Spotify:
Satisficing Interface Evaluation
I wanted to take a closer look at the interface design of Spotify just to see how it was organized and to test whether or not there were areas that they could improve upon based on the user experience. In order to do so, I gathered a small test group based on their primary target audience and recorded my findings based on three main user tests.
The main goal of Spotify is to be able to find, play, and organize music in the easiest and most personalized way possible. There is definitely a lot to choose from as far as audio content apps, so Spotify should be concerned with having the best user experience to set itself apart from its competitors.
In order to figure out what can be done to make the experience better, these are the areas I would like the people testing the app to explore:
1. Signage
Most menu items within Spotify are organized by thumbnail. The text that informs you what each icon contains is usually overlaid on top of the actual picture which can be hard to read, but taking away the text would just make things even more confusing due to the imagery within the thumbnails being ambiguous.
A possible way to alleviate this issue would be to make the thumbnails a little more clear if they are to contain imagery that is more relevant to the topic rather than to fit an aesthetic.
Adding a short description about what people should expect should be included if the title isn’t self explanatory.
2. Navigation
As a user, you are encouraged to continuously press buttons that lead to new pages, but there is no back button in the event that you wish to return at any point.
There is also an issue with an overwhelming amount of information especially in the Browse section where there are tons of options to sort through, most of which is not relevant to the people using the app.
When people want to find something specific, the only sorting/filter options are what type of media it is or what artist, rather than being able to sort based on release date, artist (within the song dropdown, or vice versa), alphabet, etc.
The hierarchy issue definitely has a lot to do with the previous issues. The visual hierarchy of the sections within the app are difficult to differentiate main items because of a vertically oriented layout which has personal menus on the left and Spotify menus and folder content in the middle, as well as a color coding based on shades of gray.
The content in the middle are all the same size which makes it difficult to tell what the order of importance is between them.
I would like to see if user testing reveals anything about how people naturally want to navigate the app and see what can be changed to make it easier.
3. Hierarchy
Before I made any suggestions about how the app could be improved, I needed to know what the users found useful, what they were surprised to learn, and what they felt was unnecessary about the current design. For this, I found three users and gave them three scenarios to complete, as well as questions to answer as they moved through the app.
I also created a card sorting activity for another group of about 15 people to see the different ways that people want to naturally group the main features within Spotify to see if I could get any information from that.
I
Scenarios
-
Have you ever made a playlist on Spotify before? What was it for? (adjust information on a person-to-person basis) You and your friend have been planning a road trip and it’s coming up this weekend. Put together a playlist for the car ride.
-
What kind of music does your friend like? Any specific artist or genre? Is there a radio station on Spotify based on that? Find/create a radio station based on what your friend likes to listen to.
-
Maybe it would be nice to have something to talk about while you’re on the road. Find out more information about one of their favorite artists within the Spotify app.
Questions :
-
Are there any features that you discovered and didn’t previously know about that you didn’t know about
-
Are there any features that you think you would use now that you know more about them, or have discovered them?
-
Is there anything specific that you think works well to help you find your way around?
-
Is there anything specific that got in your way or that was too confusing to continue using if you didn’t have to?
-
Do you enjoy using Spotify usually?
-
What is your preferred music streaming option?
-
What would you like to see on Spotify?
-
Is there anything that sticks out to you as unnecessary?
-
Is there anything that you didn’t see that you think would be useful or helpful or fun?
-
After the initial test, I took what information I got from the user tests and card sorting and created a paper prototype to test out the new organization and features that my users suggested.
I used this to figure out what more could be done as well as what doesn't quite work as well in practice as it may have seemed, and to generally fine tune the prototype before I created a high fidelity version.
The solution to this hidden radio station feature problem would be simple if they would just add a "radio" tab at the top menu in the main screen, or even add it in as a main feature within the discover tab or within the other tabs to be as important as the Spotify playlists. A lot of other music streaming apps are very radio-centric with the exception of iTunes, and Spotify has that feature as well, but instead of trying to downplay their radio feature and play up their other features to seem different, they should make radio more of a priority as it may attract more users who rely on the radio aspects of other apps and it would be a great entry point for those new users because that's what they already know and are comfortable.
In order to make users more aware of the fact that you can click on text and find more information, when users search for an artist in the search results, provide a link to the "about the artist" there. When people search for an artist and refine to "artists," instead of playing the music, have it take people to the artist page instead. Generally, if people are taking the time to search for specifically the artist, they don't mind going to the page instead of playing music automatically because they may want to see what albums this artist has or what their more popular music is, which is more information you do not get unless you go to their artist page.
​
Spotify should have a search bar available at the top of the screen no matter what page you are on, and in the main display, not off to the side.
Final Recommendations
When it comes to adding songs from existing playlists, adding a button somewhere that says "add songs to playlist" or something that makes it easier to select all the songs from a playlist without selecting them all individually.
It would also be beneficial to make it more obvious as to what the heart icon actually does. Most people associate the heart icon with "like" so when they press it they think they are liking it, and not actually adding the whole thing to their library.
Another very important feature they should change is adding back and forward buttons so that every time they want to go back to something, they don't have to completely start over.
For the search bar, most people are used to seeing search buttons at the top right of a screen or at the top of the screen in general, and putting it in a darker, smaller menu off to the side decreases its importance within the hierarchy and can make it hard to find when people are not thinking about it too much and want to act fast.
The same thing is true of the “+New Playlist” option because generally people come to Spotify for personalized experiences which is what makes it different from Pandora and other music streaming services. The ability to create your own playlists is a main feature and should be treated as such. The only other things are confusing iconography (<3) and a lack of convenience buttons that make navigation faster and easier. It is not impossible to get around without them, but it is a hassle which turns people off from using the service, especially if they are coming over from another streaming platform.