Discover Music to Set the Mood: Shazam
Redesigned Shazam's home screen into an intuitive "Explore" map using research-driven information architecture to enhance music discovery.
Catching Smoke: Preventing Lost Melodies
Forgetting a song is like trying to hold onto smoke—just when you think you have it, it slips away. Shazam, however, captures that fleeting melody, bringing it back to life and making it tangible again. Shazam preserves something beautiful from being lost. Working with them, I had the opportunity to improve this powerful tool by enhancing its opposite–discovery.
THE PROBLEM: ONE TAP AND USERS TURN AWAY
Unfortunately, users spent less than 30 seconds on the app, suggesting they’re primarily using it to identify a song before immediately switching to another app. Our goal, aligned with Shazam’s, was to design an interactive experience that keeps users engaged on Shazam longer.
What We Found: Music, a Vibe Curator
We set out to understand users' relationship with music, their motivations and behaviors for discovering it, and their behaviors in collecting it.
Music helps users bond with others.
Music is a user's companion that follows them throughout the day.
Music enhances a mood.
Music gives users more knowledge about culture, trends, and the past.
Research Informs our Personas
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WHO SHOULD WE CHOOSE AS OUR PRIMARY?
We chose Harmony as our primary persona because her challenges closely aligned with our research.
Harmony creates a ripple effect through Shazam: she discovers a song, plays it at her events, customers Shazam it, and then share it with their networks. This cycle amplifies the reach of Shazam, making Harmony's music discovery more impactful than Shayna's personal use, as it influences a broader audience.
HARMONY'S PROBLEM STATEMENT
Harmony needs more music to add to her library that fits a specific theme for her event that she is hosting because she wants her business to be known for immersing her guests with authentic cultural experiences.
COMPETITORS: WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN THEY DON'T HAVE AN EDGE?
Harmony gave us this great information for what needed to be solved, but the competitive analysis I conducted for our team helped us dig deeper.
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Shazam already shares many elements of these apps such as: artist page, top songs, similar songs, albums, country chart, etc. Soundmap's Map and Soundcloud's sound bar inspired our final version.
We knew that Shazam focused on discovery so we wanted to maintain that vision. So, what do you do when they already have what their competitors have?
You look through Harmony and Shayna’s eyes.
Shazam's Current Discovery Flow
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The Million Dollar Idea: Rearranging Information Architecture
Card sorting taught us that Shazam was lacking an explore section that users wanted to see. So, we engaged in a design studio, and I came up with the million dollar idea:
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Have Harmony explore from the very start.
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She's looking for international songs. What better way to "explore" than through a map?
Sketching out the Million Dollar Idea
REALIGING WITH BUSINESS GOALS
After solidifying my million dollar idea, and Harmony's discovery process, we engaged in a peer review we added more features for what was missing: meeting business goals
1. Introducing a global navigation to increase feature discoverability and encourage users to stay on Shazam, reducing the likelihood of switching to Spotify.
Test Findings: Clearer
UX Copy
Clearer UX Copy:
60% of users skipped 'Regional Music' for 'French Wine Night' due to unclear labeling.
Move and Redefine Filters:
All users (5/5) were confused by the 'Based on Your Taste' and 'Feeling Adventurous?' filters.
Map Interaction:
Users expected interactive functionality to explore and select locations directly on the map.
ADD TO PLAYLIST’ FLOW IS TOO LONG:
Users found the process repetitive and time-consuming, having to navigate back and forth each time they liked a song
Shazam, Refined: Elevating Accessibility and User Satisfaction
ACCESSIBILITY
To maintain Shazam’s style, we used a white background on most pages, a blue home screen, and a black background on the artist page.
Given these contrasts, I leveraged my special education background to ensure all content was legible and met WCAG guidelines for different-abled users.
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Shazam in High Fidelity
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At the end, Harmony is ecstatic that her process of discovering songs she wasn’t familiar with was made so simple with Shazam! She now has a whole playlist for her "French Wine Tasting Event".
Final Takeaways: Retention Rates, Long Chats, & Iterations
MEASURING APP SUCCESS
Although this redesign was not launched, key metrics we would monitor to evaluate its impact include::
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Improved app ratings to reflect enhanced overall user satisfaction.
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Increased click-through rates, demonstrating greater feature discoverability and engagement.
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Extended average session duration to at least one minute, aligning with the primary business goal of boosting user retention.
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Higher sign-up and download rates, indicating stronger user loyalty and positive word-of-mouth referrals.
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Increased usage of the ‘Explore’ feature, validating its effectiveness in driving deeper user engagement and time spent within the app.
MEASURING APP SUCCESS
Add Explore Mood:
Introduce an "Explore Mood" category on the Explore page, leveraging our adjective database to help users like Shayna find songs that match their mood and vibe.
Expand "My Friends":
Although not prioritized in the main user flow, the “My Friends” feature—designed for our secondary persona Shayna—is included with plans for future expansion.
Continue Testing UX Copy:
We will test revised UX copy on the “Explore Page” to improve clarity and address earlier feedback about confusing titles.