Increasing Spotify's social engagement
Project

D&AD New Blood Awards entry

Team & Methodology

Team of 2 (Designer + Researcher)

Role

UX/UI Designer

Duration

4 months

Tool stack

• Figma for UI design, prototyping, user testing
• Miro for workshops
• Notion for research repository and project management
• Google Docs for research documentation

Spotify

What's the challenge?

Music experience is primarily personal on Spotify. Users craft playlists, get recommendations, and explore favourite artists' picks, shaping their personal experience. To enhance the social aspect, how can Spotify can enable for easy content sharing, sparking discussions on social feeds. The focus is on the core concept, not UI/UX intricacies, aiming to tap into users' personal reach, fostering a personable experience and a platform for meaningful connections.

Goals

• Increase personal and social engagement (longer times spent browsing, more new content consumed, more friends added, etc)
• Design for belonging - make the content diverse and inclusive and highlighting underrepresented voices
• Think near future - explore new offerings and features

Semi-structured interviews | Focus groups | Affinity diagram
Understanding user behavior through interviews and focus groups:
We began by interviewing six Spotify users and conducting focus groups with five participants to understand current usage patterns, primary behaviors, challenges, and desires. Insights from these sessions were organized using an affinity diagram in Miro, helping us to identify key themes and insights.
Key Insights from User Research:

• Desktop users tend to engage more deeply with the app, while mobile users prioritize quick, convenient access.
• Sharing music via screenshots is more common than using Spotify’s in-app "Share" feature.
• Users feel excluded from meaningful engagement and lack ways to express opinions within the app.
• There is perceived repetition in promoted content, which hampers discovery of new music.
Personas | Empathy maps
Developing personas to guide design:
Based on interview findings and Spotify’s brief, we created two personas representing core user types, allowing us to empathise with their goals, frustrations, and motivations.
Value Proposition Canvas | Iceberg Canvas
Running workshops to identify desired and undesired impacts:
We conducted workshops to explore potential positive and negative impacts of new features, helping to prioritize ideas that would enhance user satisfaction and avoid pitfalls.
Problem statements
Refining focus with problem statements:
We narrowed down the project scope by defining problem statements, specifically for young students passionate about music:

1. A young student wants to discover new content to be the first to find new songs and albums.
2. A young student wants to engage with their network through music to feel connected.
3. A young student wants recognition for their music taste to boost popularity among friends or build a career.
HMW
How might we...
⚡️ Create a fun and exciting environment where young adults connect through music
👊 Enable users and communities to build network effortlessly
💚 Increase positive engagement, minimise negative
✨ Make new creative ways of discovering music tailored to your taste
Brainstorm | Brainwritting | Dot voting
Ideation and HMW brainstorming sessions:
After a number of ideation workshops we decided to test the following
Profile
A customisable profile where you can express your uniqueness, connect, and showcase your work.
Features
• Awards / Badges
• Livestream
• Playlists
• Connections
• Activity feed
• Music challenges
• Quick sharing
Network
Make it easy to build and grow your network and following
Features
• Cross-platform friend suggestions
• Quick follow buttons on social feed and profiles
• Groups and communities
Interactions
Allow users to interact with each other and engage with content and challenges.
Features
• Social feed
• Reactions
• Comments
• Livestream chat
• Music game challenges
• Quick sharing
Wireframes
Sketching & exploring concepts on paper:
We sketched initial concepts, identifying components and patterns that would enhance Spotify’s user experience, focusing on ways to bring music discovery, engagement, and personalisation to the forefront.
UI Design | Interactive Prototypes
Introducingnew Spotify features:
Find and Connect with Friends Effortlessly – Enhances user network building within the app.
Showcase Achievements and Contributions on Your Profile – Empowers users to display unique music tastes and community involvement.
Go Live for Friends and Followers – Allows users to interact in real-time, creating a lively and connected community.
Quick share button
Usability testing
User feedback on new features:
Quick usability testing revealed excitement among users, validating our concept. The live streaming feature was particularly popular, showing strong potential for user engagement and community building within Spotify.
Retrospective
A great post-project practice is to give yourself some time away from the project to reflect on what went well, what did not go so well, and how you would improve the product or process the next time.
So, what went well?
• We tested several UX methodologies and workshops.
• Using Notion for personal management was great. This tool kept us organised from start to finish.
What needs improvement?
• It feels that we spend too much time on the discovery phase, without trying to design test things early.
• We could have moved to design stage quicker.
• We could have used Spotify's Design System to create more realistic prototypes and run better usabilty testing workshops
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