Pandora Music
Giving users greater control over how they discover and stream music
• Competitive Analysis
• User Interviews
• Affinity Mapping
• User Persona
• HMW's
• Usability Testing
• Hi-Fi wireframes
• Prototype
• Original copy tailored to users
PROJECT CONTEXT
The Music Fades for Pandora
Pandora took the music world by storm in 2006 with its 'Radio' feature that played limitless songs for users, based on a patented analysis of user activity and music structure. However, its popularity has waned over time. It's become somewhat pigeonholed as a radio service. Spotify now dominates the market with aggressive features and a larger music database. To stay competitive, Pandora must expand its features to offer users the flexibility, control, and quality music suggestions they now expect.
*Source: http://www.businessofapps.com. Pandora's 80 million users in 2016 have dropped to 43 million as of 2025. Spotify, by contrast has 678 million users.
THE PROBLEM
Out of Tune With Users
Despite its initial popularity, Pandora has been steadily bleeding users. Music streamers now tend to regard it as outdated, with very limited features and music suggestions that only crudely predict music taste. Spotify, by contrast, offers sophisticated playlists, many features (like video streaming, ability to share playlists), and busy graphics.
THE GOAL
Sound Out the User
RESEARCH GOAL #1
To understand how users are streaming music
RESEARCH GOAL #3
To understand how users want to stream music
RESEARCH GOAL #2
To understand what users like and don't like about music streaming
After establishing the problem, I set out to better understand how users want to stream music, so that I could explore features to improve Pandora's function and music quality, to increase their enjoyment and engagement.
THE RESEARCH
Methods
After identifying my research goals, I used these methods to gather and synthesize data about the user:
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Online Forum Reviews
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User Interviews
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Affinity Mapping
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Competitive Analysis
1. Online Forum Reviews
Pandora has vocal, active critics in the digital world. So, I perused threads in popular, online communities like Reddit to spot issues to flesh out in user interviews. Their comments were consistent with the general consensus on Pandora.
"No matter how many times I’ve thumbs downed Taylor swift and drake songs, Pandora insists I will like their newest songs…"
flatlinemay, Reddit user
"It randomly began throwing in music completely different genre altogether, still from the 90s. Any way to stop it?"
r/Music, Reddit user
"Pandora lets me skip -but only stations and does not work on music I actually want to hear."
EdwinB, Reddit user
2. User Interviews
Next, it was time to talk to regular music streamers to better understand their needs and goals, and how the Apps are currently meeting those needs. These insights emerged.
How users want to discover music:
Users still crave a personal touch in music suggestions.
They rely on algorithm-based suggestions, but they supplement with music suggested by real people ('Youtubers' on YouTube channels) whose taste they trust & follow.*
Users want music suggestions to accurately predict their taste.
Users want a streaming service that's sensitive to their taste and is good at predicting music they will like. The more they can weigh in and improve the music suggestions, the happier they are.
*The lucrative world of influencers shows how much people enjoy following others.
How users want to stream music:
Users want to control what they stream with minimal effort.
Increasingly, they listen to music on their phones with headphones while doing other activities. They want easy access to music from anywhere, without having to pay much attention to their phones.
3. Affinity Mapping
I derived my insights by creating an Affinity Map (clustering the feedback I got from users and noting the emerging patterns). The most relevant insights are legible.
4. Competitive Analysis
I looked at the features music streaming Apps currently offer to serve these user needs. Analyzing these features helped me brainstorm how I could serve users -with embellished or new features.
App Features
Pandora
Spotify
YouTube
My Reflections
LET USERS INFLUENCE THEIR MUSIC RECS
• Music recs based on user activity (streaming, saving, etc.)
• Like & dislike buttons
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All Apps use algorithms to predict users' tastes. The more accurately they do this, the happier users are.
This popular feature lets users streamline their music recs with every like or dislike. But Pandora only uses it for radio streaming.
OFFER PERSONALIZED RECS
• Lets users share music playlists
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YouTube takes this to another level. 'YouTubers' can upload & discuss content on their channels publicly. Viewers subscribe and follow them.
ENABLES EASY PHONE INTERACTION
• Displays lyrics
• Displays scrolling lyrics
• Allows fast-forward/
rewind/skip
• Lets users create playlists
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This basic feature allows users to follow lyrics while streaming.
This feature makes it easier for users to follow lyrics with a glance. It seemed like a useful upgrade. Pandora that could offer its own embellished version.
This feature lets users play music exactly how they want. Users complained that Pandora Radio was too restrictive.
This feature lets users save & play music in any order (without having to search).
THE DESIGN PROCESS
Ideation
After researching the user and gaining insights into what s/he needs in a music streaming service, I began to brainstorm new features to better serve those needs.
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User Persona
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How Might We statements
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Design Solutions
1. User Persona
With a solid understanding of my users, I created a persona who captures their goals and frustrations. This visual aid helped me to empathize with the user and imagine what features s/he might benefit from.
About
Sarah is a graphic designer in Brooklyn who identifies as creative & eccentric (she sometimes dies her hair pink or blue). She likes to rollerblade while listening to music & loves to share music. She's always looking to expand her repertoire of funk, techno, & alternative rock.
Needs
• To have quick, easy access to the music she loves in mobile-friendly form;
• To discover exciting, new artists
Frustrations
• Music ruts, difficulty finding music that inspires her
• Aggressive ads that distract or annoy her
Vibe
• Extroverted, passionate, quirky
2. How Might We statements
Before moving to the ideation phase, I used my insights to broadly articulate the kinds of solutions that would best serve the users' needs.
HWM statement #1
HMW recommend music to users in a way that feels more personal, or reflects the taste of people they can relate to?
HWM statement #2
HMW increase users' ability to influence their music suggestions -to improve how accurately they'll predict taste?
HWM statement #3
HMW make it easier for users to stream music without having to fuss with their phones much?
3. Design solutions
Feature 1. SHARED PUBLIC PLAYLISTS
The users I spoke to all follow influencers on YouTube for music guidance. Pandora predicts users' music taste with modest success. But no technology can substitute the need for human interaction when it comes to music.
My Public Playlists let users find and play playlists created by other users whose personality and taste they identify with.
My suggested public playlist screens
On the Discover tab*, a user can select a playlist by popular curators.
The user can play songs on the playlist or view other playlists by that curator.
The user can view the curator's profile. S/he can 'collect' and follow him, just as s/he collects songs or artists.
*I changed the copy from 'For You' to 'Discover' for clarity.
Feature 2. MORE THUMBS UP AND DOWN
Users want Pandora to make accurate predictions about what music they'll like. The Thumbs up/down feature lets users weigh in on preferences, but it's only available on Pandora Radio.
Expanding the feature for all music would give users a louder voice in expressing music taste -giving the algorithms more data to listen to.
Pandora's current play screen
A user can collect a song he plays from an album, but not rate it.
My suggested play screen:
The thumbs up highlights when selected
The thumbs up/down lets a user rate any song he plays.
Feature 3. SCROLLING, BLOWN UP LYRICS
Pandora offers lyrics, but they're not visible until users scroll down on the play screen and click 'More lyrics' to see the fully lyrics, which are small and hard to follow.
Pandora's current play and lyrics screens
The 'More Lyrics' button
On the play screen, the lyrics are not visible.
The lyrics don't pop up until the users scrolls down. When he clicks 'More lyrics'...
The user can see the full lyrics.
My suggested play screen has a bold, underlined 'View lyrics' button. Clicking on it takes users directly to a screen with scrolling, large, bold lyrics. They can be read at a glance (while jogging, walking, etc.).
My suggested play & lyrics screens:
The user sees 'View lyrics.' When he clicks on it...
The user can see the full lyrics. They scroll & are blown up.
THE TESTING PROCESS
Methods
It was time to test the features to see what might work, and what could be improved upon. I used the following tools:
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Discussion with stakeholders
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Usability testing
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Back-end metrics (I would need corporate resources to do this)
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Final Prototype
1. Discussion with stakeholders
All of these changes would go beyond cosmetics. Making the lyrics scroll to music, changing music suggestions to include public playlists, and expanding the thumbs up/down feature would require functional and algorithmic changes.
I'd want to talk to back-end developers and engineers to get a better sense of the effort involved in implementing these changes.
I'd then want to discuss the value of implementing them with the PM. I'd emphasize their potential popularity, based on Usability Tests.
2. Usability Testing
I tested my prototype with a few volunteers to get a sense of how appealing and intuitive these features are. There was generally enthusiasm for them and everyone thought they'd be useful. The comments had more to do with their design.
Comment 1: MAKE LYRICS EASIER TO ACCESS. Accepted √
A few people complained that the 'i' button in the upper right corner (in my 1st iteration) was confusing and easy to miss. It also linked to another screen with white space that had to be expanded to see the lyrics. I agreed this was confusing and unnecessary.
My 1st play screen:
the 'i' button
the 'More lyrics' button
The user clicks the 'i' button in the top right to access lyrics.
The user must then click 'More lyrics' to see the full lyrics.
The full lyrics are finally shown.
My revised play screen:
The user clicks 'View lyrics' underlined & in bold to access lyrics.
The full lyrics are shown.
Comment 2: SHOW LYRICS ON PLAY SCREEN. Rejected X
Some users wanted to see lyrics immediately on the play screen. They were undoubtedly used to Spotify's layout. But Spotify has a scroll feature to accommodate that.
My suggested play screen unchanged:
My suggested play screen has only a 'View lyrics' button.
Spotify's play screen for reference:
The lyrics are shown on the play screen (which scrolls down).
3. Back-end metrics
I don't work for Pandora. But they could test the popularity of these features with back-end metrics. How often do users click on the thumbs up/down or 'View lyrics' buttons? How often do they follow other users or play their music?
4. The Prototype
Play the prototype to see the features brought to life!
