What I learned from designing mobile music experience
UX research on user streaming habits
Designing a music player app is not only about crafting UI, but creating music listening experience in mobile context. Here are some of the findings and thoughts that I learned from interviewing, prototyping and testing in a music player project.
1. Sometimes we just cannot help but be obsessed with the exact same songs. So we play them on repeat for the entire week.
Lots of music listeners stick to their favorites and what they already know, especially those who don’t really listen to music that much. Interestingly, they create sense of refreshment or bring back old memories by switching to shuffle playing mode. Therefore, make it as easy as possible for users to access their recent favorites. And while giving them what they want, remember to bring up surprises to help them explore new favorites.
2. Save the song first. Curate playlists? Maybe tomorrow.
During interviews, users had very different behaviors and opinions about functions they consider important on a music player. When they hear a song that sounds nice, some click Download right away, some add it to the one and only playlist they have, and some just simply click Like. Their behaviors seem to have nothing in common at first. But later they show an interesting underlying need, which is to save the song within a click and be able to easily access it later. Just like clicking the + button to save a song to my library in Spotify.
So, where exactly do users expect or want the song to be saved to? Actually it does not matter as long as it is easy to access. However, how we name the saved space influences greatly how users interpret and behave. For example, naming the space as “My favorite songs” discourage users from saving songs. Users happen to start thinking whether they really love the song or not and end up giving up.
“Saving a song does not mean I love it. I’d rather not save it than claim it as my favorite. ”
Since users save songs, does that mean they curate their own playlists as well? We found that most of them don’t. Although some of them claim they will, someday. Even those who do make their own playlists, they don’t do it at the moment when hearing the song. Curating a playlist usually means dedicating a certain period of time.
3. Daily commute is hardly delightful, yet music turns us into happier commuters.
Did it ever occur to you that how users commute might impact what music they listen to? Not only do users play music based on mood at the moment, but also context and mobility. Are they commuting on foot, by car or holding handles on shaking buses? How long are they on the move? Are their hands free to play with their phones? If not, what are the ways of interaction they have to control music? Before they even noticed, these are all determining factors that lead them to listening to an album, seeking out new music, or randomly listening to recent favorite songs on repeat.
4. Mobile multitasking is the norm. Convenience is key.
It’s not hard to picture the morning commute scenario when you turn on music in Spotify, start browsing Instagram, reply messages on Messenger and meanwhile work on an email draft to send later that day. Now, imagine the music suddenly goes so wrong, totally not for the mood. What will you do?
You might switch from Instagram to Spotify and change a song. Yet you are more likely to swipe up the mini music player in Control Center and click “Next Song”. Or swipe down the mini music player in Notification for Android users.
Users are familiar with the ease and convenience of controlling music via multiple input channels, including earphone remotes, lock screen, Control Center on iPhone and Notification on Android phones. And of course hands-free and non-visual interactions such as voice input. Therefore, think about user music listening journey and create seamless music experience on every touch point.
5. Ask users to imagine an ideal music player. And don’t trust them.
When we did user interviews at the beginning of the project, we asked users their opinions and feedbacks about in-app mini music player. Surprisingly, a lot of them said they rarely use it and don’t really mind if we remove it. However, as we start prototyping and testing, we found out the key role that mini player plays is not the functions but the information.
They don’t use the functions on mini player that much, such as pausing or playing next, which is true. But they didn’t realize it is the information that matters, including whether you’re playing a song or not right now and what song you are playing, which brings clear visibility of system status.
Conclusion
Music listening is a very personal yet social behavior. That’s what makes investigating music streaming habits so much fun. Doing user research is always an adventurous and inspiring journey to learn and to unlearn. We can always get surprising feedbacks and inspiring thoughts from talking to real users. However, don’t just ask users if they need something, watch how they actually use it and interact with it. It’s always more important for us to digest the great amount of information we get and generate points of view from our own perspectives as UX researcher and designer.
