The usage of smartphones has increased for younger children for that last couple of years and 98% of Sweden's six year olds use internet in some form. Many of the interfaces are only adapted to adults even though children are also a big target group. Some streaming companies have adapted their interfaces and content to fit children in a more appropriate way. Spotify however, have not and are therefore excluding this user group.
This was a part of a project course at Chalmers University of Technology and the team consisted of 4 students from the masters program Interaction Design and Technologies: Louise Henriksson, Danny Lam, Annie Rehnberg and Johan Levin. The purpose of the project is to research and understand how children interact with Spotify’s current interface and also see how it could be adapted to fit the target group more appropriately.
Annie Rehnberg, Danny Lam, Johan Levin & Louise Henriksson
PHASE 1: RESEARCH
The first phase was focused on background study on how children behave, their mental development and psychology behind it. By reading research articles we got relevant information to know the children's use of devices such as smart phones and touchpads, and also their use of applications such as Youtube and Spotify.
This phase includes interviews with parents of young children and teachers in preschools.
Examining how current Spotify works.
PHASE 2: REQUIREMENTS
The main purpose of the requirement phase was to gather data which resulted in a list of requirements. The data was collected by using an online survey and five interviews with parents of children in ages five to nine. A workshop was also conducted with ten 6-year-olds, in order to gain real feedback on the Spotify interface.
Key findings were defined in a set of requirements, these were that children feel empowered by completing tasks on their own, they find it easier to read uppercase letters and that their motor skills aren't as precise as adults and therefore needs bigger hit targets.
I present a narrative story to get the children in the right mood.
PHASE 3: IDEATION
The ideation phase aimed to develop a concept that accommodated the list of requirements. The group members then, individually, started creating one wireframe proposal each.
The wireframes developed into a first high-fidelity prototype and later into an interactive prototype, using Sketch and Principle, that we evaluated on the same group of children for a second workshop.
A low-fidelity prototype of Spotify for KIds.
PHASE 4: EVALUATION
An iterative design process began, and an additional workshop with the children were conducted. This time, the children use the new prototype to interact and solve problems. The children were asked to help a character called Spoffe to play a few different songs. One example of tasks could be: “how can you help Spoffe to mix a happy dance playlist?” which let them try out the new Mix-function.
With new findings, we created a final concept.
A final concept of the Spotify for Kids.
PHASE 5: FINAL RESULT
Spotify for Kids is divided into three different views: Home, Playing and Mix. The Home screen displays the most listened music, including my favorites, most played artists, most played albums and most played songs. Home also provide a dynamic view with new top lists that is updated every week. The navigation bar is now color coded with a unique color for each view.
Below is a visualization of usage flow of Spotify for kids.
