UX Case Study: Optimizing Productivity by Listening to Spotify

Published in

Bootcamp

7 min readDec 13, 2022

💭 Background

Spotify is currently one of the most popular digital music services that gives you access to millions of songs and podcasts. It offers everything that all of its music streaming app competitors have and more. Spotify aims to make music universally accessible. The highlight of the application is a library of millions of songs (over 40 million) and a massive number of playlists created by both mobile app users and Spotify’s own algorithm system.
With the increasing popularity of Spotify, the app has also grown in features over the years. However, there are certain aspects of this application that can be improved according to user needs. In this UX case study, I will try to explore and listen to user needs that can be implemented to improve the experience on Spotify.

The Objective

This initiative aims to explore user habits & needs in the experience of using audio streaming and media services to improve the product and overall user experience. The output is to provide a feature prototype for Spotify that can seamlessly combine entertainment & productivity functions.

My Role

UX designer responsible for user research, strategy, UI design, prototyping, visual design, and usability testing.

Time Allocation

4 days

🏋🏻 Challenges

Increase the average amount of time per unique user ID spent listening to audio content.

📝 Process

Research

I use both quantitative and qualitative approaches to do my UX Research.

In a quantitative approach, I use the desk research method, which is to obtain sources of data and statistics from research journals, books, websites, and articles. The purpose of this method is to obtain measurable data.

In a qualitative approach, I use the one-on-one user interviews method. The purpose of this method is to gain an in-depth understanding of why users do what they do. I did interviews with 5 people & made a list of questions to make sure the interview went smoothly. Interviews were driven by open-ended questions to gain personal insight into their habits of using Spotify.

Research Synthesis

Quantitative research insight:

· There are 365 million Spotify users in 2021

· Spotify operates in around 79 countries

· 29% of Spotify users are dominated mainly by the aged 25–34 years

· 56% of Spotify users are female, 44% are male

· Spotify has 232M active users and 108M premium, subscribers

· 52% of users are listening to songs on Spotify from their smartphones

· Spotify is being tuned by users for 148 minutes every day

· Around 50M+ tracks and 3B+ playlists are available to users

· The percentage of using Spotify for productive activities is one of the highest, which is 35%

Qualitative research insight:

· The majority of people I interviewed use Spotify for more than 1 year

· Users use Spotify because they want to focus on listening to audio

· The reason for using it compared to other music streaming platforms is because Spotify has content recommendations that are very suitable for personal preferences

· Features that many users like regarding personal recommendations, namely made-for-user playlists, discover weekly, daily mix, saving song history, etc.

· The majority of participants use it to accompany work or perform productive activities. From user stories, the percentage they listen to on Spotify every day is the highest while working.

· From user stories, there are differences in how to use Spotify between then and now. In the past, users usually opened Spotify already knowing in advance what music they were going to play. Now, the average user is too bored with the music they often hear, they want to find new music with the same taste. From this, they use the content recommendation features provided by Spotify such as go-to song radio, discover weekly, and daily mix.

· All participants gave reviews that they were satisfied with Spotify and made it the main app in their daily lives.

Needs

· From the results of quantitative and qualitative research, the majority of Spotify user demographics are millennials of productive age who often listen to music and podcasts while working or doing other activities such as studying, writing, or reading.

· In addition to listening to music, they need something that can make them more focused and reduce distractions while doing activities.

· In addition to needing something to stay focused and productive, sometimes they also feel stuck, tired from many online meetings, and bored because during a pandemic the majority of activities are carried out in front of a laptop or gadget. Since the pandemic, their mobility has been greatly reduced and they are more active indoors, so they need a vibe/atmosphere that can provide relaxation as if they could be in a certain place.

Persona

To develop a typical Persona that describes the average audience member, I looked again at Insights, Needs, and user demographics. This persona also highlights the main needs of the majority user group so that later it can provide targeted solutions.

Define

With a persona established, I moved into translating the insights and needs into defined Point of View Statements, then crafted a set of How Might We Questions to guide my design. By defining the design challenge and framing it as a question, the roadwork for the ideation phase was paved for a range of innovative solutions.

“How to make users who listen to music while doing productive activities stay focused and relaxed?”

📱 Results

Low Fidelity: Wireframe

Before going digital, I sketched out the key screens necessary for fulfilling the tasks in our user flow. Sketching first allowed me to brainstorm different ideas on how to design different screens effectively. Below are the final sketches that I intend to use when moving into digital wireframing.

High Fidelity: Prototype

Feature I: Vibe The place

I create a collection of playlists that are tailored for a relaxed and productive atmosphere but can also feel the vibe of somewhere that can brighten up the day and create focus. The goal of music curation is to allow users to listen to productivity-enhancing music that combines background sounds, relaxing music, and artwork. so that users feel like sitting in a real cafe, the perfect restaurant to make relax, relieve stress, and tired.

Feature II: Pomodoro Timer

The Pomodoro technique is a time management method that can be used for productive activities.
The purpose of the Pomodoro Technique is to use time as effectively as possible to achieve productive activities carried out by users and to support users to continue to increase focus in carrying out their activities.

View Prototype

UX Case Study: Increase Productivity by Listening to Spotify

Testing

The testing method used is usability testing, which is to assess the usability of features, interface design, information flow, and information architecture. 2 features will be tested, which means 2 missions must be completed by participants. His mission is to explore the highlights of “Productivity with music”.

In general, states that the features that have been created have a clear purpose and are easy to understand. Participants can immediately get the purpose of the feature and find it very easy to use. The results of the usability test report are shown below.

Conclusion & Takeaway

From the process design that has been carried out, the output offered is to combine the Pomodoro timer, which is to increase productivity focus, and Vibe The Place, namely comfortable music curation by feeling the vibe of somewhere (feels like sitting in a real cafe or restaurant) that can be enlightening and relaxing. From this solution, the hope is that it can increase the time users spend listening to music and podcasts on Spotify.

If you have any feedback regarding this UX case study, I’d love to hear from you, feel free to leave some comments. If you want to send a message for discussion, you can contact me via Telegram. Thank you.