Step into a new age of music
All the things you love with our music app. Now with new features.
Role
Product Designer
Team
Individual
Duration
5 weeks
/01 Context
How do we implement a premium subscription model for an existing streaming service?
Soundwave is a hypothetical startup media company whose product is a music streaming service. For the past two years, Soundwave has been able to garner a healthy user base of free users because of how well the product has been received.
The company has now begun to evolve their features and want to implement a paid subscription model. This paid model would showcase their new features for their users. However, the paid model needs to be implemented in a way that would be beneficial for new and existing users without impairing the experience of free users.
/02 Business Goals
What do we need to accomplish to get the desired results?
Soundwave wants to be able to create an opportunity for new users to the premium model upon registration. Along with that, there should be an opportunity for existing free users to become paid subscribers during the sign-in flow and while they are using the service.
By creating a paid product with better features than the free experience, as well as giving users the opportunity to upgrade to a better product, users will pay the subscription fee and this in turn will lead to a profitable revenue stream.
/03 Competitive Audit
Examining industry leaders and their products.
It was important for me to do research on competitors in the industry in order to fully understand the scope of the project. There are many different music streaming services out there. Each having their own unique features and take on how a music streaming app should feel.
I focused primarily on three companies: Spotify, Pandora, and YouTube Music. As the goal of the project is to implement a new premium model, I specifically looked at flows within the three companies’ apps that were focused on their premium subscription models.
/04 Heuristic Analysis
Nielsen's usability heuristics for UI design.
Jakob Nielsen’s ten usability heuristics is often referenced by designers when creating a product to evaluate the overall usability of a product. When doing research on Spotify, YouTube Music, and Pandora, I noticed that four heuristics stood out within these apps.
/05 User Surveys
What are the users saying?
Gathering quantitative data allowed me to see things more analytically and made me base my later design decisions based on data.
And so, it came down to three important questions that I was presented with:
How can we encourage users who spend little time on a music app to subscribe to a premium model?
How can we encourage users to subscribe to a premium model during the signup process?
How do we create an enticing premium model that has amazing features without interrupting free users’ current experience?
/06 Ideation
Applying ideas and concepts to flows and low-fidelity
Three main flows had come from days of ideation. Each flow would have an opportunity for the user to be exposed to information about the premium model and an accompanying CTA that would allow the user to choose what plan they want to go with.
Rough sketches of key screens were used as a base to create wireframes.
/07 Validate
What did the first round of testing reveal?
Usability testing at this stage of the design process allowed me to get valuable feedback on the current design without needing to spend so much time worrying about how it looks and rather focus on whether each flow worked as intended. Using the wireframes I had created, I set out to do some guerrilla usability testing. I asked a number of people to use and review my designs.
I found that from my testing that most people:
/08 Design System
Bold, unique, and futuristic in style. Safe and familiar in practice.
The company’s target audience is focused on the younger demographic. By having a product that looks visually appealing and unique, we’ll have an easier time capturing the attention of said demographic. This in turn would lead to an increase in the user base as well as an increase in subscriptions.
Inspiration for the style of the design system came from examples of neo-noir films and cities of East Asia. Specific examples include Bladerunner 2049 and nighttime, urban photography of cities like Tokyo and Seoul. The design system itself is meant to reflect these styles through colors that mimic neon lights and textures that feel futuristic.
/09 High-Fidelity and Testing
Bringing it all together and seeing if it works.
With feedback from my usability tests, a style for the brand, and a design system for cohesiveness, I developed high-fidelity prototypes of the three key user flows for Soundwave’s music streaming app.
Is there any issue that I can catch before this product goes live?
The design has undergone revisions since it was last tested. Now, we have a fully designed, high-fidelity prototype for another round of testing.
When I tested the high-fidelity designs, two things became apparent:
-> Lack of navigation buttons (particularly buttons to go back to a previous page) during the signup flow
-> Lack of profile and settings button to customize their profile
/10 Final Iteration
May I introduce to you, Soundwave.
A reimagining of modern music apps. Inspired by the industry standard, yet beautiful and unique in its own futuristic way. Now, with more premium features.
Sign Up Flow
/10 Post-Project Reflections
Not enough features?
The whole point of this project was to not only design flows that would allow users to subscribe to the premium plan, but also give users an enticing reason to subscribe. Throughout this project, I was beginning to have self-doubt on whether the premium version had enough features to influence the user's decision.
I still feel that way. I believe there is still much to be explored with Soundwave. Real-time lyrics, co-listening, and a social aspect could be introduced in the future as features for the premium subscription.