Apple Music Case Study
Making the most of your music
Problem
I want to easily navigate the music I already know, but doing so is difficult because there is little functionality within the my music library.
Solution
A Favorites feature that allows users to categorize and easily access music they listen to the most
Discovery
How do people access their music?
Many users go to the app to listen to music they have already discovered, so the music library is the first place they go. Users also expressed they do not prefer to use the Radio and Browse section because they already know specifically what they want to listen to when they open the app.
User Trends & Insights
From user interviews, surveys, and the think-aloud method, the following key insights were gained
People Problem
After conducting user research I landed on the following people problem:
“I want to easily navigate the music I already know, but doing so is difficult because there is little functionality within the my music library.”
Ideation
Market Research — How do other music listening apps organize their music?
When looking at other music sharing apps, I focused in on the homepage and bottom icons to see what they initially offer to users. An aspect I liked about Soundcloud is that it offers users suggested playlists based on your most listened to songs at the moment on the pain home screen. In addition, Spotify not only shows recently added on the home screen, like Apple Music, but also songs that are in heavy rotation.
Feature, Feasibility, and Impact
Through exploration of insights I landed on three solution areas:
Increase functionality within users’ library.
Redesign interface based on preference
Influence users to interact with the app
Based on these areas, I brained stormed features and looked at their potential feasibility and impact, and decided to further explore “Pinned songs on the home page” which would be further developed into the Favorites feature.
Design & Development
Information Hierarchy
Interactions & Necessary Steps
Accessing Favorites
From Library page select Favorites
Accessing Playlists
From Library page select Favorites
Select arrow to access more
Favoriting a song
Select a song for full screen view
Click star at bottom of screen
High Fidelity Flow
Accessing favorites can be done from the main library page. You can select any song from your most played favorites and it will give the user some statistics on the song such as plays and date added and number of plays. You. can also play the song from here.
The favorites playlists will be filled with automatically generated playlists for the user based on categories like genre.
Users can add a song to favorites simply by clicking the star at the bottom of the song page.
Accessing favorites
Accessing favorites playlists
Favoriting a song
Prototype Video
The Takeaway
Giving access to a wide variety of music is standard, so in order to engage users, there needs to be something more. Allowing users to categorize their music further with a favorites section, see their listening statistics, and also automatically make personalized playlists with the favorites helps them get more from their music with less effort.