Spotify
Project Overview
Background
Spotify is one of the world’s leading music streaming platforms, with over 600 million users globally. Known for its personalized playlists, social sharing features, and seamless listening experience, Spotify continues to evolve to meet the needs of its diverse audience. Music is not just about listening, but about sharing, connecting, and discovering new sounds with friends.
Project: Add a Feature
Role: Product Designer (for DesignLab bootcamp)
Timeline: 5 weeks (March 31, 2025-May 5, 2025)
Problem
Through user interviews and observations, I noticed a gap in how users share and engage with music on Spotify. While sharing songs through links and messages is common, friends often forget to open them, or the recommendation gets buried among other notifications. This creates friction in what should be a seamless social interaction.
How might we make sharing music more immediate, fun, and integrated into the listening experience?
Solution
To solve this problem, I designed a “Send to Queue” feature that allows users to directly send songs to their friends’ active listening queue within the Spotify app or to save the song to their likes. The song automatically goes into a designated space called “Shared With You.” This ensures recommendations are heard in the moment, reducing the chance of missed songs and strengthening Spotify’s community-driven experience.
The Design Process
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Competitive Analysis, User Interviews, Survey
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Affinity Mapping, Storyboard, User Personas, Project Goals, Problem Statement, Feature Set
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User Flows, Task Flows, Low-fidelity Wireframes, High-fidelity Wireframes
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Low-fidelity Prototype, High-fidelity Prototype
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Usability Test Plan, User Testing, Usability Results
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Iterations to Prototype, Next Steps, Reflections
Competitor analysis, User interviews, Survey
Research
Initial thoughts
Spotify is already strong with sharing features, but recommendations often get lost if they’re just sent as links. Users want a more seamless way to share music without disrupting their friend’s current listening. The queue feels like a natural place for “in-the-moment” song discovery.
Users would enjoy a frictionless way to share music that goes directly to their friend within the Spotify app where they can decide to play now instead of just a message or link. Having songs land in the queue would make it less likely for recommendations to be forgotten. Users would want control (accept, remove, reorder) so their listening experience isn’t hijacked. Social sharing on Spotify is often underused because it requires leaving the listening flow (going to messages, playlists, etc.).
Initial assumptions
Competitor Analysis
To understand more of the music app market, I looked into other platforms’ strengths and weaknesses such as Apple Music, Pandora, and Amazon Music and compared them to Spotify. I found that all platforms have their own unique aspects to them but none dive into sharing music within the listening space.
Spotify
Strengths
Leading in personalization and recommendation algorithms.
Social features (collaborative playlists, sharing).
Widely available across devices, including free tier.
Weaknesses
Lower audio quality compared to Apple/Amazon (unless premium tier).
High reliance on ads in free version.
Content costs are high; profitability challenges.
Apple Music
Strengths
Seamless integration with Apple ecosystem (iPhone, Mac, Watch).
Exclusive artist partnerships and early releases.
High-quality audio formats (lossless, spatial audio).
Weaknesses
Less advanced recommendations compared to Spotify.
Heavily tied to Apple devices (less flexible for non-Apple users).
Limited social features.
Pandora
Strengths
Strong in personalized radio stations.
Easy to use and lightweight experience.
Long-standing brand recognition in streaming.
Weaknesses
Declining user base; less competitive in modern streaming.
Limited library compared to Apple/Spotify/Amazon.
Weak international presence.
Amazon Music
Strengths
Bundled with Prime membership, cost advantage.
Large catalog with HD/Ultra HD streaming.
Integration with Alexa and smart home devices.
Weaknesses
Interface seen as clunky/confusing.
Less brand recognition for music-first users.
Recommendations not as strong as competitors.
Key Learnings
No music streaming platforms have a “Send to Queue” feature
Ensure the Send to Queue feature is simple, intuitive, and works seamlessly across devices and ecosystems. Make it easy for users to send songs without disrupting their own listening experience
Focus on social features
Personalization is key
On-demand control is popular by the users
User Interviews
Talking to real life Spotify users ensure that we get real feedback and opinions on how sharing music currently effects their experience. I interviewed 7 users
Participants
7 total
Ages 21-30
Two male five female
All Spotify users,
Three in person meetings, three over the phone, and one on Zoom
Research Goal
To understand how users currently share music and identify pain points in the process.
Key Findings
Daily Music Use
All participants listen to music every day, often across multiple contexts (commuting, chores, working out, gaming, relaxing).
Forgetting Shared Songs
Every participant has forgotten to listen to a song shared with them, especially when busy. Once forgotten, they rarely return to the song without a reminder.
Desire for Better Sharing Tools
Users want Spotify to:
Provide reminders when a song is shared.
Allow in-app sharing/messaging instead of relying on text.
Be more collaborative (shared playlists, notifications, or a “shared with you” hub)
Emotional Impact Of Sharing
Receiving a song makes users feel good (“they thought of me”), strengthening social and emotional connections. Forgetting to listen sometimes creates frustration or guilt on both sides.
Current Pain Points
Shared songs get lost in text threads.
No dedicated space to revisit songs sent by friends.
Lack of notifications when new songs are shared in-app.
Apple Music’s “Shared with You” feature exists, but users dislike that it doesn’t notify or organize well.
Summary
Users listen to music daily and love receiving song recommendations because it makes them feel connected. However, shared songs often get lost or forgotten due to busy lives and the lack of in-app reminders or organization. This reveals a clear opportunity for Spotify to create a more seamless, collaborative, and memorable music-sharing experience.
Survey
I created a survey to back up my interview insights with quantitative data. Through Google Forms, 40 users answered questions about their listening habits, music sharing behavior, challenges with receiving songs, listen follow-through, and what would improve their experience.
Key Insights
These survey results validate my interview findings and clearly frame the problem space the feature solves.
Music is shared often, but follow-through is low — songs get lost in text threads or forgotten.
There is a strong desire for centralization: a hub or playlist where all shared songs live.
Users want reminders and feedback loops (knowing their friend actually listened).
Sharing is emotional, but the current workflow is clunky and fragmented across apps.
Affinity Mapping, Storyboard, User Personas, Project Goals, Problem Statement, Feature Set
Define
Affinity Mapping
All quotes and insights from both the survey and user interviews were organized into an affinity map to identify patterns and recurring themes. This process helped me move beyond individual responses to uncover broader user needs: such as the tendency to forget shared songs, the desire for a dedicated space to access recommendations, and the frustration of switching between apps. These themes directly informed my design opportunities and guided the feature development.
Themes
User Needs + Pain Points
Audience for Sharing
Emotional Responses/Motivations
Improving the Sharing Experience
Frequency of Music Sharing
Storyboards
Shared With You: This storyboard highlights the challenge of forgetting about songs sent through texts or social media. The solution introduces a “Shared With You” space in Spotify where all recommendations are automatically collected, making it easier for users to revisit and engage with songs at their own pace
Send to Queue: This storyboard focuses on the frustration of forgetting or interrupting the listening flow when songs are shared. The solution proposes a “Send to Queue” feature, allowing songs to slide directly into a friend’s queue so they’ll hear it during their current session without extra effort.
User Personas
To better understand the types of users who would benefit from the new Spotify features, I created two personas: Margot and Lucy.
Margot is energetic and social, using music to power her workouts and connect with friends. She loves sharing songs in the moment but often feels frustrated when her recommendations get lost or forgotten.
Lucy is focused and introspective, relying on playlists to study, relax, and unwind. She enjoys receiving music from friends but wishes for a more organized way to keep track of those shared songs.
Project Goals
I decided to compare the Business Goals with the User Goals. The common goals to find a connection between to two to create common goals.
Spotify users often share songs with friends, but those recommendations are easy to lose or forget. Without a dedicated space or seamless way to add shared tracks to their listening flow, users like Margot and Lucy struggle to keep track of music they receive. This creates frustration, reduces discovery opportunities, and limits Spotify’s potential as a social and collaborative platform.
— PROBLEM STATEMENT
Prioritizing Features
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Must Have
Send to Queue button, friend selection, pop-up notification in Spotify, approve/deny the song, Shared With You folder
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Nice to Have
Auto-approve option, deny option with no notification to sender, queue placement toggle, play now option, default setting
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Surprising and Delightful
Auto-reply to the user who shared the song, send a message with the song shared, Listening Now indicator
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Can Come Later
Private DM with friends, recent send history, integration with Spotify wrapped, group send option
User Flows, Task Flows, Low-fidelity Wireframes, High-fidelity Wireframes
Design
User Flows
I then thought of different ways users would interact with the the feature. When I made this user flow, I had in mind that the user would have a “Send to Queue” button they would access in the “…” more options icon on a song card. This flow covers a user sharing a song to a friend, the recipient getting the song that was sent, and then accessing the Shared With You section. This helped me decide the key screens to design.
Task Flows
I brainstormed three different task flows: Sending a Song to a Friend, Receiving a Shared Song + Playing It, and Viewing “Shared With You” Section. These flows created a better idea of what steps the user would take to complete three different tasks in the prototype.
Low-fidelity Wireframes
Sketches
First I sketched out two different options for the feature. The first version was accessed by the user in the more options icon where I added a Send to Queue option. The second version was under the share icon where a DM like option similiar to Instagram’s sharing feature pops up. Then the user can select a friend and then send the song. I liked the second version better, because it felt familiar and flowed easier.
Version 1: More Options
Version 2: Share Icon
Second, I sketched out the “Shared With You” space. The first sketch shows the pop-up notification of receiving a shared song and where it goes after. The second was another idea of the “Shared With You” space in the Library. I then sketched a toggle of all friends and by friend. I ended up combining the two concepts into one when designing.
Version 1: Receiving a shared song + where it goes
The sketches were then designed into Lo-fidelity Wireframes in Figma to test a simplified gray scaled version of the screens. The first flow is sending a song to a friend. The second flow is receiving a song and seeing the “Shared With You” space.
User picks the song to share
Version 2: Shared with you in the library; friend toggle
User taps share icon and their list of friends pops up
User selects the friend to share the song with and taps send
User gets a “Song sent” confirmation
Recipient receives shared song and views “Shared With You”:
User views song shared notification upon opening Spotify and taps dismiss button
User adds the shared song to their Queue
User shares a song with a friend:
User sees the new “Shared With You” section on the homepage and taps
User accesses the “Shared With You” section to see all the songs shared to them in one place
High-fidelity Wireframes
Based on insights from testing the lo-fi wireframes, the designs were refined into High-fidelity Wireframes in Figma. These high-fi screens incorporate Spotify’s design system, color, typography, and interactions while maintaining the flows for sending a song and viewing the “Shared With You” space. The high-fi wireframes bring the user experience closer to a realistic, polished interface ready for prototyping.
User shares a song to a friend:
User picks the song to share
User taps share icon and their list of friends pops up
User selects the friend to share the song with and taps send
User gets a “Song sent” confirmation
Recipient receives shared song and views “Shared With You”:
User views song shared notification upon opening Spotify and taps dismiss button
User sees the new “Shared With You” section on the homepage and taps
User accesses the “Shared With You” section to see all the songs shared to them in one place; user then taps “Sort by friend”
User sees all the curated playlists sorted by their friends that shared them and recommended songs based on the last shared song; user taps the “You + Kate” playlist
User sees all the songs shared between them and Kate as well as the recently shared song identified by the blue dot
Low-fidelity Prototype, High-fidelity Prototype
Prototype
Lo-fidelity Prototype
To visualize and explore the “Send to Queue” feature, I created a lo-fi prototype. This prototype demonstrates the basic user flow for sending and receiving songs, allowing me to communicate design concepts and interactions before moving into high-fidelity wireframes.
Task 1: Sharing a Song With a Friend
Task 2: Receiving Song + Viewing “Shared With You”
High-fidelity Prototype
Building on the lo-fi prototype, I created a high-fidelity prototype to showcase the final visual design and interaction details of the feature. This version reflects Spotify’s UI patterns, color palette, and iconography, giving a realistic preview of how users would interact with the feature in the app. While the hi-fi prototype wasn’t formally tested, it communicates the polished design and functionality before development.
Task 1: Sharing a Song With a Friend
Task 2: Receiving Song + Viewing “Shared With You”
Usability Test Plan, User Testing, Usability Results
Testing
User Testing
Since this design builds on Spotify’s established UI patterns, I focused usability testing only on the lo-fi wireframes to validate functionality. The hi-fi prototype was created primarily to communicate visual and interaction design and was not formally tested. Following lo-fi testing, I made small text updates based on user feedback: “By friend” was changed to “Sort by friend” and “All friends” to “All songs.” The image on the left shows the original text, and the image on the right shows the updated version.
Objective
Validate the clarity and usability of the new “Send to Queue” feature within Spotify. Specifically, test if users could:
Send a song to a friend directly within the app
Confidently understand the sharing flow
Receive, engage with, and later locate a shared song
Method
Participants: 5 Spotify users
Prototype: Lo-fi wireframes
2 Tasks:
Share a song with a friend (“Ally”)
Receive a song and interact with it via the notification card
Key Findings
All participants completed both tasks in under 30 seconds
Users immediately recognized the share and friend list interface (felt familiar to Spotify)
Confirmation pop-up (“Song sent!”) was clear and built confidence
A few users suggested adding a personal message option when sharing
Some uncertainty around the “Dismiss” action (later clarified when they saw the homepage)
All participants appreciated having a dedicated space for shared songs
User Quotes
“It was very familiar because it matched Spotify.” – Maddy
“Sharing through text can be clunky; I’d share songs more if I could do it in the app.” – Kat
Next Steps
Add text on the notification card clarifying where a song goes
Include “Add to Liked Songs” on all song cards
Create a “Sort by Friend” toggle
Add Spotify’s visual details (blue dot for new items, album art, profile images)
Refine UI with Spotify’s official color palette
Prototypes that were tested:
User shares a song to a friend within the Spotify app:
User receives a shared song from a friend and views the “Shared With You” section:
Iterations, Reflection, Next Steps
Iterations +Reflection
Iterations
After lo-fi testing, I iterated on the design to improve clarity, usability, and consistency with Spotify’s UI. Updates included adding an ‘Add to Liked Songs’ icon, displaying the Lyrics card on all song screens, and refining album imagery, profile pictures, and the color palette. I also enhanced communication with a notification text, added a blue dot for new content, and designed screens for the ‘Sort by Friend’ toggle and personalized song recommendations. Finally, I polished the ‘Shared With You’ playlist album card with gradient and color for a more engaging user experience.
Song card before testing
Song card after testing with “add to liked songs” icon and the lyrics at the bottom
Share a song profile pictures before testing
Share a song profile pictures after testing with imagery
Shared With You section before testing at a grey scale and no imagery; no expansion
Shared With You section after testing with more imagery and Spotify’s UI incorporated with the blue dot for new music, “All songs” instead of “All friends” and “Sort by friend” instead of “By friend”
After testing—Wireframes for the “Sort by friend” toggle were designed with Spotify’s UI at the core to organize the songs shared by friends
Next Steps & Reflections
Project Growth:
This project underscored the importance of user-centered design. Engaging with Spotify users revealed that while sharing music is straightforward, remembering to listen amidst daily life is a challenge. Designing a feature that centralizes shared content within Spotify not only addresses this issue but also enhances user engagement and connectivity.
What I Enjoyed:
Designing a feature for an app I use daily was both enjoyable and insightful. It was rewarding to create a solution for a problem I've personally encountered. The positive feedback from users upon seeing the prototype affirmed the value of the feature.
Challenges & Trade-offs:
Integrating a new feature into an established platform posed challenges in maintaining consistency and user familiarity. Decisions on UI complexity, such as the "Sort by Friend" toggle, balanced personalization with simplicity to cater to both new and experienced users.
Key Insights:
Users desire a centralized space for shared music.
Notifications and subtle cues aid in remembering shared content.
Small UI details significantly impact usability and perception.
Takeaways
This project enhanced my ability to introduce new features into existing platforms thoughtfully, prioritizing user control, familiarity, and engagement. I also deepened my understanding of balancing functionality with usability, lessons I’ll apply in future UX projects.
A few months later, Spotify launched a new in-app direct messaging feature called Messages, allowing users to send and receive texts and emojis, share songs, podcasts, and audiobooks, and start one-on-one conversations with friends and family. This validates the problem I identified and the solution I proposed with the “Send to Queue” feature, demonstrating my ability to recognize real user pain points and design thoughtful, user-centered solutions that align with product trends. My design provided a centralized, intuitive space for shared music, emphasizing usability, user control, and social engagement which are key considerations that Spotify later addressed with their messaging feature.
Next Steps
1
Emoji or Reaction Feedback on Shared Songs — Let users react to songs their friends send, increasing social interaction and engagement without needing full messaging.
2
Integration within Spotify Wrapped — where users can see how many songs they shared over the year, how many times their friend sent them a song, the friend they shared with the most, and how many songs you listened to that were shared with you.
3
Reminders for Unplayed Shared Songs — Subtle notifications or “catch-up” prompts for songs sent but not yet listened to, helping users act on shared content without feeling spammed