Year
2022-2023
Passion Project
Spotify
Project Type
UX, UI, Product Design
Role
One of three UX/UI Designer
A Path of Discovery
Research and Planning the Perfect Support Platform for Spotify Artists
Overview
This passion project involved a collaborative effort with three other designers, driven by our shared goal of finding a solution to provide better support for artists on Spotify's platform.
Through extensive research, planning, user interviews, and iterative design processes, we aimed to create a support platform that would enhance artist-fan relationships and amplify the impact of direct and indirect actions taken by fans.
The end result was building features through Spotify's application that provided artists with a dedicated space to showcase their work, engage with their fans, and receive support through various channels such as direct donations, merchandise sales, and concert ticket purchases.
By bridging the gap between artists and fans, our solution aimed to create a thriving ecosystem where artists felt supported and fans felt a deeper sense of connection and contribution.
My Role/Responsibilities
UX research, UI design, UX - Business - Marketing Collaboration
Uncovering the Challenge
Solving the Problem of Inadequate Artist Support on Spotify's Platform
Survey
In our pursuit of addressing the problem of inadequate artist support on Spotify's platform, we conducted extensive research and analysis to fully understand the challenges faced by artists. We delved into various sources, including industry reports, academic studies, and user feedback, to gather insights into the specific pain points and limitations artists encountered.
Rising Above the Competition
Competitive Market analysis to identify competitor's positioning in the market to define the market strategy for Maruti Subscribe's features and information structure.
The Human Connection
In order to gain qualitative data about users’ goals, needs, frustrations and motivations, we conducted user interviews on users that fit the demographics from market research relating to artists and their lack of engagement/support with fans directly.
We completed interviews from 12 different interview participants. Ages fall between 20 to 32. 6 are artists/producers. All are Spotify Premium users. Below are some of the interesting findings from the interview:
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Key Takeaways
01
Artists value meaningful interactions and direct feedback from their audience.
02
Artists seek opportunities to monetize their music effectively and sustain their careers on the platform.
03
Artists desire increased visibility through promotional features like playlist placements and personalized recommendations.
04
Artists and fans value a sense of community to connect and share their passion for music.
05
Artists need comprehensive data and analytics to understand their audience and track performance metrics.
06
Artists appreciate the ability to promote diverse content, including singles, albums, live performances, and exclusive releases.
Define
Design System
After conducting user interviews, all the participants responses were synthesized to identity themes, opportunities, and features that Maruti Subscribe as product could focus and improve upon.
Brand Guidelines
Ideate
Cooking up a better experience
We looked back at ideas that came up during our brainstorming session, in consideration of the business and user goals i determined which ones could be further developed into a social feature that would respond to the needs of both parties.
Sketches
Rough sketches were done to get my initial thoughts on paper and brainstorm new ideas for specific UI elements.
Defining & Prioritizing Features
Using the feedback and insights gained from research, analysis and sketching, a low-fidelity prototype was created to begin user testing.
Initial Wireframe and Prototype
Designing for efficiency and easy collaboration
After barging through a long process of sketching low-fidelity sketches, we managed to come up with the first high-fidelity wireframe that is ready to be used as a prototype in the first usability testing.
01/ Additional personalization for an artist
This task is to emphasize a more personalized artist profile, to let fans know more about the artist they're listening to and lead to an increase in connection between the fan and the artist.
02/ Easier access for fans to get to an artist's merch page
This tackles the problem of artists merchandise being delegated to the very bottom of their home page. It lets users access their merch directly without being intrusive.
03/ Straightforward access to tour dates and tickets
Another issue for artists is that their tour dates and ticket purchase are directed to the bottom of their home page, leading to multiple clicks to get to a certain tour date before being able to purchase. This is tackled by leading the fan directly to the tour page without going through a rabbit hole of multiple clicks.
04/ Letting fans discover their listener ranking
Fans have long discovered that Spotify at every end of the year will give them data on their ranking of a particular artist they've been listening to. This direction is to give them a badge to the artists they follow that lets them know they're in the top 0.1% ranking of that particular artist. This provides an additional connection between the fan and the artist alike.
Putting It to the Test
Validation and User Testing to Refine the Support Platform Experience
The usability test aimed to assess the feature's usability, interface design, information flow, and information architecture. Four tests were conducted under two sessions with a total of 20 participants to ensure reliable results.
The moderated and unmoderated tests were held online due to geographical distance, with the unmoderated test using the Maze Usability Testing website's service and the moderated test involving online meetings with a test administrator providing tasks and questions. Each participant's navigational choices, task completion rates, comments, satisfaction ratings, and feedback were recorded through screen recordings.
The unmoderated test sessions took approximately two days to complete, while the moderated sessions lasted approximately one hour per individual. In general, the first session revealed that the feature served a clear purpose, was easy to understand, and participants found it very useful. Key problems from the first sessions were captured into a map for further analysis and improvement.
Back to the drawing board
Iterations and What Changed?
REFLECTION
Seamless integration isn't as easy as we thought
This was most evident during usability testing, when users were showed confusion at how they were supposed to communicate with a group’s moderator through a hover function. Overall, I do believe that I’ve gotten a good grasp of understanding how to integrate designs properly into existing applications, and will definitely rework my flow next time I have the opportunity to work on a similar project.