Stories
Articles
Finding your T-Shape as a Generalist Designer
In the first instalment of an interview series, two Designers reflect on life as a generalist at Spotify and the career path that led them here.
Designing for Businesses
In this month’s 3x3, we hear from three Spotifers on how they craft brilliant B2B experiences.
A Designer's Balancing Act: Staying Creative and Organized in Figma
Carly shows us her strategy to ensure Figma files are set up for exploring freeform designs while also creating space for collaboration and clarity.
Ashley Moody, Product Designer II
Meet Ashley Moody, Product Designer II for the Ad Performance Platform team in New York.
Zoned 35
Come, friend, stay awhile on the isle of sweet sounds. Curated by Senior UX Writer, Lee Ward.
Zoned 34
Lazing by the lake or the beach and dreaming through those sun shining days. Curated by Engineering Managers Shaun Bent & Tyce Clee.
How to Stand Out as a Spotify Internship Applicant
Applying for a design internship at Spotify? We rounded up a band of previous interns and asked them how they made a strong first impression.
Ask Spotify Design 06
The do’s, the don’ts and everything in between: four designers answer your portfolio-related questions in a special edition of Ask Spotify Design.
Healthy Boundaries
Take cues from three smart Spotifiers who tell us how they set boundaries to allow their creativity to flourish.
Zoned 31
Energetic Reggaeton and Dembow for when there’s no caffeine around!🔥 Curated by Designer, Genesis Paredes.
Meaningful Meetings
Three designers talk us through the need-to-know tips for running a great meeting. TDLR: a little planning goes a long way.
Beyond "Good Job": How to Give Impactful Feedback
Do you know how to make your praise meaningful? Check out these five principles.
Zoned 30
Everybody say love! Forever pride mix. Happy Pride! Curated by Senior Product Designer, Leandro Velasco.
Finding a Design Ally
If you've ever needed a design ally, this is for you. Three designers, in three different roles, share their thoughts on finding allies at work.
Unexpected Skills
What unexpected skills come into play in your day-to-day? Here, three designers share the surprising things that help them excel in design.
Assessing Constraints: Making Products for all Users
The team behind Spotify Lite created this tool to ensure they're building products for the people around the world who face technological challenges.
Getting Settled
Here, Spotify Designers share their advice for getting settled in a new team or role.
Kavita Chepovetsky, Senior Product Designer
Meet Kavita Chepovetsky, Senior Product Designer for the Freemium team in New York.
How to Nail Remote Onboarding and Influence People
Senior UX Writer, Nicole A. Michaelis, shares her experience of onboarding remotely as the only UX Writer in her team.
Design Mentors
Find out what qualities designers at Spotify believe make for a great mentor.
We’re Spilling the Tea: Spotify UX Writing Questions Answered
In this post, Spotify UX Writers answer some of the most asked questions to land in their DMs. Dive in!
Jam Sessions
Find out Spotify Design Ops folks' top tips for a successful jam session.
Mastering Skills
This 3x3, designers share the skills they'd like to master this year.
Refreshing our Icon System: the why and how behind the changes
Learn how and why our design systems team refreshed the icons you see when you use Spotify.
Wrapped Surprises
In this 3x3, Spotify Designers share the things that surprised them most about their Spotify Wrapped this year.
Designing Data Science Tools at Spotify: Part 2
Carry on learning about what it takes to build usable, well-designed tools to help data scientists transform raw data into valuable insights.
Spotify Blend: Designing for a Social Listening Experience
A few members of the team behind Blend share how they brought to life Spotify's first personalized playlist that combines two users’ music tastes.
Leslie Ogoe, Design Program Manager
Meet Leslie Ogoe, Design Program Manager for the Experience Mission in Jersey City.
Vandana Pai, Senior Product Designer
Meet Vandana Pai, Senior Product Designer for the Freemium team in New York.
Creative Energy
In honor of Wellness Week, three Spotify Designers share (in three sentences) how they recharge their creative battery.
Small but Mighty: We've Rolled out Changes to the Now Playing Bar
Learn how the design team behind the new 'Now Playing Bar' finessed a valuable piece of product real estate to make room for bigger changes.
Ask Spotify Design 05
Our community is back fielding questions from readers about creativity, ways of working, and how to navigate a career in design.
Finding the Perfect Word Isn't the Job: Evolve Copy into Language With UX Writing
Read Senior UX Writer, Janine Saunders', techniques and frameworks for looking beyond the words to the true purpose of product writing: the message.
Invisible made Visible: The Value of Designing Tools for Internal Teams
Join a Senior Product Designer specialising on internal tools, as she reveals the value behind the invisible products that power Spotify.
Accessibility in Design
Designers share a snapshot of the ways they factor accessibility into their design process.
Corinne Onetto, Senior Project Manager
Meet Corinne Onetto, Senior Project Manager for the Editorial Design team in Stockholm.
Zoned 29
Walking through mist and snow in a dark forest. Curated by Senior Product Designer, Farbod Faramarzi.
Design Superpowers
In this month's 3x3, our community reveals the talents and traits that make them great designers.
Screen Share Day Recap: Over 200 Conversations With Aspiring Designers
We've collated Spotify Designers' answers to the most frequently asked questions from this year's Screen Share Day.
Janey Lee, Senior Product Designer
Meet Janey Lee, Senior Product Designer for the Freemium team in Stockholm.
Simeon Fadahunsi, Summer Intern Product Designer
Meet Simeon Fadahunsi, Summer Intern Product Designer for the Content team in Stockholm.
Designing for Localization
This month, 3 designers tell us (in 3-ish sentences) how they design for local audiences.
Making the Brand: Fresh Finds Playlist Collection
Read how the Editorial Design Team partnered with It's Nice That and 11 independent visual artists to rebrand the Fresh Finds playlist collection.
Designers in the Making
This 3x3, Spotify Designers reflect on the childhood pastimes that signalled a future working in a creative field.
Inês João, Product Designer
Meet Inês João, Product Designer for User Platform in Berlin.
Zoned 28
Celebrating the world and all of its glitches. What happens when light is refracted or when you look at the sun for too long. Curated by Designer, Luna Alatorre.
Zoned 27
A blend of Hip Hop and Rap to keep your head bumpin' while you work. Curated by Designer, Justin Gordon.
Ask Spotify Design 04
In the latest Ask Spotify Design members of our community share their unique perspectives on topics ranging from design systems to imposter syndrome.
Zoned 25
Good vibes to put you in an instant groove. Curated by Product Designer, Kavita Chepovetsky.
Design Advice
In this month's instalment of 3x3, we're learning about the wise words that have guided three Spotify Designers' throughout their careers.
Zoned 24
Sitting in a garden in East London, listening to the occasional siren at night. Curated by Product Designer, Aarti D'Cruz.
Elias Lind, Product Designer
Meet Elias Lind, Product Designer for the Data Collection team in Gothenburg.
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.
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.
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 Principal 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: Part 1
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.
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.
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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