I'm struggling to understand how to properly use your updated ios app. I'm stuck spending my holidays teaching my grandparents how to use Windows 10, and I can't even start to imagine them using Spotify on their phones – even though they have and use smart phones.
Home
This section is pretty straightforward. Completely useless to me, but I at least get what it is. It'd be great if users could define what shows in the home section. I don't care about any music recommendations. I'd prefer to have quick access to my music library (Albums, Podcasts, Stations, and Playlists). As it stands, I feel like I'm in the top hits section of a dying music store.
Search (text input)
It's extremely frustrating to search for a band and have a band that you weren't looking for take up the whole page.
Here's what you get when you search.
Top Result
The most popular artist, podcast, or whatever that matches your result.
Featuring Top Result
Some playlists that include the top result, if any exist.
Results by type: Songs, Artists, Podcasts, Videos, Albums, Playlists, Podcast Episodes, and Profiles
A list of 4 songs, artists, or whatever content is relevant to the section, followed by a list of artists containing the search term.
If your intention was to search for a specific song or artist, this is the first time you get the option to refine your search. See all [section type]. Once you're viewing all songs or artists (or whatever section), you can no longer update your search term. This can cause the user to go back and forth until their search result displays what you want, in the filtered section (if necessary).
If the Top Result is not what I'm searching for, I have to scroll two whole screens before I can find anything unrelated to the top results, as the top 4 songs are generally from the band matching the top result. This might sound logical, but if the top result isn't want I want (which is generally the case), then I end up with a bunch of stuff that's irrelevant to me.
I feel like I should be able to tell the app what I want to return in results when I search, but can't find any way to do so. The results are super overwhelming, and since the Top Result has such a high priority, the live update of the page has a focus on one single thing. It'd be much more useful if, as I was typing, I got a list of top results from any section based on the best match. Just do a search for "This American Life" and you'll see how confusing search can be – and that doesn't even pull up the "Featuring section.
Search (by voice)
I tried this and was disappointed by how it functions. I expected search results, but got a single result that soon autoplayed. Disabling Spotify voice as shown here doesn't seem to remove the persistent microphone icon that covers my text search results in the lower right area. Tapping the icon confirms that microphone access has been disabled. When presented with a voice input next to a text input on a search page, my expectation is that the results of my search will be the same for both (minus any custom voice command functions).
Your Library
This is everything I want, but moved into a UI that feels like I'm viewing settings. It requires precise tapping to navigate. Larger buttons like Genres in the general Search page would be much easier to use and less prone to errors. I can't seem to find a way to customize what shows up here, but if I could, I'd love to be able to disable some of these options, such as Videos and Made For You. In the app's current state, this is my desired home screen. Not super happy about it.
Apparently you can reveal filter options above content by scrolling the page down from Artists, Songs, or another library section. I don't understand why your own library isn't searchable. If there is a way to search it, I can't find it.
Playing Music?
Okay, so we've got our library stuff figured out. We've worked through some unintuitive search results and have successfully found music that we'd like to listen to.
The player, the most basic part of the app, is super confusing! Not only is it confusing, but it's also extremely difficult to use, small buttons and all. You need super ultra focus and precision to get anything to register. Also, everything seems to be hidden behind menus. And if it's not hidden, its purpose is not always clear. Bigger, more clear buttons please!
We get a huge Shuffle Play button. (I'm sorry, but I listen to full albums. I am completely lost as to why a shuffle button would be prioritized so highly.) There doesn't seem to be a way to disable this or change what it does. Personally, I'd prefer to just start playing the full album (or other selected media).
We view albums, then apparently have to click a song in that album to play. This plays the song, followed by any remaining in the album. Once playing, a "now playing" bar appears. This is expandable, giving you a large player view, where you get to swipe through songs. Pausing and cycling through songs triggers an autoplay of the song that's cycled to. This is unwanted if I want to keep the music paused while I flip to the song I want to play.
Ah, but what's this? In the top right I can click another menu looking button that loads a completely different view of the player. This seems to be some kind of playlist manager, where songs can be reordered, removed (bulk edit), or... uh oh... I clicked a song in the middle of the playlist and the songs before it went away. Okay, I'm starting to get it. It makes sense if... no, I get it but I had to think way too hard. This shouldn't be so complex. And there's so much overlap in imagery and content that it's difficult to differentiate the views. There's even a difference between viewing a saved album and viewing the same album from View Album in the menu from the album. The View Album view shows you related albums from the band of the current album you're viewing. Why is this different? Just make it consistent and give users to an option to show related content on albums. Do not allow the user to click a menu from an album view, then click view album from that view, and view a different album view with some suggestions. If you're going to do that, just make the menu item a link to view related content.
Overall, it's just super frustrating and unintuitive. I use Spotify for super basic functionality, listening to music and podcasts. The search experience is awful. The main content (Home) that the user is presented with feels like a shopping site that's trying to advertise to me. It is not welcoming. It is not familiar. It makes me feel angry. I just want to listen to music, not feel angry. It's late at night, would you be interested in some Sleep music? I just want to open an app and know where things are. Add a discover button and show all this featured, smart suggestion junk in a new page. Let the Home screen be personalized.
Example Home Screen:
- Edit Home Screen Button
- User selected shortcut (Large button to Albums view)
- User selected shortcut (Large button to Podcasts view)
- User selected quick list (Recently Played - limit to 5, 10, 15, 20, etc.)
- Ever-present Discover callout (Links to a page similar to the current Home screen, minus all the history based content (optional?))
I'm just not sure what your goal is with this your ios app. It feels like you're trying to sell me on music. I'm already a paying customer using a music app! Just make it a joy to use and people will be happy. It doesn't need to be fancy. It needs to be logical, consistent, and accessible.
Sorry if this feels like a rant, but this is a cry for help from a passionate, frustrated user, who only has so much time in their life to keep up with everchanging user interfaces in our fast-paced, 21st century lives. I did not plan to do such a lengthy write-up, but greatly appreciate you reading it, and look forward to future app improvements.
Edit: Linking the text "21st century" to a Spotify song displayed a Spotify playlist widget in the paragraph instead of the linked text.
Staff / Moderator/ 2 years ago in Social & Random