Streamers Speak Research Overview

A Spotify Feature Concept

To design Streamers Speak, I began with a user-centered research process that combined interviews, surveys, and competitor analysis. My goal was to understand both sides of the streaming experience: listeners who engage with music daily and streamers who curate and share it.

Back to SS Overview

Research

1. Project Context

Streamers Speak was designed as a conceptual feature for Spotify with the intention of bridging thegap between streamers and their audiences. The project emerged from the insight that Spotify lackstwo-way engagement, making listeners passive recipients of content rather than active participants.The following documentation outlines the research conducted to understand user needs, frustrations,and opportunities for innovation in social music streaming.

2. Research Objectives

Understand how listeners currently interact with streaming platforms.

Identify motivations and goals of small-to-medium streamers.

Uncover pain points in the social sharing of music.

Validate assumptions through interviews and surveys.

Translate research findings into actionable design opportunities.

3. Methodology

A multi-method research strategy was employed to ensure well-rounded insights:
User Interviews:
Conducted 6 semi-structured interviews with listeners and streamers.
Surveys:
45 participants provided quantitative data on listening habits and social engagement.

Competitive Analysis: Evaluated Twitch, YouTube Music, Apple Music, and Discord for social engagement patterns.

Partcipants:

5. Interview Insights

Interviewees highlighted recurring themes that informed design opportunities:

Listeners wanted to feel more connected to the people curating music.
Streamers described Spotify as a one-way street, strong for distribution, weak for engagement.-
Social music discovery was happening outside of Spotify (e.g., Discord servers, group chats).
Music sharing felt transactional (‘here’s a link’) rather than relational (‘here’s why this matters’).
Listeners often abandoned playlists after the novelty wore off, highlighting a lack of narrative context.

Key interviews:

U1: appreciates Spotify's "Light" theme, believes in better deals for smaller artists, and has a favorite layout. He values the synergy between the computer and mobile app, as well as the social features on the platform. This suggests an emphasis on user interface, artist support, and the social aspect of Spotify.

U2: enjoys Spotify Wrapped and analytics, shared listening sessions, and visual elements. She finds the high volume of ads on the free plan frustrating and is concerned about songs being removed or inaccessible, highlighting the importance of data insights, collaborative features, and content availability.

U3: distinguishes between active and passive listeners and acknowledges the role of music in different occasions. She favors specialized playlists, emphasizing the significance of tailored music recommendations. This illustrates a recognition of diverse listening habits and the need for curated music experiences.

In summary, these takeaways reflect various aspects of the Spotify experience, encompassing visual appeal, artist support, social engagement, data insights, content availability, and personalized playlists, catering to a wide range of user preferences.

6. Persona

I then created the best persona that helped me understand the motivations, frustrations, and behaviors of users. It helped me ground my research in real world context.

Clear Identity & Context: Age, location, job, and lifestyle make Lauren feel real and grounded. She’s not just “a Spotify user” but a specific person with routines and preferences.

Strong Pain Point: Her dislike for social media is a powerful anchor. It makes her frustrations tangible and sets up a design opportunity: how can she stay updated on music without relying on Instagram/Twitter?

Values & Goals are Aligned: Her values (quality, honesty, straight-to-the-point) pair nicely with the goal (finding music culture info directly on Spotify). This gives your design a clear direction.

Persona is Relatable: Many people love music but distrust or dislike social media. That makes Lauren a believable and relevant user type.

7. Journey Mapping:

8. Competitive Analysis With Apple Music

These analyses helped me look at a strong competitor of Spotify's and see where we could change/improve.

9. Opportunity Areas

Contextual storytelling:

Allow streamers to annotate songs with stories or insights.
Lightweight social engagement: Simple reactions or voice notes tied to tracks.

Collaborative playlists:

Dynamic playlists shaped by streamer + listener contributions.
Community hubs: Genre or creator-specific spaces within Spotify.

10. Design Implications

Insights directly shaped design concepts for Streamers Speak:

Created an audio annotation feature for streamers to add personal voice clips.
Designed ‘listener reactions’ to foster lightweight engagement.
Introduced curated story-driven playlists for context-rich discovery.-
Developed a ‘fan hub’ concept for niche communities.

11. Validation & Testing

Low-fidelity prototypes were shared with 5 users for early feedback. Results included:

4/5 users found audio annotations increased emotional connection.
Listeners valued reactions as low-barrier interactions.
Streamers appreciated community hubs but requested moderation tools.
Users wanted integration with existing Spotify UI (not a separate app).

12. Reflection & Next Steps

The research validated the need for social connection within Spotify. Future research could include A/Btesting with prototypes, measuring engagement metrics, and expanding to larger demographics. Ethical considerations include user privacy in reactions and moderation of community spaces

This concludes my research, take a look at my app design to see how it is implemented.