Project 01 - Create a music app using illustration.
To begin this project, I started by looking at other music app’s user interfaces to see how they utilise illustrative design.
Spotify is one of the biggest streaming apps in the world and the app I use, meaning it will be harder for me to be as objective with this analysis, however, I will have a better understanding of it. Spotify is split into 4 main screens; Home, Search, Library, and Player. The Home screen to me feels quite cluttered, I think the inclusion of your recently listened-to works well but the recommendations feel like they fill a lot of space inefficiently. I also think most users won’t want to see what an algorithm thinks they'll like as soon as they open the app. The Search screen works well, but too much space is eaten up by the massive genre button which houses images that don’t really tell you much about the genre. The Library screen is fine, with the content being arranged either in a list or grid, but more could be done for personalisation, due to it being “Your Library”. The player screen is also fine, but as I said with the Library, lacks any sort of personality or personalisation. This is the screen you’ll have open for the most amount of time, so I think more could be done to make it less generic, especially because of how integral playlists are to Spotify. Overall it feels like Spotify wants you to listen to your way, but doesn’t provide much in the way of personalisation.
Apple Music is very functionally similar to Spotify, however, the UI layout allows for more emphasis to be placed on certain features. The biggest difference I initially noticed was the inclusion of the Radio page, allowing users to listen to live radio, which is a feature that Spotify has but doesn’t promote. Due to apple music having to fit into the Apple ecosystem, it feels incredibly generic and clinical, even when compared to Spotify. This is obviously because it’s designed using apple design guidelines, but it just feels like a player, rather than an app to house your music. Again, like Spotify, it tries to promote the idea of music being personal with its recommendations and playlists but has almost no customisation or personalisation options.
Youtube Music is also very similar to Spotify and Apple Music, featuring the same screens as Spotify but with an added emphasis on music videos and live recordings. In a similar vein to the previous apps, the UI is overall fine but lacks personality and wastes a lot of space. Youtube music in particular wastes a lot of space, with some sections seemingly massive and others tiny. I like the inclusion of the “Explore” screen rather than “Search”, as it implies the same, but allows for a less direct and “explorative” user journey, rather than implying the user already knows what they want to hear. Overall, Youtube music has the most disjointed UI of the 3 and also lacks many forms of personalisation.
After looking at other music apps, I began to compile ideas associated with music, to see what issues could be solved or features added.