Spotify x C.UI
User Experience and Interaction design concept for a Spotify conversational AI
Music and exercise go hand in hand in this project. Together with Zoe Lehn and Robert Managad, we created a conversational interface that navigates Spotify based on users preferences and activity levels.
The team worked together to develop and research motion design, story boarding, and conversational UI in a 3 week span.
Further bridging music and exercise through motion and technology
Research x Exploration
visual created by Robert Managad
To dive into this project we needed to familiarize ourselves with what already exists and what we can work with. This was a combination of finding the affordances of the technology and the users experiences with Spotify.
We found that Samsung watches where the only smart watches that allowed speech recognition through wireless headsets, offline capabilities, option of downloading music and premium quality sound.
Talking to users we found that using a touchscreen while working out was hardly convenient due to sweat and complicated navigations. We knew because of these issues, this was an opportunity for our C.UI to create a new relationship between a smart watch and its user during a workout.
While we were researching users, we were also creating simple animations for certain feeling and actions. This was the start of motion development for our UI.
From this we were able to experiment with motion and graph how they are understood on an emotional level. This paved the way for more specific translation of a voice through action for Spotify as a brand.
After more research with users on their interaction with Spotify, we created a list of commands that our C.UI would most likely have to respond to such as “skip this song” or “shuffle my playlist”. In order to not interrupt the users listening experience, these actions would have to communicate through movement.
We also found that we could use the heart rate vitals the smart watch records to match that heart rate / BPM of the user to the queued song list. This is one of the opportunities we found through our research that can create optimal efficiency and personalization during ones workout
From here we moved on quickly to integrating this into a cohesive video and a story
Designing for a brand requires its own language. With a Spotify C.UI, Expression and motion work together to create a seamless loop of information and feedback.