OnGoing Project
More Details will be added soon
Spotify is the world’s leading streaming service, offering a vast library of songs, podcasts, and audiobooks. Users can access various genres, from fiction to non-fiction, through a premium subscription or by purchasing them in the app. This integration makes it easy to enjoy literature alongside music and podcasts.
Project Summary
Spotify lacks a bookmark feature for audiobooks, I researched the rising popularity of this format. This gap between user expectations and current features prompted us to explore the design process, aiming to understand user needs and give Spotify a competitive edge in the audiobook market.
We didn't just create a bookmark feature; we aimed to enhance the audiobook experience by developing various ways to save key information. This was done while maintaining Spotify's design style and existing feature flows.
Our Goal
To identify features that aids users in enhancing their audiobook experience and add them to the Spotify ecosystem. Thereby resolving any issues current audiobook listeners may face on Spotify and generate leads from potential users.
Constraints
Here are the constraints we had to work with.
Remaining consistent
We needed to align and be consistent with Spotify’s UI style while ensuring the features functioned like those for music and podcasts.
Copyright laws
Copyright laws impact integrating access to books beyond audio. We explored methods to do this while respecting the author’s intellectual property rights.
Access to right users
Interviewing more avid audiobook listeners would have provided deeper insights into the features they find regularly useful and practical.
Assumptions
These are what we held to be already true regarding our users and Spotify's services.
Type of usage
Users listen to audiobooks on their phones, allowing them to multitask and stay active while keeping their devices close.
Quality
Spotify's audiobooks are of great quality in terms of narration , easy of accessibility, and having a vast number of genres that suit user preferences.
Familiarity
Users are fairly familiar with platforms that have audiobooks and are at least occasional listeners so they can provide insight to what features they would like.
Research
How it began..
I use Spotify for music and audiobooks, while listening to audiobooks I find many memorable passages I wanted to save. Disappointed by the lack of a bookmarking feature, I resort to screenshots and think “This is inconvenient—others must struggle with this too.”
This issue raised questions about the challenges with audiobooks: are they viewed as inferior to physical books? How are they used? What problems do users face? What improvements would enhance their audiobook experience?
Users talk about the issue online....
Indexing your listening history instead of simply bookmarking!
Spotify community requesting a bookmarking feature.
I gauged how popular were audiobooks
Data collected from the U.S, Canada, and globally..
In the U.S
94%
Growth in daily audiobook consumption since 2017.
Of audiobook listeners
50%
Spend 1 - 4 hours a week listening to audiobooks
Globally
25%
Spotify users are audiobook listeners
In Canada
58%
of listeners acquired their books for free
The data indicated growing audiobook popularity, people spending considerable time listening and seeking free options. Since, a quarter of Spotify users enjoy audiobooks, there are many opportunities to enhance the user experience in a promising industry.
Getting to the problem
Although we recognized that Spotify audiobooks lacked a bookmarking feature and understood its importance, we still lacked a comprehensive understanding of other features listeners value than bookmarking to enhance the audiobook experience on Spotify.
So we interviewed 5 people. We had 2 high level objectives:
Understand user habits, how they integrate audiobooks into their daily lives.
Understanding user preferences.
This is what users said...
Multitask
Like to listen to audiobooks because it enables them to multitask. They don't need to be looking at their phones in order to be entertained or edified.
Listen to multiple reasons
Users said they listen to audiobooks for entertainment or edification. There was no prevailing reason for audiobook engagement.
Struggled to save material
Users across various platforms either struggled to save memorable information or organize their listening in meaningful ways.
Definition
The User Insight…
Users want an easy way to save interesting or memorable parts of a book without disengaging from other activities.
The problem is this...
Users appreciate that audiobooks allow multitasking but want an effortless feature that enables to find, store , and organize memorable and impactful parts of a book.
The solution....
How might we enable Spotify’s audiobook listeners to easily store, categorize, and organize, parts of an audiobook they find special or unforgettable?
Meet Stephanie..
Now that we have an understanding of what is important to audiobook book listeners, we made a user persona.
Stephanie Brown
Age: 28
Education: Bachelors of Education
Status: Grad Student
Occupation: Student teacher
Location: Ottawa, ON
About
Stephanie is a teacher and a masters student She loves audiobooks, especially true crime, which she listens to during her commute or while grading papers. The stories fuels her curiosity and critical thinking, qualities she brings to her teaching through problem-solving and storytelling.
Goals
To find a way to better organize her reading habits and thoughts she has while listening to audiobooks
An easy way to save and refer back to parts of the audiobook she found interesting
To be able to share quotes from audiobooks she found memorable
Needs
Easy way to save a bookmark to keep track of her reading
Easy way to view saved bookmarks
A simple and efficient way to share a quote she finds memorable
Frustrations
Has to write down a memorable quote she heard and then share it on her social media
Has difficulty organizing specific spots she found interesting within a certain book
Has to screenshot to save a memorable spot
Apps Used
Spotify
ClassDojo
Her favorite books
“I appreciate and like to share how detectives look at the cases as puzzles to be solved . I bookmark places where an important discovery is made, helps me remember what I found interesting and useful.”
Ideation
Competitor Analysis
We looked at Spotify’s audiobooks competitors to gain a better understanding of what features would them a competitive advantage . Our insights would provide a focus for our prototype.
Direct Competitors
Audible
Bookmarking, adding notes, speed control, and whisper syncing
UI is designed specifically tailored for the audiobook experience
Our Focus
Intuitive controls
Adding features such as boomarking that reflect the flexibility and control one has over a physical book
Google play books
A vast global outreach and easy to publish and share your own book
A virtual library which helps the user in organizing their reading habits.
Organization tools
Give users access to a personal library where they can organize their reading into lists
Indirect Competitors
Amazon Kindle
You can pick up where you left of in the e-book. Cross device syncing
Has text to speech. Passages can be read out loud to the reader
Accesbility
Give users the option to read and go over a passage they are interested in.
Our User Flow
Looking at our user scenario we took the actions that Stephanie would take to reach her goals and turned them into a user flow, moreover, we kept in mind the focus from the competitor analysis.
Prototyping and testing
keeping in mind our constraints…
Our proposed features should stay consistent with Spotify's music listening experience so potential users don't spend time familiarizing themselves with a feature that behaves differently from the ones they are used to. The prototype we made followed this important protocol.
The Wireframe
I came up with a few sketches and highlighted sections that were important and showed them to the team. Thankfully, they could read my handwriting and find legible my sketches.
The Mid-Fidelity Prototype
We built a prototype based on our wireframes. We did not have to rethink how Spotify’s UI would look like since along with the features we were aiming to stay consistent with the visual language of the app.
Player Screen
New list option
New list created
View list in library
User Testing Version 1
The focus of this user objective was to understand how intuitive it is for users to bookmark and share a quote. Moreover, understand how consistent the feature flow was to Spotify's music listening experience.
User Objective
You listen to audiobooks when you’re running errands or commuting using. Recently, you’ve heard Spotify has added the ability to bookmark and share a quote. You decide to make use of this new feature.
The Tasks
Save a bookmark to a new bookmark list
Access bookmark list from your library
Select and share a quote
The Feedback
Users found the feature flow to be consistent with Spotify's music listening experience, however they wanted a greater degree of customizability in regard to bookmarking.
Consistent
Users found the process of saving a bookmark and sharing a quote is consistent with the way other Spotify features behave.
Confusing names
The term ‘lists’ was confusing to users, it was either generic or reminded them of a music playlist. This caused hesitation in navigating the UI.
Custom Features
Users wanted to add different bookmarks to a playlist just like how they do for music, so they can listen to their favourite spots as it suits their mood.
Challenges
The focus of this user objective was to understand how intuitive it is for users to bookmark and share a quote. Moreover, understand how consistent the feature flow was to Spotify's music listening experience.
User Objective
You listen to audiobooks when you’re running errands or commuting using. Recently, you’ve heard Spotify has added the ability to bookmark and share a quote. You decide to make use of this new feature.
The Tasks
Save a bookmark to a new bookmark list
Access bookmark list from your library
Select and share a quote
The Feedback
Users found the feature flow to be consistent with Spotify's music listening experience, however they wanted a greater degree of customizability in regard to bookmarking.
Consistent
Users found the process of saving a bookmark and sharing a quote is consistent with the way other Spotify features behave.
Confusing names
The term ‘lists’ was confusing to users, it was either generic or reminded them of a music playlist. This caused hesitation in navigating the UI.
Custom Features
Users wanted to add different bookmarks to a playlist just like how they do for music, so they can listen to their favourite spots as it suits their mood.
Made with Figma and Framer