Spotify
Enhancing music discovery and education in the Spotify ecosystem.
ROLE
Product Designer
TIMELINE
2025 - 4 Weeks
TEAM
2 designers
TOOLS
Figma
Overview
WHAT IS “SPOTIFY”?
Spotify is one of the biggest music streaming platforms globally, giving users access to millions of songs and audio content from artists across the world. However, the platform often faces criticism for restricting music discovery, making it difficult for users to shape and personalize their recommendations.
PROJECT IMPACT
My design partner and I created a blend of active and AI-driven features that empower listeners to take a more active role in personalizing their music reccommendations and discovery experience.
Problem
SPOTIFY USERS AREN'T SATISFIED WITH THEIR RECOMMENDATIONS
Spotify has over 670 million users worldwide, but many share similar concerns when it comes to the algorithm and music discovery experience. It is often difficult to find new music because many discovery features are passive, making the experience feel limited and uninspiring.
Opportunity
TO MAINTAIN AND ATTRACT USERS, SPOTIFY NEEDS TO IMPROVE THEIR DISCOVERY EXPERIENCE
We took a look at Spotify's research blog and what work is being done to help users expand their listening behavior. Even their top leaders recognize that recommendations can improve, and a major part of this means allowing users to refine their recommendations.
SO THEN,
How might we enhance music discovery in Spotify to empower users to explore diverse music in a more personalized and engaging way?
Design Principles
OUTLINING CORE THEMES TO GUIDE OUR SOLUTIONS
Based on insights from our user interviews and secondary research, we formulated design principles that guided our explorations and decision-making moving forward.
Ideation
ORGANIZING OUR IDEAS BY EFFORT AND CUSTOMIZATION
Based on our principle of low cost, we compared the potential effort level of our ideas to existing Spotify features that users commonly use. Because many existing features already covered low effort and low customization spaces, we focused on ideas that offered higher customization.
Final Designs
A blend of active and AI-driven features reimagine how Spotify listeners can actively shape their discovery journey
Explorations
Through testing and iteration, we learned which of our ideas truly resonated with users and which ones helped shape our thinking, even if they didn’t make it into the final experience.
RADIO REFRESH: INITIAL ITERATIONS
While these versions didn’t move forward, they surfaced important considerations about how much flexibility users would want. They also highlighted areas where interaction patterns and visual feedback could be refined for greater clarity and ease of use.
✅ Well-integrated into existing interface
⚠️ Poor visual feedback when refreshing
✅ Improved discoverability of feature
⚠️ Single use, poor visual feedback
✅ Buttons make for a simpler interaction
⚠️ Can only select one quality to refresh
DAYLIST VIBE REFINE
Users found the Vibe Refine feature to be helpful, but its use case was quite niche. It would only be used when users have multiple vibes for a single Daylist time, which may be infrequent.
⚠️ How often will users have multiple vibes for a single time?
AI SONG COMPANION
AI Song Companion was originally the song counterpart of our AI Deep Dive feature, but we felt that it was too open-ended for a genAI experience. When testing with users, the use case was confusing when compared to other song-specific features like Song Radio.
⚠️ Can this instead help us improve an existing feature?
BEHIND THE SCENES WIDGET
We originally explored a Behind the Scenes widget to better connect listeners to broader aspects of a song. However, we thought its impact on music discovery would ultimately be limited compared to other features.
⚠️ What is the impact on music discovery?
Takeaways
EXPLORE FROM EVERY ANGLE
I typically approach ideation with a focused mindset, but this project helped me realize that loosening the reins can significantly broaden the scope of my ideas. Collaborating with my design partner, who encouraged us to diverge and explore a wider array of possibilities, taught me the value of thinking more expansively and freely.