When the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world in March 2020, concert and music festival lovers were out of luck. Events like Coachella and Summerfest were postponed or cancelled. Concert and music festival lovers could listen to the music of their favorite artists, but they missed the connection they felt when they attended the events in person.
I designed a live stream feature and integrated it into Spotify’s platform. I wanted to focus on creating an interactive experience in which users could chat with the artists. This way concert and festival lovers could see their favorite artist live and get the connection they desired while safely practicing social-distancing.
Similar to YouTube, Instagram Live, Facebook Live, Twitch, etc. users would be able to interact with their favorite artists or podcasters. However, I learned that not all users like to see the chat room feed, so I made sure that the feature could be hidden.
I also reduced the ‘Friend Activity’ section to only include images of friends to see who was listening most recently. I thought this would make sense to increase the user’s engagement in the live stream.
To help users remember when live streams were happening, I created a page in which users had a list of all the streams they RSVP-ed for.
I separated music lives streams from podcasts to keep the lists more organized, making it easier for the user to look through the lists.
Test out the prototype. Here are some things you can try:
• Watch the Hillsong Worship live stream
• Save the upcoming BTS live stream
• Look for the ‘Productivity’ podcast (then watch it if you’re interested)
Usability test participants were able to navigate through the new feature with a 93% completion rate.
At the time, Spotify did not share their design system publicly. Therefore, I needed to take time to observe and learn how its components worked and use them with the new feature to incorporate into the existing platform.
I learned how to incorporate a feature to an existing platform. I observed how Spotify uses consistent and recurring patterns to help its users navigate through the platform and reflected that in the new feature.
Create a wireflow map before sketching because then I could sketch out all the pages needed instead of sketching out a few I wouldn't use and missing some after
Discuss designs with others because they can pinpoint things that might be missing or need to be considered
I would improve the discoverability of the live streams. I think Spotify has an easy way to find music and podcasts. When creating this feature, I didn’t thoroughly consider a way to search for upcoming live streams. So, there was only one way to search for a live stream and it was not very obvious.
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