Menu
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
SoundMap’s Map Feature
We knew that Shazam focused on discovery so adding a map would help us maintain that vision.
Sound Cloud’s Waveform Feature
We needed a way for users visualize the song's structure, giving users more context and a feel for how it may sound.
Sound Hound’s Playlist Integration
Playlist integration lets users easily save and organize songs directly on the app, keeping them on it for longer.
We realized that Shazam shares many elements of their competitors’ apps such as: artist page, top songs, similar songs, albums, country chart, etc. However, we this analysis did indicate that to us that although Shazam had the same features as many of their competitors already, but due to Information Architecture, users were only exposed to the feature of their home screen, tapping to recognize a song
Both Harmony and Shayna need to discover a variety of music, but we needed to choose a primary persona.
We chose Harmony because she has a more specific purpose for discovering music.
Discovers music
As an entrepreneur. Harmony creates a cycle: She discovers music on Shazam, plays it at her events, and her customers then Shazam and share their favorites, spreading the music further. Unlike Shayna, who uses music personally, Harmony's discovery benefits both herself and her community.
Choosing The Primary Persona
Harmony or Shayna?
Based on our user research, 2 user personas were born.
USER PERSONAS
HARMONY- The Curator
Harmony is a first-time business owner who is one year into running her cafe and wine bar. As a new entrepreneur, she feels the excitement of creating fun, themed events for her customers to enjoy.
Age: 36
Location: San Francisco, CA
Occupation: Cafe/Wine Bar Owner
Immerse guests in authentic cultural experiences
To be able to quickly rotate through songs to get an initial taste of the songs
Set appropriate ambience for gatherings dependent on the themes of her events
GOALS
To get a taste of sound/feel of song to add to her playlists
To be able to have a better way of searching for songs of different tones
To discover a variety of songs that don’t repeat to expand her music library for her different events she hosts
NEEDS
Harmony is “The Curator”. She is a first-time business owner who is one year into running her cafe and wine bar. By day, it’s a calm, aesthetic cafe filled with regulars and by evening, it transforms into a vibrant, lively wine bar bringing in a variety of people based on events she hosts. As a new entrepreneur, she feels the excitement of creating fun, themed events for her customers to enjoy. However, she is still learning how to curate music that resonates with her customers and suits the events that she hosts.
SHAYNA- Self Explorer
Shayna is an introverted extravert who is in the process of findings herself and her own unique image. She seeks to do this through searching for new music
Age: 21
Location: NYU + Brooklyn
Occupation: College Student (Psych)
Share with friends, expand her taste, and create memories through music
A way to understand, express, and sculpt herself into a cultured person through discovering music
GOALS
To be able to find music that reflects her emotions
To find a wide variety of music to expand her taste and image
NEEDS
Shayna is “The Self Exploring College Student”. She is a 21 year old active streamer who is in the process of finding herself and her own unique image and does this through music. She is an introverted extrovert who feels that music is the best way to enhance any experience by adding a deeper layer to the surface as it accompanies her most of the time, both with friends, and when she needs time on her own.
What We Discovered
We interviewed 5 people on their relationship to music and had four main findings
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.
We wanted to explore how users discovered new songs, what their motivations for finding new music were, how they collected their music, and how they liked to share it with others.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVE
RESEARCH
OUTCOME
The project successfully transformed Shazam into a more engaging platform for music discovery. Key updates, like introducing a home screen map, improving feature visibility, simplifying navigation, and improving content organization, encouraged users to explore beyond music recognition. These changes increased session times beyond the 30-second average, enhanced music discovery, and boosted user satisfaction by providing a more curated and enjoyable experience.
MY ROLE
For this project, I served as the UX Researcher and Project Manager, taking on a range of responsibilities. I conducted three user interviews and three usability tests to gather insights and validate designs. I created the user persona "Harmony" to represent our target audience and sketched the initial design concepts. Additionally, I proposed incorporating descriptive and themed tags for songs to enhance discoverability and user engagement.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
OBJECTIVE
Shazam offers powerful tools for music discovery, but for many users, they spend no more than 30 seconds on the app before moving on, its full potential remaining untapped. We embarked on a mission to change that. We wanted to redesign Shazam in away that would captivate users, keep them engaged, and encourage a more deeper exploration of the music that they discover.
The objective of the TXI project was to streamline their ad approval process by replacing inefficient spreadsheets with a centralized platform that improved usability, maintained brand consistency, and enhanced collaboration.
TIMELINE
TEAM
ROLE
TOOLS
3 Week Sprint
Team of 3 UX Designers
UX Researcher, Project Manager
Figma/Figjam, G-Suite
Shazam: Music Discovery App
Music is my companion
New music genres introduced me to a different culture
Music can be a “vibe curator”
Music is a shared activity that brings people together
USER PERSONAS
Based on our user research, 2 user personas were born.
HARMONY- The Curator
Harmony is a first-time business owner who is one year into running her cafe and wine bar. As a new entrepreneur, she feels the excitement of creating fun, themed events for her customers to enjoy.
Age: 36
Location: San Francisco, CA
Occupation: Cafe/Wine Bar Owner
Immerse guests in authentic cultural experiences
To be able to quickly rotate through songs to get an initial taste of the songs
Set appropriate ambience for gatherings dependent on the themes of her events
GOALS
To get a taste of sound/feel of song to add to her playlists
To be able to have a better way of searching for songs of different tones
To discover a variety of songs that don’t repeat to expand her music library for her different events she hosts
NEEDS
Harmony is “The Curator”. She is a first-time business owner who is one year into running her cafe and wine bar. By day, it’s a calm, aesthetic cafe filled with regulars and by evening, it transforms into a vibrant, lively wine bar bringing in a variety of people based on events she hosts. As a new entrepreneur, she feels the excitement of creating fun, themed events for her customers to enjoy. However, she is still learning how to curate music that resonates with her customers and suits the events that she hosts.
SHAYNA- Self Explorer
Shayna is an introverted extravert who is in the process of findings herself and her own unique image. She seeks to do this through searching for new music
Age: 21
Location: NYU + Brooklyn
Occupation: College Student (Psych)
Share with friends, expand her taste, and create memories through music
A way to understand, express, and sculpt herself into a cultured person through discovering music
GOALS
To be able to find music that reflects her emotions
To find a wide variety of music to expand her taste and image
NEEDS
Shayna is “The Self Exploring College Student”. She is a 21 year old active streamer who is in the process of finding herself and her own unique image and does this through music. She is an introverted extrovert who feels that music is the best way to enhance any experience by adding a deeper layer to the surface as it accompanies her most of the time, both with friends, and when she needs time on her own.
Both Harmony and Shayna need to discover a variety of music, but we needed to choose a primary persona.
We chose Harmony because she has a more specific purpose for discovering music.
Discovers music
As an entrepreneur. Harmony creates a cycle: She discovers music on Shazam, plays it at her events, and her customers then Shazam and share their favorites, spreading the music further. Unlike Shayna, who uses music personally, Harmony's discovery benefits both herself and her community.
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
SoundMap’s Map Feature
We knew that Shazam focused on discovery so adding a map would help us maintain that vision.
Sound Cloud’s Waveform Feature
We needed a way for users visualize the song's structure, giving users more context and a feel for how it may sound.
Sound Hound’s Playlist Integration
Playlist integration lets users easily save and organize songs directly on the app, keeping them on it for longer.
We realized that Shazam shares many elements of their competitors’ apps such as: artist page, top songs, similar songs, albums, country chart, etc. However, we this analysis did indicate that to us that although Shazam had the same features as many of their competitors already, but due to Information Architecture, users were only exposed to the feature of their home screen, tapping to recognize a song
Choosing The Primary Persona
Harmony or Shayna?
We wanted to explore how users discovered new songs, what their motivations for finding new music were, how they collected their music, and how they liked to share it with others.
What We Discovered
We interviewed 5 people on their relationship to music and had four main findings
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 OBJECTIVE
RESEARCH
OUTCOME
The project successfully transformed Shazam into a more engaging platform for music discovery. Key updates, like introducing a home screen map, improving feature visibility, simplifying navigation, and improving content organization, encouraged users to explore beyond music recognition. These changes increased session times beyond the 30-second average, enhanced music discovery, and boosted user satisfaction by providing a more curated and enjoyable experience.
MY ROLE
For this project, I served as the UX Researcher and Project Manager, taking on a range of responsibilities. I conducted three user interviews and three usability tests to gather insights and validate designs. I created the user persona "Harmony" to represent our target audience and sketched the initial design concepts. Additionally, I proposed incorporating descriptive and themed tags for songs to enhance discoverability and user engagement.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
OBJECTIVE
Shazam offers powerful tools for music discovery, but for many users, they spend no more than 30 seconds on the app before moving on, its full potential remaining untapped. We embarked on a mission to change that. We wanted to redesign Shazam in away that would captivate users, keep them engaged, and encourage a more deeper exploration of the music that they discover.
The objective of the TXI project was to streamline their ad approval process by replacing inefficient spreadsheets with a centralized platform that improved usability, maintained brand consistency, and enhanced collaboration.
TIMELINE
TEAM
ROLE
TOOLS
3 Week Sprint
Team of 3 UX Designers
UX Researcher, Project Manager
Figma/Figjam, G-Suite
Shazam: Music Discovery App
Based on these results, we were able to create a site map to structure the app’s pages to help us visualize and organize information in a way that aligns with the user preferences. This helped the ensure that each page and feature was placed in a way that would follow the flow of how users interact with the the app.
We found out key features like the Global Music Discovery should be more easily accessible.
CARD SORTING
User can add songs in Shazam directly into Spotify just like a music discovery app “Soundhound.”
In My Music we will take out concert and add Map feature so that the user can directly access to Shazam around the world.
YES
NO
User can add songs in Shazam directly into Spotify just like a music discovery app “Soundhound.”
In My Music we will take out concert and add Map feature so that the user can directly access to Shazam around the world.
YES
NO
Harmony wants to discover more music that matches her specific theme of an “International Wine Event.”
We came up with a user flow:
USER FLOW
Shazam’s Current Home Page
Visibility or Simplicity?
We debated whether to keep the home screen focused on the recognition button or introduce additional options. To ensure users discover more features, we decided we needed to add a map directly to the home screen.
The Dilemma
Feature Discovery: Expose Harmony to Shazam’s other features
Visible Options: Show her she can find related songs
Relative Results: Incorporate location into discovery process
We were able to narrow down our ideas:
How Might We Fix The Problem?
Issues To Address
Based on these findings, we largely understood that these were the main issues to address:
Visibility
To ensure users could easily discover and engage with its full range of features beyond music recognition.
Easy Discovery
To allow a way for users to explore music to match the moods, creating a more personalized and immersive experience.
Info Prioritization
To improve the Information Architecture and Heuristic solutions to prioritize key content, encouraging longer app usage and more meaningful engagement.
App Integration
To allow the app to seamlessly sync with Spotify and other music apps, enabling users to easily save and revisit their discovered tracks.
We also discovered that Shazam’s exploration discovery flow was buried within a different screens, despite it being a key feature of Shazam.
Users had to navigate through 3 taps:
From the front page to “My Music”
Then press the search bar, locate “Country and City Charts” within the search results
Finally they would reach the discovery page.
Shazam’s Current Discovery Flow
Users like Harmony weren’t aware that they could connect their Shazam to their Spotify.
Through the heuristics evaluation we noticed that Shazam violated the heuristics of Learnability and Efficiency, Error Management, and Consistency and Standards. This indicated that users like Harmony weren’t aware that they could connect their Shazam to their Spotify, and even if they did, the user would have trouble finding the song on Spotify because it often isn’t the first song they see.
HEURISTICS EVALUTION
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
FINAL SKETCHES
Clearer UX Copy
Bottom Navigation
Separate Regional Page
Information Architecture
Bottom Navigation Bar: To boost awareness and engagement with Shazam’s music exploration tools, we introduced a map on the home screen. This design change encourages users who open the app for music recognition to explore more features, addressing the issue of users quickly leaving after recognizing a song.
Clearer UX Copy: We renamed “Taste Breakers” to "Adventurous Shazams" and added a brief description to encourage users to explore experimental sounds outside their usual preferences. This change helps users discover new music, and we believed Harmony would value this feature as she often needs to find diverse music, even if it’s not aligned with her personal taste.
Separate Regional Page: We received feedback that the information felt cramped and there were too many options to choose from. In response, we decided to create a separate page to provide a clearer and more manageable experience.
Information Architecture: To create a more intuitive flow and resolve the issue of scattered information and misplaced key details, we reorganized and prioritized the content, making it easier to explore and navigate.
We Found The Solution
Based on this insight, we decided to include genre tags and descriptive adjectives to help users quickly identify a song's vibe and determine if it fits a playlist theme. To further enhance this experience, we also incorporated visuals and sound frequency bars for additional context. Now we were ready for our final sketches.
Song adjectives to help
determine general mood
or theme
Genre information can help
users get a general idea of sounds and instrumentals
Sound Frequency Bar to provide
more context about song’s BPM,
highs, lows
We Conducted An Experiment
As part of our experiment, we visited various music streaming sites and clicked on unfamiliar songs, attempting to understand them without sound. During this process, we discovered that clues like instrumentals, genre information, song adjectives, and even tools like a sound frequency bar were surprisingly helpful in giving us a rough sense of what the song might sound like.
Design Critique Feedback
We recognized that wording significantly impacts user perception, so we focused on finding clearer terminology that better reflects our intentions for each feature.
Fixing UX Copy:
The way information was presented hindered exploration, with information scattered and key parts misplaced between unrelated categories.
Prioritizing Information:
Some Suggestions We Took
How do we accommodate noisy environments?
Consideration for user environment:
Previewing without sound:
How do we help our users learn about the song without listening to it?
How do we ensure our user that this is what they’re looking for?
Appropriate matches:
Some Suggestions Gave Us Factors to Consider
SKETCHING (FIRST ROUND)
We did a design studio, putting together all the research and ideas we gathered. With these sketches, we conducted a design critique with our colleagues.
IDEATION AND PROTOTYPING
Similar Features
Many people said it shared similar features to other music apps like Spotify so it was relatively easy to understand and use.
Similar Song Recommendations
This made it easier for them to discover new music that matched the without needing to search further.
Simplicity of Home Screen
Even with the map added to the home page, users found it didn’t interfere with music recognition. They appreciated it for revealing a new aspect of Shazam and felt it might encourage further exploration.
Results: What Did Work
Map Interaction: Many thought the would be interactive. Since this impacted user satisfaction, we adjusted the functionality to be clickable
UX Copy: Many users were confused by the wording and had a difficult time understanding the intentions behind some of the music categories. To address this, we decided to implement a clear, descriptive UX copy that accurately conveys what users can expect from each category.
Filtering Options: Many assumed these options would allow them to further filter down the song choices. To address this, we removed “Feeling Adventurous” and “Based Off Your Taste” and instead added a drop-down menu for users to filter songs by "Genre."
UX Copy
Filtering Options
Map Interaction
Results: What Didn’t Work
Decision For Change: Low-Fi to Mid-Fi
Based on the feedback, we began with low-fidelity wireframes and then scaled up to mid-fidelity designs, incorporating images and features for better context. This approach aimed to help users understand the music and its origin, ensuring they could confidently add songs to themed playlists, such as a French Wine Night.
USABILITY TESTING
TESTING
FINAL DESIGN
Link to Final Prototype
We looked to Shazam's Official Style Guide for inspiration:
Shazam's brand identity—minimalistic, clear, with waves, open skies, and the iconic Nexa font—is already well-established. We chose to keep our design closely aligned with this identity.
We did not forget to include WCAG’s contrast AAA guidelines:
We ensured all content was legible on each screen by adhering to WCAG’s AAA contrast guidelines and increasing CTA button width to meet A11y standards. We also adjusted spacing and button size to improve accessibility for users as well.
FONT
VOICE
COLORS
SHAZAM STYLE GUIDE
VISUAL DESIGN
FINAL REFLECTIONS
NEXT STEPS
Expand on “My Friends”
Due to our two-week timeline, we didn't prioritize this feature in our primary user flow but included it for users like Shayna. We plan to expand on this feature in the future to boost user engagement.
Continue to test UX Copy
To evaluate language interpretation, we found that the initial UX copy titles were unclear and needed more detail. We will continue to test their clarity and effectiveness.
Develop “Explore Mood”
To quickly help Harmony assess music, we created an adjective category. We plan to add an 'Explore Mood' page to leverage this feature further, enhancing user experience and engagement.
OUTCOMES
Though the redesign of this app didn’t launch these were the expected outcomes of our finalized project:
New features encouraged users to explore more of the app’s offerings.
Curated experiences helped users discover new music tailored to their tastes.
Engagement time increased, extending typical usage beyond 30 seconds to over a minute.
Enhanced exploration fostered user satisfaction and loyalty, driving continued app use.
View More Work
chokathleen97@gmail.com
© Kathleen Cho 2024
Based on these results, we were able to create a site map to structure the app’s pages to help us visualize and organize information in a way that aligns with the user preferences. This helped the ensure that each page and feature was placed in a way that would follow the flow of how users interact with the the app.
We found out key features like the Global Music Discovery should be more easily accessible.
CARD SORTING
Harmony wants to discover more music that matches her specific theme of an “International Wine Event.”
We came up with a user flow:
USER FLOW
Shazam’s Current Home Page
Visibility or Simplicity?
We debated whether to keep the home screen focused on the recognition button or introduce additional options. To ensure users discover more features, we decided we needed to add a map directly to the home screen.
The Dilemma
Feature Discovery: Expose Harmony to Shazam’s other features
Visible Options: Show her she can find related songs
Relative Results: Incorporate location into discovery process
We were able to narrow down our ideas:
How Might We Fix The Problem?
Issues To Address
Based on these findings, we largely understood that these were the main issues to address:
Visibility
To ensure users could easily discover and engage with its full range of features beyond music recognition.
Easy Discovery
To allow a way for users to explore music to match the moods, creating a more personalized and immersive experience.
Info Prioritization
To improve the Information Architecture and Heuristic solutions to prioritize key content, encouraging longer app usage and more meaningful engagement.
App Integration
To allow the app to seamlessly sync with Spotify and other music apps, enabling users to easily save and revisit their discovered tracks.
We also discovered that Shazam’s exploration discovery flow was buried within a different screens, despite it being a key feature of Shazam.
Users had to navigate through 3 taps:
From the front page to “My Music”
Then press the search bar, locate “Country and City Charts” within the search results
Finally they would reach the discovery page.
Shazam’s Current Discovery Flow
Users like Harmony weren’t aware that they could connect their Shazam to their Spotify.
Through the heuristics evaluation we noticed that Shazam violated the heuristics of Learnability and Efficiency, Error Management, and Consistency and Standards. This indicated that users like Harmony weren’t aware that they could connect their Shazam to their Spotify, and even if they did, the user would have trouble finding the song on Spotify because it often isn’t the first song they see.
HEURISTICS EVALUTION
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
Similar Features
Many people said it shared similar features to other music apps like Spotify so it was relatively easy to understand and use.
Similar Song Recommendations
This made it easier for them to discover new music that matched the without needing to search further.
Simplicity of Home Screen
Even with the map added to the home page, users found it didn’t interfere with music recognition. They appreciated it for revealing a new aspect of Shazam and felt it might encourage further exploration.
Results: What Did Work
Map Interaction: Many thought the would be interactive. Since this impacted user satisfaction, we adjusted the functionality to be clickable
UX Copy: Many users were confused by the wording and had a difficult time understanding the intentions behind some of the music categories. To address this, we decided to implement a clear, descriptive UX copy that accurately conveys what users can expect from each category.
Filtering Options: Many assumed these options would allow them to further filter down the song choices. To address this, we removed “Feeling Adventurous” and “Based Off Your Taste” and instead added a drop-down menu for users to filter songs by "Genre."
UX Copy
Filtering Options
Map Interaction
Results: What Didn’t Work
Decision For Change: Low-Fi to Mid-Fi
Based on the feedback, we began with low-fidelity wireframes and then scaled up to mid-fidelity designs, incorporating images and features for better context. This approach aimed to help users understand the music and its origin, ensuring they could confidently add songs to themed playlists, such as a French Wine Night.
USABILITY TESTING
TESTING
FINAL SKETCHES
Clearer UX Copy
Bottom Navigation
Separate Regional Page
Information Architecture
Bottom Navigation Bar: To boost awareness and engagement with Shazam’s music exploration tools, we introduced a map on the home screen. This design change encourages users who open the app for music recognition to explore more features, addressing the issue of users quickly leaving after recognizing a song.
Clearer UX Copy: We renamed “Taste Breakers” to "Adventurous Shazams" and added a brief description to encourage users to explore experimental sounds outside their usual preferences. This change helps users discover new music, and we believed Harmony would value this feature as she often needs to find diverse music, even if it’s not aligned with her personal taste.
Separate Regional Page: We received feedback that the information felt cramped and there were too many options to choose from. In response, we decided to create a separate page to provide a clearer and more manageable experience.
Information Architecture: To create a more intuitive flow and resolve the issue of scattered information and misplaced key details, we reorganized and prioritized the content, making it easier to explore and navigate.
We Found The Solution
Based on this insight, we decided to include genre tags and descriptive adjectives to help users quickly identify a song's vibe and determine if it fits a playlist theme. To further enhance this experience, we also incorporated visuals and sound frequency bars for additional context. Now we were ready for our final sketches.
Song adjectives to help
determine general mood
or theme
Genre information can help
users get a general idea of sounds and instrumentals
Sound Frequency Bar to provide
more context about song’s BPM,
highs, lows
We Conducted An Experiment
As part of our experiment, we visited various music streaming sites and clicked on unfamiliar songs, attempting to understand them without sound. During this process, we discovered that clues like instrumentals, genre information, song adjectives, and even tools like a sound frequency bar were surprisingly helpful in giving us a rough sense of what the song might sound like.
Design Critique Feedback
We recognized that wording significantly impacts user perception, so we focused on finding clearer terminology that better reflects our intentions for each feature.
Fixing UX Copy:
The way information was presented hindered exploration, with information scattered and key parts misplaced between unrelated categories.
Prioritizing Information:
Some Suggestions We Took
How do we accommodate noisy environments?
Consideration for user environment:
Previewing without sound:
How do we help our users learn about the song without listening to it?
How do we ensure our user that this is what they’re looking for?
Appropriate matches:
Some Suggestions Gave Us Factors to Consider
SKETCHING (FIRST ROUND)
We did a design studio, putting together all the research and ideas we gathered. With these sketches, we conducted a design critique with our colleagues.
IDEATION AND PROTOTYPING
FINAL DESIGN
Link to Final Prototype
We looked to Shazam's Official Style Guide for inspiration:
Shazam's brand identity—minimalistic, clear, with waves, open skies, and the iconic Nexa font—is already well-established. We chose to keep our design closely aligned with this identity.
We did not forget to include WCAG’s contrast AAA guidelines:
We ensured all content was legible on each screen by adhering to WCAG’s AAA contrast guidelines and increasing CTA button width to meet A11y standards. We also adjusted spacing and button size to improve accessibility for users as well.
FONT
VOICE
COLORS
SHAZAM STYLE GUIDE
VISUAL DESIGN
FINAL REFLECTIONS
NEXT STEPS
Expand on “My Friends”
Due to our two-week timeline, we didn't prioritize this feature in our primary user flow but included it for users like Shayna. We plan to expand on this feature in the future to boost user engagement.
Continue to test UX Copy
To evaluate language interpretation, we found that the initial UX copy titles were unclear and needed more detail. We will continue to test their clarity and effectiveness.
Develop “Explore Mood”
To quickly help Harmony assess music, we created an adjective category. We plan to add an 'Explore Mood' page to leverage this feature further, enhancing user experience and engagement.
OUTCOMES
Though the redesign of this app didn’t launch these were the expected outcomes of our finalized project:
New features encouraged users to explore more of the app’s offerings.
Curated experiences helped users discover new music tailored to their tastes.
Engagement time increased, extending typical usage beyond 30 seconds to over a minute.
Enhanced exploration fostered user satisfaction and loyalty, driving continued app use.