Spotify — UX Audit
Role
Interviewer, UX designer, Insight analyst
Timeline
1 Month
Type
UX Audit and design recommendations
Team
1 members
Context & Problem
Spotify is a leading music-streaming platform known for its personalization algorithms and expansive music library. However, interviews and user observations revealed a recurring challenge: many users rely heavily on "Liked Songs" or a handful of playlists, engaging minimally with discovery features. Participants described a paradox. Spotify offers endless choice, yet users often feel overwhelmed or stuck in listening habits. New users reported difficulty navigating the interface, while long-time listeners felt discovery had become less personal. This gap highlighted an opportunity to improve discoverability and usability while keeping Spotify's emotional connection to music at the forefront.
Goals & Success Metrics
My goal was to identify pain points in Spotify's interface and develop recommendations that would make music discovery more intuitive, personalized, and human-centered. We aimed to: • Evaluate the clarity and consistency of Spotify's user experience. • Uncover behavioral patterns behind listening and exploration. • Provide actionable design recommendations to improve engagement. Success was measured qualitatively through: • User resonance during interviews and follow-up discussions. • Thematic alignment between insights and proposed improvements. • Clearer articulation of Spotify's discovery ecosystem for different user types.
Research & Insights
I conducted three semi-structured interviews with Spotify users aged 22–25, representing both new and long-term subscribers. Sessions explored listening habits, discovery behavior, and interface usability. Interview notes and transcripts were collaboratively coded to reveal shared themes. Core Finding: Spotify's recommendation system is powerful, but its discovery experience lacks guidance and emotional touchpoints, limiting user exploration and growth. Key Insights: Influence of Activity/Setting on Music Genre Choice: Music genre choice is influenced by the activity or setting. Spotify already offers playlists based on mood/activity, but could improve personalization through its recommendation algorithm. Spotify Interface Feedback: One interviewee described the Spotify interface as "a jumble of all the music I have ever listened to." This highlighted how overwhelming the interface can be for new users, even though regular users are familiar with it. Discover Weekly Playlist: Surprised that "Discover Weekly" wasn't mentioned in interviews, despite it being a key feature. The vague phrasing of a question on Spotify recommendations may have caused interviewees to not mention it. Assumptions re-examined: Discovery Through Community: Users do discover music through community features, like radio stations based on liked songs, but they didn't explicitly say they were "inspired" to discover. User Habits: Some users form habits and don't use all features (e.g., sticking to "Liked Songs" or podcasts). A new user was still exploring all features, showing habits develop over time. Habit assumption may not fully hold true; more data is needed for deeper insights. Accessible Music Listening: Users appreciate the affordability and variety streaming offers over owning music, confirming this assumption.
Ideation & Strategy
Strategic recommendations: • Simplify Navigation: Consolidate overlapping sections (e.g., "Your Library" vs. "Playlists") for intuitive orientation. • Highlight Discovery Features: Prioritize Discovery Weekly and Blend playlists on the homepage to surface personalized exploration. • Personalization through Context: Introduce dynamic listening "modes" (e.g., Focus, Commute, Chill) that adapt to user activity. • Humanize the Experience: Feature artist-curated content and social elements to reintroduce a sense of connection beyond the algorithm. These ideas aimed to balance Spotify's data-driven intelligence with human-centered storytelling and simplicity.
Vision & Goals
Deliver a music streaming platform that offers a variety of listening methods in an accessible, clean, and organized fashion. Goals: • Increase the usage of algorithmic content amongst Spotify users • Grow the number of new users swapping from other platforms • Increase current users exploration of the app • Reduce the amount of "mono-listening" (Listening through only one avenue such as liked songs) Key Results: • Noticeable spike in usage of recommended content • Positive feedback online, eg. App store reviews, influencer feedback etc. • Noticeable increase in the volume of music users are saving • 10% increase in new users
Outcomes & Learnings
Although this project concluded at the conceptual stage, it provided valuable insight into how platform familiarity shapes discovery behaviour. Users didn't resist new features; they simply needed better framing and visibility. Key Learnings: • User interviews revealed the power of context — music habits are emotional and routine-based. • Simplification doesn't mean less functionality; it means designing for clarity and flow. • A balance between algorithmic precision and human storytelling fosters trust and engagement. Reflection: This audit deepened my understanding of how UX evaluation can uncover both functional and emotional pain points. I learned how to move beyond surface-level usability and look for meaning and understanding—not just how users interact, but why. It reinforced the importance of aligning design strategy with behaviour patterns, not assumptions.
Project Gallery
Goals & Success Metrics with strategic objectives
Research findings and user interview analysis
Insights: Activity influence, interface feedback, and assumptions
Strategic recommendations across navigation, discovery, and personalization
Persona 1: Velma Hoover — Exploratory music lover seeking curation
Persona 2: Gerald Spinaker — Habit-driven listener seeking discovery
Vision and key results for platform improvement