Ever faced rejection? It can be a catalyst for innovation. When Apple Music turned me down, I took it as a challenge to reimagine its design. Let's delve into this journey of transformation and creativity.
Brand Identity
A brand’s visual presence in a streaming service must be recognizable yet invisible at the same time.
- Album artwork should be treated as part of the UI, not a stand-alone visual component, as it should be with all other elements of the app.
What’s Next?
After this project, I have come to understand the value of my theatre background in relation to UX design.
- Soon, I will be embarking on my next great adventure: BFA Graphic Design at Rhode Island School of Design.
- Although it feels strange to say goodbye to this process (and to Northwestern University), I sincerely hope that this is just the beginning of a career in experience design… a career of changing the world through empathy.
Now Playing
To many users, the necessity of “training” Apple Music through the “Love” and “Dislike” commands was unclear.
- The solution to this was to implement a gesture that most users are already familiar with – the double tap – into the Now Playing experience.
Artist Spotlight Artwork
Inspired by Apple Music’s Welcome Screen, I chose to showcase artist headshots within a circular motif.
- The circle shape was inspired by the iPod clickwheel.
- The “face inside a circle” motif is also seen other aspects of iOS, most notably Contacts.
Core Playlist Artwork
Updated the centered graphics for some of the core playlists with the same typography used for the Artist Spotlights and Curations.
Case Study: redesigning Apple Music
The process was guided by qualitative user research, Apple’s Design Principles, and my own designer intuition
- What you’ll find below is a case study offering potential solutions to address some of Apple Music’s problems, as well as ideas for future development
What was meant to be the service to convert everyone in the world to streaming is going through puberty
Despite a simplified color palette and enlarged typography, the interface felt cluttered and even claustrophobic
- Three steps in designing Apple Music
- Core Experience
- Brand Identity
- Visual Interface
My Sampler
A new experience made to bridge the gap between Hoarders and Nomads
- Present snippets of curations that give the user just enough information to decide whether or not to add it into their library and weekly playlist
- Gestural interaction so that users can use the Sampler even if they’re not looking at the screen
- The user is presented with a series of artist headshots that correspond to a curated song
- Tap and hold to preview 15 seconds of each song, before swiping up to reject the song or swiping down to add the song to their library
For You
Curated playlists and albums based on what the user has “Loved”
- Redesigned to reduce the amount of content thrown at the user while increasing relevance of what is left
- Newer, redesigned “For You” begins with “My Sampler” in lieu of “My Favorites Mix” and “My New Music Mix
- Adjusts playlists based on location, time, and recent social media activity
- Daily Stream – exclusive video content can be pushed to the user based on their preferences
Browse
The majority of feedback I received regarding the current Browse screen was that it felt too sterile and uninviting.
Library
Limited changes to the standard white space and typesize adjustments
Curated Playlist Artwork
Consistent with Artist Spotlights
Watch
Apple Music is expanding into video streaming content in an effort to turn Apple Music into a pop-culture central
Search
The main problem with how Apple Music handles search is that it is based on a mode system: where you can either search in Apple Music or your library – but not both.
- Merge the two modes into one general “search” that displays results from the user’s library first, followed by anything else that is available on Apple Music
Core Experience: Music Discovery
Users of streaming services generally fell somewhere between the following: Hoarders, who add a large library to their collection, and Nomads, who rely on playlists/curated content
- Apple Music sits on the Hoarder side of this spectrum
- If it wants to expand to the nomadic side of the spectrum, they have to do it in a way that brings their existing user base along
