noted

Personalized Experiences

July 2020

Spotify Design Team

Every month we choose 3 Spotify designers to find out what’s top of mind for them right now. They get 3 sentences to share their thoughts ranging from goings-on in design and tech, perspective on user experience challenges, and our new post-COVID reality.

How does designing for a “personalized” experience affect how you approach your work?

Emily Balbarin

Senior Product Designer

When working with complex technology, I start with a simple rules-based approach. Something along the lines of “people who do X should get Y.” This allows you to explore and test assumptions that eventually feed into an algorithm or model.

Rachel Knoll

Senior Product Designer

I have learned that creating a believable experience is key to testing personalized products. Qualitative research requires extra prep and care. This means taking a custom approach to the designs for each user research participant.

Mat Budelman

Senior Product Designer

The bulk of my work questions how to deliver music in a personalized way, how to evolve with the user, and how to delight regardless of personal taste. I constantly weigh the trade-offs between automation and control. My goal is to make Spotify feel like magic while maintaining a user's sense of control.

Credits

Spotify Design Team

We're a cross-disciplinary team of people who love to create great experiences and make meaningful connections between listeners and creators.

- Behind The Scenes
Designing a new Foundation: Spotify for Desktop
For these designers launching a new desktop app that replaces one of Spotify’s most loved clients was a daunting but irresistible opportunity.
- Accessibility
Better in Black: Rethinking our Most Important Buttons
If there's one button you use every time you open Spotify, it’s the play button. Today, we’re updating it significantly for better accessibility.
- 3x3
Designing Ad Experiences
This month three Spotify Designers responsible for creating the ad experience for listeners share their approach.
- Behind The Scenes
Growing a Distributed Product Design Team
Senior Design Manager, Pilar Serna, shares how she hired and onboarded a fully distributed team that was able to collaborate efficiently from day one.