Spotify Spots – Companion app for mapping playlists
Client: General Assembly
General Assembly maintains campuses in numerous countries throughout the world to teach entrepreneurs and business professionals practical technology skills in mobile and web development, data science, product management, and other digital-related courses.
Project Summary
Mobile app prototype empowering users to create shareable hyperlocalized music experiences called ‘Spots’ by connecting the Spotify Developer Platform and GPS locationing.
My Responsibilities
User and Competitive Research
Persona Development
User Flows
Information Architecture
Sketches and Wires
Prototyping
Timeline
One week intensive sprint with diverse and talented review team.
Interesting Facts
While initially focused on individual users and their networks, future monetization is envisioned through direct sponsorship of users’ Spots by retailers, shared space businesses, etc.
The Problem Web
1
Discerning music fans want a faster way to access their perfect songs for specific times and places in their lives.
2
Citizen influencers and brand ambassadors want an easy channel to incorporate the music in their lives into their personal brands.
3
Businesses want to optimize the music experience in their stores and shared spaces to attract more to spend more.
4
I hypothesized that by providing a more robust music curation capability for these audiences than what’s currently available, I can reinvigorate music as a shared community experience.
The Process
While I performed a thorough battery of UX design exercises in the course of this project, those with greatest impact on product maturity are included—depicted here in three categories.
Research and Analysis
Competitive Analysis
User Interviews
Affinity Mapping
Persona Creation
Research and Analysis
Feature Prioritization
User Flows
Paper Prototyping
Visual Design
Wireframing
Digital Prototyping
Usability Testing
Research And Analysis
Competitive Analysis
Based on my knowledge of the Spotify application and developer network, I evaluated a number of companion apps available from the Spotify Developer Showcase.
I looked specifically at those apps focused on playlist creation and similar approaches to personalized music curation. My goal was to identify those innovating on Spotify’s core functionality in ways most closely aligned with my problem.
Additionally, I explored music apps external to the Spotify family such as the iTunes Smart Playlist feature—as well as examples of geolocation in popular apps outside of the music niche like Foursquare and Pokemon Go.
Spotify
With Spotify, it’s easy to find the right music for every moment – on your phone, your computer, your tablet and more.
There are millions of tracks on Spotify. Choose what you want to listen to, or let Spotify surprise you.
You can also browse through the music collections of friends, artists and celebrities, or create a radio station and just sit back.
Magic Playlist
You can preview each song, remove it and add security attributions such as public or private. Give it a name, save it into your Spotify’s account and enjoy!
Dubolt
Lastly, uses the Spotify Play Button play the tracklist within Spotify without needing to save the playlist.
Playlist Miner
Then it goes through 1000 of those playlists and finds the top 100 songs (by appearance) in all of those playlists, to make a new playlist that you can save to your Spotify account.
Roadtrip Mixtape
Drive through Boston you might hear Aerosmith or Donna Summer. Drive through New Orleans and you might hear Lil Wayne or Dr. John.
User Interviews
With my problem web in mind, I completed a round of interviews.
When it became clear my line of questioning was yielding a too granular level of specificity around Spotify features, and not enough about the core problem—the emotional experience of music and its potential for brands and businesses—I performed a second round to better results.
Affinity Mapping
Shown here is a mapping of feedback from the first round of interviewing.
Tool: Miro (formerly RealTimeBoard)
Persona Creation
To consolidate themes identified from research to date and further humanize the problem, I created a set of personas representing the three primary expected user groups of my emerging concept.
Ideation
Feature Prioritization
To better focus on the majority users user group, I created a 2×2 Feature Prioritization Matrix describing features in terms of expectedness and impact.
Viewed this way, I learned the most expected and impactful features would be those centered around the core problem of individual curation.
Those features targeted
Tool: Miro (formerly RealTimeBoard)
User Flows
Here is a sample flow depicting one use case now under consideration for future releases. Further driving that point is the necessity of functionality and a large enough user base around the core individual curation problem.
Tool: Miro (formerly RealTimeBoard)
Paper Prototyping
As I was working with a virtual review team, I determined to paper prototype digitally to facilitate commenting and changes and save scanning time.
While the exercise yielded good feedback, I learned that while true paper prototyping includes logistical inefficiencies, they are offset by the benefits of flow state and quick capture.
Tool: Miro (formerly RealTimeBoard)
Visual Design
Wireframing
Moving into the visual design stage of the project, I determined the most progress could be gained with our limited time by focusing on the core problem of personal music curation.
This low-fidelity wireflow depicts a user creating a Spot.
Tool: Miro (formerly RealTimeBoard)
Digital Prototyping
After validating the wireframes, I moved to mid-fidelity prototyping to capture the Spot Creation use case in its entirety.
By working directly in the interface design software to document this single flow, I encountered mechanical issues that—while easily solved with additional screens—I had not anticipated in earlier phases.
Usability Testing
I conducted a number of online Usability tests in which I asked the tester to share their screen with me as well as their webcams, so I could monitor both their interactions with the app as well as their facial expressions and body language.
I began each test by reviewing test guidelines and the test scenario. The tester could follow along visually as I reviewed aloud, then tap to begin the test.
Testing revealed insights related to several key features. I was able to iterate on this feedback to further streamline the app’s usability.
