Integrating Friend Activity—Spotify UX Case Study



Context: I set out to translate the currently desktop only feature “Friend Activity” into mobile as a case study project


Three words to define me: I love music. It’s built into my everyday life.

But what I love even more is when chance and Spotify algorithms align and I find that new favorite song to loop for hours on end. But here’s the thing, finding those perfect songs isn’t easy.

It takes time, intention, and sometimes, pure chance.

Spotify Discovery is great, but often only picks up on one genre of music that I enjoy and never provides me with the other genres that I also crave. On the other hand, the top charts only show me the same 50 songs that pop radio stations seem to be confined to.

At this point, I usually do one of two things:
  1. Call it quits and continue draining the novelty out of that one song I found three weeks ago, or
  2. Ask friends for suggestions.

The latter option is great, because there exists a mutual understanding. I can filter the types of suggestions I get by asking different friends, and my friends also already understand the types of music I like.

But the universal problem still stands.

People want to discover new music through people whose taste they already know and trust. However, that’s difficult to do in real life because it’s hard to:

  1. Stay up to date.
  2. Remember recommendations.

With this in mind, I set out to refine the music discovery process by making it more interactive and personal.


User Research


I sought out 6 Spotify users, with the goal of understanding  the discovery arc for finding new songs by answering these questions:
  • When and why do people want to find new music?
  • How are they currently doing so?
  • How do they feel about the current methods of music discovery?

Here are some key insights that I found:
1. The desire for music discovery is spontaneous and fleeting.
2. People are much more likely to try out the songs that their friends recommended
3. Not everyone is interested in finding new music.




Brainstorming


The common denominator in every conversation I had was simple—something along the lines of “I’m way more likely to listen to a song if the recommendation comes from a friend.”

With this in mind, I recruited my to help me brainstorm. After an intense session, we identified one main opportunity area to pursue:

How might we improve interactions between different Spotify users, specifically the people you choose to follow and connect with?

Some features I considered exploring included:
  • stories
  • genre or artist-based groups
  • activity feeds.

After considering the high feasibility (the feature already exists, but exclusive to desktop) and high impact (many users have stated their desire to bring Friend Activity to mobile), I decided to pursue the Friend Activity feature.

Whereas stories or community groups require intention in joining and discovering new music, activity feeds are suited for casual, spur-of-the-moment browsing, reflective of the often casual and spur-of-the-moment nature of music discovery.


Implementing “Friend Activity”


Since the Friend Activity feature already exists on desktop, I broke down my goal into two parts:
  1. How to translate this feature to mobile
  2. How to use this feature to improve the process of music discovery.


I began my process with sketches diagramming out different features I wanted to include. I created 3 very simple flows that explored different entry points, layouts, and features to map out different different iterations that a mobile Friend Activity could entail.





After experimenting with different ways to implement Friend activity, I moved on to analyzing the desktop version of Friend Activity and talking to users. In doing so, I identified the essential elements for implementing this activity feed, including profile picture, name, song title, time stamp, and the ability to play the song and navigate to the user’s profile or song/playlist details.

After exploring the option of giving Friend Activity the function of a playlist, I chose option A to create more personalized and continuous listening/discovery experience.



Finding an Entry Point


I explored 3 entry points with varying degrees of prominence:

Option A: Easiest to navigate to, but potentially too obtrusive (especially after Spotify downsizing to 3 options on the tab bar in its recent update.)

Option B: Too hidden. Location does not fit well logically. (“Your Library” holds your personal collection of music, so adding in a more social feature here didn’t quite make sense.)

Option C: The best compromise and most logical, as the Search tab and “Browse all” section are naturally where users go to find new music.




Layout of Friend Activity


After determining an entry point, I revisited my initial concept and explored different ways of laying out the information from “Friend Activity.” Option B was my initial standard activity feed, whereas Option A emphasized individual songs and genre playlists and Option C combined A + B.

After testing these options, I found that users preferred the simplicity and familiarity of Option B, as finding songs in A required extensive scrolling and the combination of vertical and horizontal components in C were too jarring . Option B maximizes the information displayed and is fitting for moments of curiosity or discovery, as it allows users to conveniently glance at what others are playing.

Friend