Project Type: Spotify iOS Application Heuristic Evaluation (Independent)
Process: Persona Creation, Wireframe (Omnigraffle), Expert Evaluation, Ideation, Sketching, Prototyping (Axure)
Preface: The image above is from from my Twitter account - I absolutely adore Spotify, but find the UI on both the iOS app and the desktop application to be difficult to use.
I began to wonder how others used Spotify, and how their user experience differed from my own.
I was being vocal about it on Twitter, but found that some people seemed to agree with me. I had to investigate, and decided to perform a heuristic evaluation on it to test my theory.
While I would certainly not be considered a 'mainstream' user, I believe that a lot of my issues would overlap with other user types.
Only one way to find out: I conducted a heuristic evaluation based off of Jakob Nielsen's best usability practices and attempted to nail down some violations and fixes for them.
First things first, what types of Spotify users are there?
After some research I came up with 3 types of users:
Desktop Debbie - A young person, or perhaps college student who loves using Spotify to primarily play and find playlists from a computer rather than diving deep to manage and develop a music collection.
Power User Phil - A music collector of sorts who revels in amassing a large music pool that can be accessed whenever they want to. This user type loves the idea of managing their personal playlist and growing their knowledge and understanding of music.
Fair-weather Frank - A person who is reminded of a song, and accesses Spotify in order to play that song specifically. They do not want to learn, manage or develop a catalog and use the app on an as needed basis.
High-level personas created for this exercise, showing various types of Spotify users.
Their needs and goals that will inform any design changes.
Okay, user personas are complete but what do those users use Spotify to accomplish?
Since all user types have different goals for using Spotify, the next step would be to break down those tasks by user type.
Desktop Debble - Play & Save 'Radio' stations, Use primary navigation to Search for songs to base radio stations off of, 'Favoriting' new songs and stations for later use
Power User Phil - Manage 'My Music' by saving music to 'Collection', searching for new songs, Saving playlists, Searching for new music, Browsing and discovering new music
Fair-weather Frank - Search and play specific songs, access 'Browse' to aid in seeking songs
At this point, I dove into the application and attempted to complete the defined user tasks noting the following.
All Users consistently used the Primary Navigation menu to complete their tasks.
The layered presentation is arduous to return to when completing tasks outside of that part of the interface.
Something must be done!
Sketch for a solution to the primary navigation menu being hidden by layers of content.
The 'Home' button.
A quick wireframe prototype to test the new 'Home' button interaction....
Excellent, the small addition of the 'Home' button users to enjoy the EXPERIENCE more than they did, without needing to learn new functionality.
How?
It cuts down interactions needed to return to the primary navigation. The amount of taps to return to the root menu is reduced to 1. A single tap.
The 'Shuffle' button has been folded in to the 'Loop' button, so new new icons have been added, keeping the experience simple.
Further, it is likely not going to complicate users' existing knowledge of how the app works or feels since the 'Home' key resides on the 'Play' page and no other functionality is affected.
"Imagine jogging at the park on a sunny day, listening to your favorite song on Spotify as the wind blows through your hair. Just then, the song you were listening to changes and another, unfamiliar song replaces it. Your response is to quickly to pull out your phone, unlock it and return to the Spotify app. You then click the 'Home' button on the Play screen, instantly returning to the main menu and are easily able to select another radio station from your list. Within seconds, and without stopping your jog; you immediatly place your phone back in your pocket and continue running with a smile as your favorite song fills your ears."
Now, how can I explain that in Layman's terms to whoever may need to understand it?
Ah, I'll write a report on my finding and recommendation, explaining the cause and effect, or the 'WHY' of the change.
Perhaps I'll finish this recommendation, and seal the deal with a story.
"Imagine jogging at the park on a sunny day, listening to your favorite song on Spotify as the wind blows through your hair. Just then, the song you were listening to changes and another, unfamiliar song replaces it. Your response is to quickly to pull out your phone, unlock it and return to the Spotify app. You then click the 'Home' button on the Play screen, instantly returning to the main menu and are easily able to select another radio station from your list. Within seconds, and without stopping your jog; you immediatly place your phone back in your pocket and continue running with a smile as your favorite song fills your ears."
