Spotify has three main business and design goals that guide most of the user experience within the app: (1) selling Premium subscriptions on the strength of its recommendation algorithm and personalized playlists; (2) monetizing free users and podcast listeners through ad sales; (3) maximizing user engagement in order to maximize the data available for its recommendation and ad sales algorithms. These goals constrain the design process in specific ways, which I discuss in the evaluation section.

But Spotify’s design is not driven solely by business considerations. There are aspects of its design that demonstrate other emphases, such as safety (Car Mode), utility (“About the Artist” and lyrics), and pure design (Canvas).

My goal with this project is to:

1. Audit the Spotify mobile app for its strengths and weaknesses as an audio streamer, in terms of both its visual design and its interaction design.
2. Evaluate its design choices with respect to optimally accessible and useful interactions and to Spotify’s business considerations.
3. Present new wireframes for the app’s design, based on takeaways from the evaluation.
4. Develop the new concepts into high-fidelity mockups and prototypes in Figma.
5. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages Spotify and its users would experience if the prototypes were actually implemented, and takeaways from the project as a whole.