Role
UX Design, User Research, Visual Design, Prototyping
Tools
Figma, Google Forms, Optimal Workshop, After Effects
Timeline
8 weeks (June - July 2023)
Overview
Spotify Party strives to enhance the listening experience for users who enjoy music with others. While creating group sessions already exist on Spotify, it currently falls short in terms of functionality and could greatly benefit from improvements. Spotify Party will not only strengthen its current group session capabilities, but will also introduce captivating new features to foster an immersive and enjoyable journey of music exploration.
Product Overview
Final Solution
Enhanced Functionalities.
Evolving the group listening experience by introducing improved functionality and features for all Spotify users
Easily invite friends directly within the app eliminating the need for external invitations through links or social media
Streamline your sessions with customizable group settings. Delegate moderation privileges and fine-tune options for a more enjoyable experience
Rediscover past group sessions with curated playlists of previously played tracks. Replay any missed songs or effortlessly share playlists with others
User Research
Evaluating the user flow for initiating a Spotify group session
In the initial phase, I assessed users' ability to navigate to the group session menu through a first-click test with 7 participants on the Spotify mobile app. While I planned to extend the test to the desktop platform, the feature was exclusive to mobile. Despite this limitation, the early findings provided crucial insights for subsequent analyses.
A mere 28% of users were able to successfully locate the appropriate menu. This compelling insight bly suggests that the menu's placement may be unintuitive, potentially leading users to overlook its presence. Users tend to overlook the group session feature on the platform due to its unintuitive placement and current lack of features it current offers.
"Difficult to invite/join friends. Didn’t know about it until someone else showed me. There also lies the potential for queuing songs that others don't enjoy."
"Anyone can play music with no restriction, so one person can skip another's song and play what they want. Can't see who played what song."
User Experience
Users have difficulty in inviting friends. The user onboarding msut be enhanced to provide a more intuitive experience for those wishing to invite and join friends
The potential conflicts stemming from track skipping by any participant must be addressed as users are facing disruptive behavior by malicious users
Problem Statement
How can we revitalize group listening and enhance accessibility?
Group session feature is hard to locate
The current placement of initiating a group session feature is hidden under the device lists screen which users can overlook
Feature does not exist on desktop platforms
The lack of group session support on desktop Spotify puts desktop users at a disadvantage
Lack of friend activity integration
Inviting friends to a group session lacks a direct in-app feature, requiring users to resort to sending invite links via text or social media
User Persona
Introducing Michelle & Edward
Michelle
Michelle, a party enthusiast, creates perfect playlists for her events. Prior to each gathering, she dedicates herself to selecting tracks, ensuring an unforgettable experience. In her quest for new music, she dreams of a feature allowing guests to queue up favorite tracks with a voting system for an enhanced party experience.
Edward
Edward is an avid music listener who loves to play songs with his friends. He recently found out about the group session feature Spotify implemented. He likes the idea of such feature, but finds it tedious to constantly invite his friends through links to listen along with him. He wishes there was a better invitation system in place so he can continue to invite the same friends to his sessions.
Competitive Analysis
Analyzing Spotify's Competitors
I conducted a comprehensive analysis of Spotify's direct competitors, assessing their user interface and implementation of listening group sessions with others. This endeavor allowed me to delve deeper into their approach to user experience as well as explore other related functionalities, uncovering valuable insights in the process.
Similar User Experience
Each platform delivers an intuitive and cohesive user interface with consistent design elements and a familiar layout for a user-friendly experience
Cross-platform compatibility
These platforms allow the user to play media through multiple devices including phones, tablets, computers and TVs
Playlist Sharing
Users are able to share their playlists with others. The process of sharing a playlist involves sending a shareable link
Information Architecture
Usability Testing
Evaluating the Spotify Party prototype
I conducted a second first-click test involving 9 new participants to assess how well users grasped tasks within the Spotify Party prototype. The test encompassed demonstrations of both mobile and desktop versions, with a specific emphasis on participants' capability to initiate a group session.
With a completion rate surpassing 77%, the results bly indicate that the Spotify Party prototype exhibits a higher level of intuitiveness and user-friendliness in comparison to Spotify's current user interface. Participants were able to quickly navigate to the corresponding interaction with an average time taken of 26.5 seconds
Wrapping Up
Project Takeaways
Inspired by the limitations of Spotify's group session feature, I created Spotify Party to explore innovative designs and enhance my app organization skills. The project refined my smart animate techniques and visual continuity, marking my first responsive design for both desktop and mobile platforms.
Things I would do differently
In hindsight, I devoted considerable time to manual tasks like copying album cover arts and track information, which prolonged the design phase. Reflecting on this, I realize I could have streamlined the process by reusing assets and focusing more on functional aspects to expedite project completion.