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bringing deeper self expression to the user profile
Problem
For the longest time, the Spotify user profile has been an underdeveloped and under-utilized surface, with research indicating that only 7.9% of users visit the page within a given month.
To establish a strong foundation for the future of social, our team set out to increase the expressivity of the profile, investigating we how we might enable users to explicitly signal and share their tastes with their followers.
solution
We’ve endeavored to increase the expressivity of the profile, exploring ways we might make user tastes more tangible from the surface. We arrived at ‘Picks’, an expressive canvas, to which users can broadcast their favorite Spotify content with their followers.
Video-based, and interactive, ‘Picks’ enables immersion into the aesthetic and sonic world of other users.
picks: expresS your taste
‘Picks’ is an expressive canvas, to which users can directly share their favorite Spotify content with their followers.
Video-based, and interactive, ‘Picks’ enables immersion into the aesthetic and sonic world of other users.
Previews of top tracks along with explanation of picks
Uses playlist builder to reduce entropy of designing bespoke flow
From a glance, Picks add visual interest and personality to the profile
Tap in to listen to a snippet, as well as see more details about Pick
Tracks without canvas still showcased in visually engaging manner
Exploration of Picks followed by CTAs to drive strategic interactions, like creating a 'Blend'
Followers are informed of updates via the notification center
'Picks' is the first feature enabling users to explicitly curate the content on their profile, with earlier versions of the profile relying upon auto-populated content, like recently created playlists.
User sentiments indicated a perception of potential within the profile as a vehicle for identity expression, but with unrealized value, the auto-curated content taking away agency & choice in how they expressing/display their identity.
'Picks' changes that, putting power in the hands of the user to truly self-express their tastes.
Users are empowered to choose, showcasing the media that is explicitly considered & personally relevant
'Picks' incorporates video & audio to visualize user tastes in an easily digestible form, revealing aesthetic inclinations, fave genres, audio themes, & more
The first on-platform social signal, ‘picks’ sets the stage for exploration of the value around social discovery
'Picks' was born out of an ask from Daniel Ek - that my team convert his user profile to an artist account, so he could share a podcast he loved with his followers. This ask, however, would not be possible, artist & user accounts, which, historically being as distinct entities with unique capabilities.
His request reflected a user perception we'd encountering in our user research - 'the profile is a promising vehicle for identity & taste distribution, but with a lack of features to actually fulfill said potential.'
how can we visually reflect identity, tastes & activity in a way that to make the profile more digestible?
how can we give users a deepers sense of agency, shifting from the current profile's reliance on activity alone?
what sort of experiences could provide genuine value to users, beyond simple affirmation (likes) or other forms of social validation?
how can we foster rich meaningful connections, avoiding social experiences that feel demanding or exhausting?
Spotify's aim with social is to enhance and facilitate meaningful connection, minus the pressures of traditional content-driven platforms
Testing a new direction we hope to built in a manner which will enable us to learn and adapt quickly without demanding excessive engineering capacity
Hoping to experiment before committing to social, we must build a solution that does not necessitate the deployment of a full content-moderation vehicle
'Picks' can be built upon the existing 'preview row' component, a lightweight path to MVP. Interactive and shareable, such technically accomplishes the minimum requirements to test our basic ideas without large engineering demand
While a more complex solution technically, 'discovery cards' (which also already exist in within our library of components) are visually and sonically expressive, enabling a deeply immersive & engaging'picks' experience.
In a world ,where 'picks' are periodically updated, there is value in maintaining an archive of previous 'picks', enabling users to explore the evolution of a user's taste over time.
Building off of the existing watch feed, this solution makes for a relatively light engineering ask. However, this solution is not very visual expressive
There is an interesting value being able to designate picks from surfaces beyond the profile, like the 'now playing view'. Such would massively boost the discoverability + relevance of 'Picks', meeting users at the moment of sonic surprise/delight with a new action to commemorate meaningful finds + share the joy discovery with their friends & followers.
A captivating and lightweight experience, 'Picks' gives users an easy way to derive meaning from the profile, immediately boosting its value
Unlike playlists, which require intentional investigation, 'Picks' are visually & sonically expressive, distilling listening aesthetics to a digestible form
The watch canvas is flexible, with the capacity to support all audio formats, video, and commentary + reactions
With a number of prioritized bets centering social, there was a need to quickly improve the profile, while also pending demand to map out a cohesive future strategy.
We quickly pulled together a simple mvp with plenty of flexibility, such that we can tweak and test and experiment with new features over time.
I worked closely with my PM to bring this idea from concept to execution, collaborating with engineering, UXW, and UXR along the way
My final deliverable was production-ready designs, prioritized for build in 2024
Isabelle Pereira • Product Manager
Chris Doyle • Engineering Manager
Mine Miralay • UX Writing
Isabell Ek • UX Research
Gonzalo Campos • SWE
Jessica Arruda • SWE
Design Thinking
Strategy
UX/UI in Figma
Prototyping in Figma