Welcome Guests to Seamless Music Sharing
Adding a guest feature to Spotify makes the experience of sharing music easy and streamlined with non-account holders.
About this Project | My Role
As the leading streaming music service, Spotify wanted to improve engagement and retention in their app by expanding on their social capabilities. My role was to understand how people share, define the best way to move forward in that direction, and provide them with a prototype of a feature that integrated seamlessly within the rest of the app.
Summary
Spotify was in need of a new social feature that embeds within the current platform. It needed to integrate well and smoothly with the rest of the app. This feature should promote social interaction and music enjoyment through their product.
User research confirmed when people are unable to share music easily, it not only creates frustration, but a sense of distance and fear of not being relevant or belonging. Sharing should be able to be done more simply, regardless of what streaming service you are on, with less difficulty and better integration. The ideal way to share could be simpler and streamlined for a more enjoyable experience.
My solution was to add a guest list feature. This would enable users to easily share music with someone who is not a Spotify member and allows the recipient to easily listen in the app as a guest. The recommendation would be to introduce it with sign-up incentives which addresses the goal of social engagement. A byproduct of this feature could lead to increased membership.
Scope of Work
Research
Research consisted of a competitive review to identify the many online resources people use for sharing music. In person interviews were conducted with two seperate user groups. Group 1 were people who share music readily. Group 2 were people who do not share music as readily. We were able to understand the similarities and differences in each user group in respect to the music sharing process, users expectations, their frustrations, and unmet needs. The following is what emerged in our findings:
• Needs / Motivations:
There is a motivation for community with respect to music sharing — people want to feel the same or elicit a response about a song or artist which gives a sense of belonging. Fandom, memories, nostalgia, whatever it is, there is a built-in association to each other when people are interested in the same thing. When together, people talk about music playing through their app, which encourages individual and collaborative discovery in their respective streaming services. While apart from each other, an intentional step can be taken; a link to a song or playlist is sent to someone else to listen to. This may be for a special reason like an event, or just because a person came to mind. So, when sharing becomes difficult and unclear, it stands in the way of their needs for connection and belonging getting met.
METHODS / WORKAROUNDS:
Both Groups are using workaround methods. Primarily by texting a screencap of song/playlist or texting a youtube url.
User Group 1 is comfortable in the app and will use the Share functionality.
User Group 2 was not aware or interested in knowing how to share directly from the app.
PAIN POINTS:
Both Groups sharing music is a clunky, multi-step process. There is no ability to synch between streaming services. Not sure what is allowed between paid vs. unpaid users. No idea if someone received what was shared.
User Group 1 had more app specific issues. Can’t have the same song in different playlists, or it’s not easy to do in Spotify. No clear or easy way to build a podcast library.
User Group 2 was not as familiar with the full functionality of the app, the share feature is buried and people don’t know or they are uninterested in using it. Worried they are not really using app correctly.
SURPRISES:
The art of the mix CD is not dead! Several people are curating playlists for special occasions or for a specific person to let them know they love them.
When sharing music becomes difficult and unclear, it stands in the way of the need the for connection and belonging.
“My boyfriend and I have different music streaming services. Our playlist is on my phone in Spotify. I’ll text him screencap updates of it - it’s a pretty clunky process.”
Strategy
From the research data gathered, an empathy map was built and from there, two personas were developed to capture each user group. Hailey, is a digital native and a Spotify user. She is very comfortable with the technology and easily shares music with friends who use the app. Mike doesn’t share music as easily and his services are on Apple and Amazon music. He’s not that interested in getting into another service but his daughter, Hailey is on Spotify and he wants to be able to see what’s she sending without using workarounds.
Drilling deeper into what motivates Hailey and Mike, we could better understand their goals and needs. The workarounds and barriers to listening to shared music, particularly when a user did not have that app, was a key pain point from our research. We focused on one flow with two users: have Hailey share a playlist with her Dad so he can listen as a guest.
Interaction Design
We found the majority of users who share music with non-Spotify users simply text a screencap of the music they’re sharing. We created a solution to keep users in the app, as well as allow those non-Spotify users to enjoy music in Spotify without signing up (yet). Based on the research, there was room in two main areas for adding these features:
Making the Share feature more prominent: sharing is one the most common tasks but currently, it is buried several taps in. We did not eliminate the option within the meatball, but we provided users another, more prominent way to share without clicking in two and three times deeper.
Adding a Guest: we created a Guest List feature, in the navigation as means to set up non-Spotify friends as guests. Those guests can listen to shared music, with limited functionality and a time limit, without signing up for an account.
Designs were built as mid-fidelity wireframes in XD that mirrored the user flow. The wireframes were then used to create a prototype for usability testing. Have Hailey share a playlist with her Dad so he can listen as a guest.
Interface Design
With Spotify’s well-established UI, we were able to add a feature that was intuitive while keeping the overall integrity of the UX. We added a Guest list option in the navigation and the different states of this icon as it was used in the app.
Prototype & User Testing
After the initial set of UI designs for the pages of the primary task flow was developed, these were joined in a mid-fidelity prototype built in XD. The intention of this prototype was a means to generate as much learning as possible and evaluate choices around a visual design, usability, and branding. User testing comprised of two users in one flow:
Objective for User A: 1. Ask participant to set up Dad to enjoy music shared with him. 2. Share the Roadtrip with Dad playlist with him.
Objective for User B: 1. Get to the Listening as Guest button. 2. Opt out of signing up for an account right now.
Participants: the prototype was tested with 8 participants who used Spotify 3-5 times a week.
Results: the prototype tested great on usability and all users completed the task flow without difficulty, however we identified several key areas to refine and responded by implementing the following solutions:
“This is dope, I would totally use this.”
Next Steps
Test the priority revisions and make any easy, necessary changes and handoff to developers. Revisit the analytics in three months to see how we might adjust overall experience to further social engagement.
Reflection
It was helpful to get underneath the motivations behind why people share music. With the proliferation of content and technology, the need for connecting over a shared experience is more important than ever. We enjoyed this interesting challenge to address barriers to sharing, tap into a way to meet the core need for a social engagement, and create a unifying user experience.
