Introduction
Background
Music is deeply personal and resonates with many people’s emotions and individual experiences. Presenting musical content to a user requires deep consideration of the UI structure, navigation, content discovery, and personalization features. Some folks depend on utilizing music products like Spotify to maintain positive spirits daily, so improving an app that not only delivers music but also enhances the overall listening experience is both exciting and rewarding.
Problem
Implementing a sort and filter option in Spotify's app could significantly enhance the user experience. Although Spotify is a very comprehensive product, there isn’t much opportunity for folks to seek personalized content seamlessly. With this new feature, users could sort their music library by various criteria such as release date or popularity, allowing for easier navigation and organization of their music collection. Additionally, a filter option could enable users to refine their music selection based on specific topics, such as albums, singles, or features. This would not only make it easier for users to find the music they want to listen to but also help them discover new music based on their preferences.
Goal
My main goal is to significantly improve Spotify’s user experience by making it easier and faster for users to find the music they love. With an extensive library of songs, podcasts, and playlists, users often struggle to locate specific content that meets their preferences. This functionality will not only streamline the discovery process but also enhance user satisfaction and engagement by ensuring that users can quickly access the most relevant and appealing content tailored to their unique tastes.
Research
Research Goal
I would like to explore ways to help music lovers who need to seek new songs to quickly search for content, because this can encourage a sense of convenience when they discover new music.
Food for thought:
How might we create a seamless customizable search engine for music lovers in order to better their time-spent on seeking new music content?
Objectives
Identify other competitive music streaming products and understand their functionalities
Discover any continual inconvenience in the users’ current flow when seeking music content
Define the perspective, needs, and priorities of music streamers
Focus Areas
What steps do music listeners tend to take when seeking new songs?
How many searches does it take?
Ability for customizations?
How long do they tend to scroll until being able to reach new songs?
What steps do music streamers tend to take when building out their playlists?
How long does it take?
How many searches do they conduct before being able to find all the songs they need?
Methodologies
User interviews
Gather knowledge on users’ thoughts and feelings of their previous music streaming experience
Looking out for users’ needs and wants (or what they’re missing that can help shorten the process)
Contextual Inquiries
Observe first-hand how the user conducts their search for music - time how long it takes and how many searches present
Identify any pain points users may have during the process
Participants
Spotify users
Music streamers
Folks listening to music daily or weekly (on a consistent cadence)
Competitive Analysis
Persona
Define
Task Flow
General Pain Points
Looking for a single song is usually quick — however, when seeking multiple songs, it could take manually restarting a search multiple times
Search results are not always populated by earliest release, so some folks won’t be able to find new music by simply looking up the artist’s name
When a song is old or not popular, It will take a lengthier time to scroll to see it
Design
Mid-Fidelity Wireframes
High-Fidelity Wireframes
Test
Methodology
Prototype usability testing was conducted on 5 Spotify users — each person took approximately 15 minutes to go through the task flow as well as provide feedback for improvement. Testing was presented in 1 task flow – building a customized search.
Usability Task Flow
Sort and filter and personalized search
Success Metrics
Task completion
Users were able to complete the tasks with no confusion (were able to find all buttons)
Task flows were easy to understand — minimal to no errors were reported
Feasibility
The new function is well-integrated into the product — users do not need to learn a new flow in order to conduct the task
Enjoyable Sentiment
Overall, users love the idea of the new feature and believes it could bring more convenience to their daily/weekly use of the app
Overall User Feedback
Loved the idea of this new feature as it can possibly enhanced their ability to make playlists more diverse
Intuitive new controls that are easy to understand and use
Filters could be made more prominent with bolder text to catch the user's eye more easily
Use of pull-up menu and checks makes applying filters quick and easy
Sort and filter options are integrated perfectly into the existing design
Pull-up menu and play bar tend to blend into the screen — perhaps could help to emphasize the border to show contrast
Conclusion
Prototype
Final Thoughts
Integrating this new feature into Spotify’s design and functionality was quite an adventurous space for me! Aspiring to add a feature to a high-end comprehensive platform was very jarring at first, but I was able to take my imagination and make it possible. On a personal level, I’m a daily avid Spotify user, so this new feature (in theory) would also make my personal user experience a lot better!
A sort and filter function would provide users with greater control and customization over their music seeking experience. It would also provide them with the opportunity to cater what music content they see for their personal needs.
As a UX designer, I gained so much knowledge from this entire experience! In addition to strategizing a new feature for a popular product, I was able to experience re-designing an extensive user-centric app. Doing research to find accurate color schemes as well as building the right iconography taught me tons of creative flexibility and structure at the same time!