Redesigning Spotify’s Queuing Experience for Enhanced User Interaction
Spotify (Kleiner Perkins Design Challenge) ✴ UX Designer ✴ Winter 2024 (3 days)
Context
Why did I choose to redesign Spotify?
Spotify is a leading music streaming platform that offers users access to a large library of songs, playlists, and podcasts. As someone who loves using the app (and has used it for the past 8 years), I noticed that there were a few inconveniences when it came to queuing songs. This pain point inspired me to redesign this feature for Kleiner Perkins’ design challenge :)
For context, Spotify's queue feature allows users to create a playlist of upcoming tracks. Users can add, remove, and rearrange songs in the queue, giving them control over the order in which songs are played.
Problem
The existing queue feature is lacking in terms of efficiency, visibility, and convenience.
Whenever I use the Spotify app, I need to manually add individual songs to my queue, which gets repetitive and time-consuming. Also, I can’t view previously played queued tracks, because when the song is played, it disappears from my queue altogether, which becomes frustrating when I want to revisit or replay a song. Finally, my queue oftentimes disappears after leaving the Spotify app, which results in me spending another 10 minutes to re-queue the same songs.
Solving these pain points might help provide a better experience for those who use the app to curate their own music experiences.
Solution
Enter the new and improved Spotify Queue!!
This new solution gives users the ability to:
Add multiple songs to the queue simultaneously
Have a clear view of previously played tracks for easy revisiting
Save queues to listen at a later time
User Feedback & User Needs
To gather insights from others, I briefly interviewed 3 students and had them navigate the existing Spotify app and add songs to the queue.
My goals in this interview were to learn more about how other users use the queue feature and identify any pain points related to the existing design. All the interviewees were students between the ages of 18-22.
After all the users walked through the app and indicated their thoughts, three specific needs can be assumed from Spotify’s Queuing Feature.
Users want to conveniently preserve curated playlist queues in case they want to revisit them.
Users want to effortlessly find and add multiple songs from playlists to their queues.
Users require clear visibility of their upcoming + past played songs for easy recall.
UX Audit
Before starting my redesign, I conducted a UX audit to analyze the existing feature(s) and interactions a user might experience.
Please note that the screenshots I took are directly from my iPhone 8, and the current Spotify design no longer fits my screen size. This is a whole different issue about compatibility, but I’ll save those thoughts for another time :)
The Opportunity
How should Spotify enhance its queue feature to offer users a more intuitive and streamlined music curation process with improved visibility and functionality?
Ideation
Rearranging buttons and combining features to optimize queuing.
I began to brainstorm how I could improve visibility, queue preservation, and adding multiple songs to queues by using FigJam (my favorite ideation tool)! You can view my board below.
The Final Design
Queue better, queue faster, and listen to more music!
This redesign hits all of the pain points I researched, creating a better listening experience for users.
Conclusions
Why should Spotify invest?
Investing in features like adding multiple songs to the queue, viewing recently played tracks, and saving queues for later can significantly enhance Spotify's user experience. This improvement satisfies current users but also (could potentially) attract new ones, which would set Spotify apart in the competitive music streaming market.
To gain detailed insights into user behavior and maximize the impact of these features, I’m curious if Spotify has gathered user feedback, especially by tracking feature adoption rates and conducting surveys. This would provide Spotify with a clear understanding of user preferences, allowing them to refine these functionalities and deliver an even more tailored and enjoyable music listening experience.
Lessons Learned
What I’d do differently next time.
Make More Screens: In future redesigns, I would create additional screens to illustrate more detailed interactions, providing a comprehensive view of the user journey and functionality.
Be Consistent with the Design System: Having learned to work with an already-existing (and iconic) design system, in future projects, I would ensure a more seamless integration with the existing system by thoroughly understanding its components, principles, and patterns.
Conduct Comprehensive User Interviews: Although key user insights were obtained, for the next design challenge, I would aim to conduct more extensive user interviews to gather a broader range of perspectives and insights, allowing for a more comprehensive understanding of user needs and preferences within the full design process.