Stories
Articles
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.
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.
Designing Ad Experiences
This month three Spotify Designers responsible for creating the ad experience for listeners share their approach.
Zoned 23
A hearty blend of hip-hop to get those creative juices flowing. Curated by Associate Principal Designer, Brendon Manwaring.
Zoned 22
A classic mixtape style with indie, electronic and soul. Curated by Principal Designer, Heiko Winter.
JD Welch, Senior Product Designer
Meet JD Welch, Senior Product Designer for Experimentation in the Data and Insights team in Stockholm.
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.
Designing Playlist Artwork
Every month, 3 Spotify Designers share their thoughts on a subject close to their hearts. To keep things concise, they get just 3 sentences to answer.
An All-Inclusive Figma Template for Your Next Remote Design Sprint
Browse the template Senior Product Designer, Alexandria Goree, uses to plan and execute a fully remote design sprint.
Nanci Veitch, Design Program Manager
Meet Nanci Veitch, Design Program Manager for the Design Ops team in London.
Ask Spotify Design 03
The series where the friendly folks from Spotify's design community answer questions sourced from readers (like you!).
Measuring, Defining and Improving Productivity: The Design Productivity Blueprint
The Design Productivity Blueprint helps people with a stake in design output ensure designers spend their time on high-value work.
Designing for Podcasters
This month, three Product Designers tell us about the considerations they need to make when creating for podcasters.
Hui Yuan, Product Designer
Meet Hui Yuan, Product Designer for the Data & Insights Platform team in New York.
Scorecards: Creating Alignment Throughout the Process
Our Scorecards tool was created by some Principle Designers on Spotify's Premium R&D team to help keep everyone aligned and projects moving forward.
Naming Personalized Playlists at Spotify
Senior UX Writer, Diane Murphy, walks us through the process the Personalization Team uses to name playlists at Spotify.
Lessons from One Designer’s Journey in Uncentering Her Design Practice
We interview Senior Product Designer, Janey Lee, about how she's learning to uncenter herself and her experiences from her design practice.
How we Brought 2020 Wrapped to Life in the Mobile App
This is the story of how product designers at Spotify translated important pieces of the 2020 Wrapped brand campaign into a beautiful app experience.
Laura Eley, UX Writer
Honoring Black Designers for Black History Month: Meet Laura Eley, Laura Eley, UX Writer for S4X in New York.
Sean Ritzie, Design Director
Honoring Black Designers for Black History Month: Meet Sean Ritzie, Design Director for the Freemium team in New York.
Victoria Ayo, Associate Product Designer
Honoring Black Designers for Black History Month: Meet Victoria Ayo, Associate Product Designer for Partner & Platform Experience team in New York.
Crafting Aha! Moments: Lessons from Live Experience Creators
In search of a fresh perspective, we spoke to four people who craft real life experiences to find out how they make "aha!" Moments happen.
Personalized Playlists
What makes a great personalized playlist? Three Product Designers responsible for crafting Spotify's listening experience share their thoughts.
Design Resolutions
In January's 3x3, we chat better work and design practices for 2021. Find out what design resolutions Spotify Designers are making this new year.
Chloe Wood, Senior Product Designer
Meet Chloe Wood, Senior Product Designer for the Freemium team in London.
Ask Spotify Design 02
In the second Ask Spotify Design our team offers a perspective on your design dilemmas while illustrator, Sofi Salazar, provides the final flourishes.
Aarti D'Cruz, Product Designer
Meet Aarti D'Cruz, Product Designer for the Freemium team in London.
Engineering and Design
Engineers occupy a unique role within a design organization. Here, 3 engineers explain how they see it.
Zoned 21
Emphasis on relaxation and focus. No vocal samples, just beats. Curated by Product Designer, Sabrina Siu.
Zoned 20
Soulful indie-pop and R&B sounds for your city-wandering pursuit. Curated by Product Designer, Mel Wong.
Designing Data Science Tools at Spotify
A product designer explains how she built usable, well-designed tools to help data scientists transform a mass of raw data into valuable insights.
Zoned 19
Butterfly playlist for a champagne pink velvet dream. Curated by Product Designer, Clara Shim.
Zoned 18
An anytime, anywhere, instant dance party. Curated by Senior Product Designer, Mat Budelman.
Zoned 16
Dark, heavy, melodic. All about finding beauty in chaos. Curated by Senior Product Designer, Drew Eckhardt.
Zoned 15
Tunes to get you in the zone to finish that deck before lunch. Curated by Senior Product Designer Susan Walsh.
Zoned 14
Past and future hip-hop, R&B, soul, world excellence. Curated by Design Director, Sean Ritzie
Mitul Iyengar, Product Designer
Meet Mitul Iyengar, Product Designer for Royalties and Reporting team in New York.
5 Things I Wish I’d Known Before Starting a Design System at Spotify
Engineering Manager, Tyce Clee, wants to give you the benefit of his hindsight by sharing the 5 things he learned while building Encore.
Designing for Voice
How is creating a voice user interface different from other design work? 3 Spotify Product Designers break it down (in 3 short sentences).
How We Did It: Our First Spotify Design Podcast
Discover how we made Past Lives, Spotify Design's first ever podcast about the unexpected paths people took to get to a career in design at Spotify.
Zoned 11
For the ethereal nights we don’t want to end. Curated by Senior Product Designer, Vandana Pai.
Mattias Johansson, Senior Product Designer
Meet Mattias Johansson, Senior Product Designer for the Experience team in Stockholm.
When Designers Get Political
Spotify's launching its biggest voting campaign to date. This is the story of how it came together, told by one of the designers who made it happen.
Collaboration
In 3x3 this month, we ask Spotify Product Designers to share their techniques for maintaining collaboration at every stage of a project.
Ben Dedrick: Episode 5
With a background in psychology, Ben worked as a case manager at a psychiatric ward straight out of college. Now, he’s a senior product designer at Spotify.
Linnea Strid: Episode 4
Linnea dives into her background as a fine art painter, the website she built as a kid for Japanese music fans to chat, and how she developed her love for problem solving through product design.
Lee Ward: Episode 3
Spotify UX Writer Lee recounts his days as a music journalist, riding roller coasters with Muse and visiting Coldplay’s recording studio before he discovered his love for bringing storytelling to design.
Kamdyn Moore: Episode 2
After the 2008 recession, architecture graduate Kamdyn went from installing $17,000 chandeliers in bathrooms to discovering her love for design operations, which she now leads at Spotify.
Designing a Spotify Original Podcast with Dissect
The creative minds behind Spotify Original podcast, Dissect, share their process for creating a powerful visual identity with each new season.
Rob Nero: Episode 1
Rob used to spend his time capturing weddings from hot-air balloons. Now, he works as a senior designer at Soundtrap, a digital audio workstation.
Zoned 10
Sunrise and sunset choons for the zone. Curated by Senior Product Designer, Mattias Johansson.
Zoned 09
If you dare to knock at the door of the cosmos. Curated by Staff Machine Learning Engineer, Samuel Ngahane.
Ask Spotify Design 01
In the first Ask Spotify Design, our team dishes up answers to your questions with special sprinkles from a guest illustrator.
Spotify Design's Program Tracker
Learn how our program tracker increases transparency at Spotify, provides space for asynchronous updates, and keeps the team accountable.
Kathleen Namgung, Product Designer
Meet Kathleen Namgung, Product Designer for the Marketplace team in New York.
Investigating Consequences with Our Ethics Assessment
A self-service tool by Spotify’s Ethics Guild to help teams investigate ethical questions when developing a product or service.
Reimagining Design Systems at Spotify
Discover what motivated us to create our new design system, how it’s structured, and how it’s different from what we’ve tried before.
Recent Lessons
In this 3x3, we’re talking to Product Designers about what they’ve learned this year and how it’s changed their approach to work.
Listen: Where Audio and Design Meet
Get acquainted with the audio hero of Spotify Design, the Listen hub, and learn how we’re bringing our global design community together through music.
Making the Brand: Carnival Sounds
Learn how creative agency, paq works, and photographer, Ekua King, translated Notting Hill Carnival’s rich culture into a digital festival experience.
Anjana Menon, Senior UX Writer
Meet Anjana Menon, Senior UX Writer for the Growth Opportunities team in London.
Zoned 07
For those summer days when you're hanging out with your friends and time doesn't matter. Curated by Engineering Managers Tyce Clee & Shaun Bent.
Ryan Smith, Product Designer
Meet Ryan Smith, Product Designer for the Premium R&D team in Stockholm.
Remote Onboarding
Three new members of the Spotify Design Team share their advice for starting a new job while working remotely.
How to Lead a Remote Design Sprint
Learn how a Spotify design sprint stayed focused and on track—even during a global pandemic.
Personalized Experiences
Product Designers explore how designing for personalized experiences affects their work.
All Glown Up! How We Made Over Spotify.Design
In part two of our Spotify Design rebrand extravaganza, we take a closer look at how, with our new brand in hand, we made over our webspace.
Happy to Help: How We Design for Customer Support
Explore three design principles created to make sure people can get the help they need, when they need it.
Bringing the Spotify Heart to Life
Discover how we designed and implemented a new micro-interaction for our heart icon.
Work From Home
UX Writers share their thoughts on working from home for 90+ days.
Fabiano Souza, Senior Product Designer
Celebrating Pride: Meet Fabiano Souza, Senior Product Designer for the Podcast team in Stockholm.
Spencer Huddleston, Associate Principal Designer
Celebrating Pride: Meet Spencer Huddleston, Associate Principal Designer for the Platform & Partner Experience team in Stockholm.
Kamdyn Moore, Lead Program Manager
Celebrating Pride: Meet Kamdyn Moore, Lead Program Manager for the Design Ops team in New York.
Ryan Swedenborg, Senior Product Designer
Celebrating Pride: Meet Ryan Swedenborg, Senior Product Designer for the Premium team in New York.
Introducing Spotify’s New Design Principles
Design principals talk design principles. Here’s how we aim to make Spotify feel Relevant, Human, and Unified.
From Gut to Plan: The Thoughtful Execution Framework
Annina Koskinen presents a framework she's developed to help her teams at Spotify reach their goals and ship with impact.
Making the Brand: Redesigning Spotify Design
We partnered with designers to design a design brand that helps designers showcase their design work to an audience of… (wait for it) ...designers.
Making the Brand: Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
Meet the creatives and hear the story behind this year’s Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (AAPIHM) campaign.
A New Experience for Spotify for iPad
Embark on a voyage of discovery through the history of Spotify on the iPad, all the way through to how we designed our latest generation.
Andrea Nguyen, Program Manager
Celebrating AAPIHM: Meet Andrea Nguyen, Program Manager for the Design Ops team in New York.
JC Chhim, Senior Product Designer
Celebrating AAPIHM: Meet JC Chhim, Senior Product Designer for Car & Wearables in Stockholm.
Zoned 04
Welcome to techno spa–relax in the darkened corners of contemporary techno. Curated by Product Designer Patrick Ree.
Shota Pangilinan, Product Designer
Celebrating AAPIHM: Meet Shota Pangilinan, Product Designer for the Spotify for Artists in New York.
Zoned 03
A calm, upbeat mess with positive vibes. You pick the occasion. Curated by Art Director David Karlsson.
Zoned 01
Funky rap love songs for long walks to the Brooklyn deli. Curated by Senior Art Director Tina Snow Le.
Kat Zhou, Product Designer
Celebrating AAPIHM: Meet Kat Zhou, Product Designer for the Design Platform team in Stockholm.
Jack Maxwell, Senior Product Designer
Meet Jack Maxwell, Senior Product Designer for the Creator Marketplace team in New York.
How Spotify Organises Work in Figma to Improve Collaboration
We've opened up the music box and described how we've shaped the tool to suit our needs and culture at Spotify.
Rosie Ferris, Senior Product Designer
Meet Rosie Ferris, Senior Product Designer for the Podcast team in London.
How to Get a Job at Spotify Design
Get noticed. Tell your design story. And don’t forget the data. This is our guide to getting hired at Spotify Design.
Illustrating for Spotify with Jarom Vogel
Guest author Jarom Vogel reveals the step-by-step of creating the illustrations featured on our Spotify for Podcasters page.
Daniela Fernandez, Senior Product Designer
Meet Daniela Estevez Fernandez, Senior Product Designer for the Premium team in London.
Hack Week 2020: What We Learned
We followed four of our designers to see why they hacked, how they hacked, and what they learned during Spotify's Hack Week 2020.
Spotify Design Supports It's Nice That's Ones to Watch 2020
Spotify Design is proud to sponsor It’s Nice That’s Ones to Watch 2020, championing a diverse and inclusive creative community.
Designing for Belonging: Why Image Localization Matters
A closer look at the ways in which we try to ensure that Spotify looks just right, no matter where it appears.
Audio-Forward UX: Meeting Listeners Where They Are
Spotify’s experience isn't defined or constrained by the bounds of a smartphone screen, and neither are our design and user research practices.
Siri Johansson, Associate Principal Product Designer
Meet Siri Johansson, Senior Product Designer for the Consumer Experience team in Stockholm.
Making the Band: Building Exceptional Design Teams at Spotify
Building a great design team is actually pretty similar to starting a great band. Here's how.
Achal Varma, UX Prototyper
Meet Achal Varma, UX Prototyper for the Design Platform team in New York.
Reema Bhagat, Senior Product Designer
Meet Reema Bhagat, Senior Product Designer for the Cross-Platform Experiences team in Stockholm.
Nicola Felaco, Associate Principal Product Designer
Meet Nicola Felaco, Associate Principal Product Designer for the Core Experience team in Stockholm.
Dialling Up the Joy, Turning Down the Pain: Design Ops at Spotify
How our Design Ops brings together designers working across multiple locations, for multiple audiences, across multiple platforms.
Spotify Design and Design Driven Ask What Sound Should Look Like
An evening to challenge creatives to consider how their work influences the way people hear everything from the news to their favorite song.
Three Principles for Designing ML-Powered Products
Reflecting on projects at Spotify, we’ve come up with three principles we believe will help others design Machine Learning-powered experiences
How Can Design Thinking Build Trust in the Age of Machine Learning?
UX designers and machine learning experts from across industries highlight the intersection of cutting-edge tech and human-centered design.
Simultaneous Triangulation: Mixing User Research & Data Science Methods
Next time you have a complex research question, consider using this 3-step process to mitigate blind spots and turn discrepancies into opportunities.
Spotify + Inclusive Design: Global Accessibility Awareness Day Round-Up
We hosted a Swedish Meetup (T12t) about digital accessibility and what it means for everyday design. Here's how the event went down.
Using Service Design to Create Better, Faster, Stronger Designers
How our Premium team uses Service Design strengthens designers and help them make faster, better decisions in moments that matter.
Think Global, Act Local
Discover from our Global Insights Team how they help Spotify travel all over the world—without getting lost in translation.
Designing on the Road and Finding Inspiration in New Markets
Local knowledge is everything when expanding into new markets. Here's how we build empathy, understand our audience, and find inspiration worldwide.
The Story of Spotify Personas
How we developed our personas tool, how we use it today, and why it’s so useful for an autonomous, cross-functional organisation like Spotify.
Bringing Spotify to India—and Beyond
Explore with us how the collaboration of design and insights plays a lead role in expanding our global reach in the first of a three-part series.
Spotify Design and It’s Nice That Take an In-depth Look at Ethics in Design
Spotify Design and It's Nice That team up to discuss the kinds of ethical trade-offs that inevitably influence our work as designers.
Designing for Tomorrow: A Discussion on Ethical Design
Ethical design is something we’re spending more and more time thinking about at Spotify. Here's our take on how to tackle this hot button issue.
The Paradox of Design Systems
Discover how we encourage our designers to shift from users to core contributors and co-authors of our shared design system.
A Design System Isn't One-Size-Fits-All
At Spotify, we’re constantly investing in how we support and deliver a design system to the business. Here's what we learned along the way.
The Art of the Error Message
Error messages should help users solve problems and move on. This is our guide on how to write clear, helpful copy for when things go wrong.
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