OOUX Spotify challenge
OOUX is a philosophy and a set of principles that helps UX designers break down complexity, understand convoluted business requirements, synthesize research, and facilitate collaboration with stakeholders, SMEs, and developers. Armed with OOUX, teams can create more efficient digital products that are easier to design and develop—and easier for users to understand.
Mixtape: Music Mix Creation by
Spotify
Stakeholder Brief:
At Spotify, we are always looking for new ways to help people express their creativity.
For those of us in our 30s and older, one of the ways we remember expressing our
creativity in the past was by creating mixtapes (and CDs) for our friends and family.
We’d bring compilations together for a specific person or event and share copies of
that compilation with just a few people — or sometimes with only one person (like a
crush!). We’d write a personal note about the mix and often even write a little note
about every song on the mix. We’d often decorate the cover of the CD or cassette to
make it something truly special.
In today’s world of digital music and always-changing playlists that have “followers”
instead of recipients, the hand-crafted mix is a lost art. At Spotify, we want to bring
that art back — better than ever.
Users can create and share digital mixtapes — a new kind of playlist that pays homage
to the constraints of the pre-iPod mixtapes and mix-CDs. We actually want to carry
over some constraints from the old days — like max runtime (80 mins!), perhaps the
ability to share with only a limited number of people, and perhaps making the
MixTape non-editable after sharing. We want people to be able to craft something
they are proud of, in an environment that is not about followers or likes, but more
about connecting with loved ones through curated music.
This environment will require a paid subscription from the creator, but the recipient of
a mix can enjoy their music with a free account. We definitely want recipients to
become creators!
Our team has full access to the Spotify library of songs.
We also have access to imagery and even video clips, tons of assets that we have the
rights to, that potentially we could let our users play with to create cover art for their
mixtapes.
From Potential Users:
● “I really miss the mixtape. I used to write little messages about EVERY song on
the mixtape, like why it’s there. I really worked hard on them!”
● “Sometimes I’d only include part of a song. Could I clip songs? Or add some
voice over?”
● “Decorating my mixtape cover was definitely an important part of the process!
It would be cool to be able to take pictures from the songs I picked...like the
album cover art or images of the artist — and emojis or other stickers!— to
create a digital collage for the cover art!”
● “Mixtapes used to be like conversations. A mixtape given would trigger a
mixtape response. I might have a series of mixtapes 10, 12, tapes deep. Just
between me and another person.”
● “What if I could karaoke a song? Like, I could record my own voiceover? So for
this mix, it’s like MY version of Don’t Want to Miss a Thing?”
● “I’ve been looking for something like this: sharing a playlist just doesn’t feel
very special. I think it’s important that the person I give a mixtape to
understands that it’s just for them. That it’s super personalized.”
OOUX RESEARCH
Take a look at the orca process here
OOUX is a philosophy and a set of principles that helps UX designers break down complexity, understand convoluted business requirements, synthesize research, and facilitate collaboration with stakeholders, SMEs, and developers. Armed with OOUX, teams can create more efficient digital products that are easier to design and develop—and easier for users to understand.
Mixtape: Music Mix Creation by
Spotify
Stakeholder Brief:
At Spotify, we are always looking for new ways to help people express their creativity.
For those of us in our 30s and older, one of the ways we remember expressing our
creativity in the past was by creating mixtapes (and CDs) for our friends and family.
We’d bring compilations together for a specific person or event and share copies of
that compilation with just a few people — or sometimes with only one person (like a
crush!). We’d write a personal note about the mix and often even write a little note
about every song on the mix. We’d often decorate the cover of the CD or cassette to
make it something truly special.
In today’s world of digital music and always-changing playlists that have “followers”
instead of recipients, the hand-crafted mix is a lost art. At Spotify, we want to bring
that art back — better than ever.
Users can create and share digital mixtapes — a new kind of playlist that pays homage
to the constraints of the pre-iPod mixtapes and mix-CDs. We actually want to carry
over some constraints from the old days — like max runtime (80 mins!), perhaps the
ability to share with only a limited number of people, and perhaps making the
MixTape non-editable after sharing. We want people to be able to craft something
they are proud of, in an environment that is not about followers or likes, but more
about connecting with loved ones through curated music.
This environment will require a paid subscription from the creator, but the recipient of
a mix can enjoy their music with a free account. We definitely want recipients to
become creators!
Our team has full access to the Spotify library of songs.
We also have access to imagery and even video clips, tons of assets that we have the
rights to, that potentially we could let our users play with to create cover art for their
mixtapes.
From Potential Users:
● “I really miss the mixtape. I used to write little messages about EVERY song on
the mixtape, like why it’s there. I really worked hard on them!”
● “Sometimes I’d only include part of a song. Could I clip songs? Or add some
voice over?”
● “Decorating my mixtape cover was definitely an important part of the process!
It would be cool to be able to take pictures from the songs I picked...like the
album cover art or images of the artist — and emojis or other stickers!— to
create a digital collage for the cover art!”
● “Mixtapes used to be like conversations. A mixtape given would trigger a
mixtape response. I might have a series of mixtapes 10, 12, tapes deep. Just
between me and another person.”
● “What if I could karaoke a song? Like, I could record my own voiceover? So for
this mix, it’s like MY version of Don’t Want to Miss a Thing?”
● “I’ve been looking for something like this: sharing a playlist just doesn’t feel
very special. I think it’s important that the person I give a mixtape to
understands that it’s just for them. That it’s super personalized.”
OOUX RESEARCH
Take a look at the orca process here