Spotifyis a music streaming service that has rapidly grown in popularity inthe last year. As part of their premium service to paying membersthey offer a mobile app from which the user can access theirextensive music libraries. However, as a service that is goingthrough constant rapid iteration, even though their mobile appcontains many beneficial features for the user, it is still not aspolished as it could be. Given that Spotify is an application thatincludes far too many features to be critiqued, the scope of thisassignment will limit itself to critiquing the 'Playlists' menu andthe listing of songs on Spotify.
Spotify - Playlists menu
Good elements of thedesign
Aesthetically,the design follows the typical iOS app design with gradient-coloredbuttons, and options at the bottom, just like the iOS Music app. Ituses a clear green triangle on each playlist to indicate whichplaylists have been synced to 'Offline mode'. The clarity from thesesymbols comes from the downward-pointing arrow which internet usersalready map to signify 'download', thus meaning that the playlist hasbeen 'downloaded' to their phone, thus being available offline.
Anotheradvantage of this design is the symbol the indicates which playlistis currently playing (in the image above, the “Programming”playlist is the one currently playing. Again, this uses a symbolicmapping instead to signify that the playlist is playing.
Thebottom buttons clearly highlight the currently selected option toknow which one has been chosen. Each of the icons include a smalllabel which describes what the icon is. The importance of these beingsmall labels is that they do not interfere with the design, but arestill readable enough for the user to know what the purpose of eachicon is.
Aesthetically,the design follows the typical iOS app design with gradient-coloredbuttons, and options at the bottom, just like the iOS Music app. Ituses a clear green triangle on each playlist to indicate whichplaylists have been synced to 'Offline mode'. The clarity from thesesymbols comes from the downward-pointing arrow which internet usersalready map to signify 'download', thus meaning that the playlist hasbeen 'downloaded' to their phone, thus being available offline.
Anotheradvantage of this design is the symbol the indicates which playlistis currently playing (in the image above, the “Programming”playlist is the one currently playing. Again, this uses a symbolicmapping instead to signify that the playlist is playing.
Thebottom buttons clearly highlight the currently selected option toknow which one has been chosen. Each of the icons include a smalllabel which describes what the icon is. The importance of these beingsmall labels is that they do not interfere with the design, but arestill readable enough for the user to know what the purpose of eachicon is.
Spotify - Song listing
Thesong listing in Spotify (once a playlist is selected) follows thesame pattern of using green downward-pointing arrows to representwhich songs have been synced to offline mode. The 'Shuffle Play'option is also prominently displayed very clearly, which is a smartdesign choice given that this is the most commonly used option in anymusic player.
Areas that needimprovement
The'Playlists' menu is very straightforward and makes it clear what thescreen should do. It has an 'Edit' button which is clear what it'suse is for (to move playlists around and to delete them), and itincludes a 'Now Playing' button which is an easy way for the user toreturn to the song that is currently playing.
However,the song listing screen still needs to be improved. For example, thesong listing has no way to be alphabetically sorted thus making itdifficult to find songs in playlists that are too large.
Theother main issue are the three dots '…' icon which doesn't make itclear what this option is meant to do. Having an ellipsis makes itclear to the user that this must be a 'more' type of icon that givesthe user more features. For example, the 'Edit' option is hiddenbehind this option, as well as other options such as 'SharePlaylist', but it is not immediately obvious to the user that theseare the features hidden behind the '…' icon. This is an issue withthe usability of the app, given that it makes it difficult for theuser to find the features he or she needs. Aesthetically, however,the app is fine and follows the dark color schemes used by thedesktop Spotify application.
The'Playlists' menu is very straightforward and makes it clear what thescreen should do. It has an 'Edit' button which is clear what it'suse is for (to move playlists around and to delete them), and itincludes a 'Now Playing' button which is an easy way for the user toreturn to the song that is currently playing.
However,the song listing screen still needs to be improved. For example, thesong listing has no way to be alphabetically sorted thus making itdifficult to find songs in playlists that are too large.
Theother main issue are the three dots '…' icon which doesn't make itclear what this option is meant to do. Having an ellipsis makes itclear to the user that this must be a 'more' type of icon that givesthe user more features. For example, the 'Edit' option is hiddenbehind this option, as well as other options such as 'SharePlaylist', but it is not immediately obvious to the user that theseare the features hidden behind the '…' icon. This is an issue withthe usability of the app, given that it makes it difficult for theuser to find the features he or she needs. Aesthetically, however,the app is fine and follows the dark color schemes used by thedesktop Spotify application.
Suggested improvements
Thereare many ways that this application can be changed in slight ways togreatly improve the usability of the app.
Firstof all, there's the fact that the application only includes a'Playlist' icon, but includes no way to view the entire library ofsongs that a user has. The option to view allsongs a user has is a standard in all music application (particularlyin iTunes and Rdio, which are Spotify's main competitors). Addingthis option would not be difficult at all, as it would simply involveadding a default 'Library' playlist in the 'Playlist' screen. Thisplaylist would be listed along with the default 'Starred' and 'Inbox'playlists. The main benefit of this is that it would remove one ofthe main advantages that Spotify's competitors has over it, and itwould make the app more usable since the user would now have a way tobrowse through all of their songs.
Thenext improvement is allowing an easy way to delete songs from aplaylist. At this stage in iOS apps, it has become a standard that aneasy way to delete this is just by dragging something to the left tomake a 'Delete' button show up. For example, the 'Playlists' menufollows this standard, but the song listing screen does not. In orderto delete a song you currently have to click on the '…' button,then select 'Edit', then click on the '–' next to a song, thenselect 'Delete', then click on '…' again, and then select 'Done'.These are far too many steps to carry out such a simple task. A basicswipe-to-delete option would follow the user's mental mapping of howiOS apps should behave, and would allow the user to carry out acommonly used action in a matter of seconds.
Afurther improvement would be to replace the '…' icon with adifferent icon, such as a gear wheel, which has a much more globallyaccepted representation to represent further settings or features. A'…' icon carries the ambiguity as to whether this refers to “more”features or “more” songs that are not currently displayed in theplaylist.
Thefinal major improvement that should be added is the option toalphabetically sort a playlist. This should not be very difficult,and can be easily added to the “more” menu that is visible afterclicking on the '…' icon. The ability to alphabetically sort songswould improve usability of the application for the user, given thatmany playlists grow to contain hundreds of songs, which makes itdifficult to scroll through to find songs without manually typing thename of a song.
Thereare many ways that this application can be changed in slight ways togreatly improve the usability of the app.
Firstof all, there's the fact that the application only includes a'Playlist' icon, but includes no way to view the entire library ofsongs that a user has. The option to view allsongs a user has is a standard in all music application (particularlyin iTunes and Rdio, which are Spotify's main competitors). Addingthis option would not be difficult at all, as it would simply involveadding a default 'Library' playlist in the 'Playlist' screen. Thisplaylist would be listed along with the default 'Starred' and 'Inbox'playlists. The main benefit of this is that it would remove one ofthe main advantages that Spotify's competitors has over it, and itwould make the app more usable since the user would now have a way tobrowse through all of their songs.
Thenext improvement is allowing an easy way to delete songs from aplaylist. At this stage in iOS apps, it has become a standard that aneasy way to delete this is just by dragging something to the left tomake a 'Delete' button show up. For example, the 'Playlists' menufollows this standard, but the song listing screen does not. In orderto delete a song you currently have to click on the '…' button,then select 'Edit', then click on the '–' next to a song, thenselect 'Delete', then click on '…' again, and then select 'Done'.These are far too many steps to carry out such a simple task. A basicswipe-to-delete option would follow the user's mental mapping of howiOS apps should behave, and would allow the user to carry out acommonly used action in a matter of seconds.
Afurther improvement would be to replace the '…' icon with adifferent icon, such as a gear wheel, which has a much more globallyaccepted representation to represent further settings or features. A'…' icon carries the ambiguity as to whether this refers to “more”features or “more” songs that are not currently displayed in theplaylist.
Thefinal major improvement that should be added is the option toalphabetically sort a playlist. This should not be very difficult,and can be easily added to the “more” menu that is visible afterclicking on the '…' icon. The ability to alphabetically sort songswould improve usability of the application for the user, given thatmany playlists grow to contain hundreds of songs, which makes itdifficult to scroll through to find songs without manually typing thename of a song.
Overall, this application is of very high quality and is definitely worth the money that a user pays for. However, the slight drawbacks it has in its design makes it seem a bit weaker to some of its competitors. These are very small drawbacks that can be easily fixed to greatly improve usability for the user. Nonetheless, despite these issues, the Spotify app remains extremely easy to use and remains an attractive option for any user that enjoys streaming online music.
