually to view their activities, a list view was created. This option displays the listening activities of everyone who is currently online and who chose to have their activities seen.
My next actions involve conducting user testing to determine the user-friendliness and ease of adaptation to the new feature. I definitely would fine tune and add more content within the feature to further enhance the socials tab. There is a lot of oppurtunity in increasing the social aspect within Spotify that has yet to be explored.
I learned how to go about navigating through a pre-existing interface. Introducing a new feature within an app like Spotify presented slightly more challenges compared to building a product from the ground up. This is because considerations like aesthetics, branding, and the app's limited space all come into play.
.png)
