My first UX design project was to make Spotify easier to use and more personal. I teamed up with Dorian Issa and Zakir Jamal Suleman to create new features that help users organize their music and find songs faster.
The Problem
Spotify suggests a lot of music, but organizing playlists and finding the right song can be tricky. Users often name playlists based on moods or activities, but there wasn’t a way to tag songs easily. We wanted to make it simpler for people to sort and search their music.
What We Learned
We asked Spotify users about their struggles and found that:
Playlists can be hard to manage. People had trouble finding specific songs within their playlists.
Searching for songs isn’t easy. Users wanted better ways to search by mood, activity, or their own tags.
Our Solution
We created a custom tagging system that lets users add their own tags—like #Happy, #Workout, #Chill—to their playlists. This helps people find music based on mood or activity quickly.
We also improved search filters, so users can search by genre, mood, activity, or personal tags.
How We Built It
Sketching & Prototyping: We created different versions of the tagging and search features.
User Testing: We asked Spotify users to try the new features and tell us what worked.
Making Improvements: Based on feedback, we made the tagging system easier to use and fit naturally into Spotify’s design.
What Happened Next?
This project was part of a UX design competition at the University of British Columbia. Here’s what we learned:
Small design changes can make a big difference. People loved how easy it was to organize their music with tags.
Personalization matters. Giving users more control over their music made them enjoy the app more.
Testing is key. Trying different ideas and getting feedback helped us improve our design.
One surprising end to this project was that we finished and presented our designs at the same time as the team at Spotify implemented filters in Liked Songs. This showed us that we were working on a problem that Spotify themselves was also trying to solve.
Final Thoughts
This project showed how simple changes can make apps better for users. While Spotify hasn’t added a tagging system yet, our idea proves that better music organization can improve the user experience.
