Spotify Make Your Mix:
Custom Playlists for Every Occasion
The “Make Your Mix” feature, designed on Figma, enables users to generate custom playlists using simple, descriptive prompts. By blending familiar tracks with new suggestions, this tool streamlines the playlist creation process while fostering discovery and personalization.
Seeing Spotify implement a similar feature after I designed 'Make Your Mix' highlights the importance of identifying user pain points and innovating with future trends in mind. This experience taught me the value of designing for needs that may not yet be addressed by existing products but resonate with user behaviors and expectations.
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Problem Overview:
Spotify users often spend significant time manually curating playlists for specific moods or occasions, which can feel tedious and overwhelming. While Spotify offers curated playlists and recommendations, it lacks a feature for users to quickly create highly personalized, thematic playlists based on their unique preferences or occasions.
How I Got to the Solution
Identifying the Problem
Through research and user interviews, I discovered:
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Manual Playlist Building: Users found it time-consuming to add individual songs to create a thematic playlist.
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Limited Discovery Tools: Existing Spotify features didn’t allow users to tailor playlists dynamically based on specific occasions, themes, or moods.
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Desire for Effortless Creation: Users wanted an easy, conversational way to craft playlists without sacrificing control over their preferences.
Research and Insights
Key insights from interviews with five Spotify users:
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Occasion-Driven Playlists: Users often wanted playlists for specific events, like a birthday party, road trip, or study session.
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Prompt-Based Simplicity: Users preferred describing their playlist needs in natural language rather than sorting through extensive song libraries.
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Control and Discovery: While users enjoyed familiar tracks, they valued discovering new songs that aligned with the playlist’s theme.
The Final Design
Key Feature
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Natural Language Prompts: Users can generate playlists by describing their needs, e.g., “Make a mix for a chill Sunday morning."
Design Flow Video
Introduced a "Make Your Mix" button in the playlist creation interface, allowing users to generate personalized playlists based on their inputs
Added a prompt input field for users to describe their ideal playlist, encouraging natural language interaction like "Make a party playlist"
Showcased the resulting playlist, titled "ABBA Inspired Party Mix," with a blend of popular ABBA tracks and complementary songs, providing a ready-to-go playlist for the specified occasion.
Introduced a "Make Your Mix" button in the playlist creation interface, allowing users to generate personalized playlists based on their inputs
Impact and Industry Validation:
After completing the “Make Your Mix” concept, Spotify later introduced a similar feature, validating the demand for streamlined, prompt-driven playlist creation. While this feature wasn’t available at the time I designed my solution, its subsequent implementation by Spotify reflects the relevance and user-centered approach of my design.
This development highlights how my work anticipated user needs and aligned with industry trends, showcasing my ability to identify gaps and design meaningful solutions before they become mainstream.