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Tools: Figma, Google Suite
Focus: Research Synthesis, Design
Share in Spotify
Upgrading the music sharing experience within the Spotify app and design guidelines.
Overview
We should all know Spotify.
It is one of the top music streaming platforms with over 3 million artists and is used daily by 286 million users. You can listen to music, make playlists, and discover new music curated by Spotify algorithms.
I wanted to make better use of Spotify’s ability to add friends and add internal functionality to the social aspect of the app. With the ability to share through Spotify, you can enjoy easy music sharing and playlist collaborating while the algorithm becomes more attuned to your musical taste.
Research
In a survey about general music streaming
30 users
Ages 20-40
Of those users:
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15 daily music listeners
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9 users listening most days
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28 use platforms discover new music
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21 use platforms to share music
The survey indicated to us that there was an interest in sharing music and although current capabilities were not onerous; there was a chance to make sharing music easier and have it assist in music discovery.
From my research, I developed two personas.
Personas that are interested in discovering music and another more interested in music being shared with them.
Direction
What would make this interaction compelling to somebody who isn’t interested in the interaction?
What else would somebody interested in the function want it to do?
Taking a closer look at the general user flow for popular platforms, there is no question there is an easier way to share music.
Playing into Spotify design principles:
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The platform allows both the user and Spotify to create playlists with more depth while continuing to be more relevant to the user’s listening interests.
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The platform creates an element of human connection to both other users and the artists.
Scope
To simplify the scope of the project I focused on the sharing process between two people. Beyond sharing music, the individuals would be able to collaborate on a playlist of the music they’ve shared.
With a target in sight, I was able to begin designing. First, I knew I had to decide on an icon and where this feature would live within the existing Spotify interface. I tested several icons and names for the feature and landed on Share in Spotify with the icon shown below. Your sharing history and playlists would live within the Libraries tab.
Iteration
The design is a button, visible in the fullscreen song player, that will allow you to
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Send a song to your Spotify friends list.
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Within Spotify, you and your friend can access the songs that you have shared.
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From this history of shared music, you and your friend can create a playlist.
Usability testing and other surveys were helpful in determining where to house the feature and the most intuitive way for the interaction to flow. The development of this feature beyond 2 people begs for a deeper conversation about how the feature should function for each individual - my thoughts shared below.
Thinking Ahead
Because of the time constraints, I had to limit the scope. Moving forward there are some things to consider in terms of the functionality of Share in Spotify. A video of the current prototype is to the left - sharing a song, viewing it in the new feature, and adding a song to the shared playlist.
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Thinking ahead, it would be ideal for groups of friends to use this function and, to avoid the typically overcrowded group message, I would want to condense the 'history' view to accommodate groups. Further avoiding the mess of a group situation, you could introduce filtering the shared music based on who has reacted to it or reintroduce different reactions and filtering the music that way.
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As a playlist creating tool, Share in Spotify could be an easy way to aggregate songs and easily collaborate on a playlist. You could clear your history and start clean or work through your history and select the songs you want to add to a playlist.
Overall, I believe this is a feature that, even at its minimum, would provide incredible value to the Spotify experience.