SpotChat

SEAMLESSLY SHARE SONGS & CHAT WITH FRIENDS

SpotChat - A Spotify Feature
Wireframing, Visual Systems & UX Exploration

Solo project for Interaction Design
Figma
Jan 2023 - Mar 2023

PROBLEM

Spotify’s in-app music sharing features are limited, especially for Gen Z users who expect fast, fluid, and socially embedded digital experiences. Users currently have to leave the app to share music, creating friction and missed connection moments.

USER RESEARCH + INSIGHTS

Through peer interviews and surveys, I discovered users often rely on external messaging platforms to share music, breaking the flow of discovery. This insight directly informed my decision to embed a conversational feature within Spotify’s interface. I prioritized a lightweight, chat-style overlay that wouldn't disrupt playback, mirroring familiar UI patterns to ensure low friction. Every design choice—from interface hierarchy to visual language—was made to align with users’ existing mental models and reduce platform-switching.

PERSONA DEVELOPMENT

I created a user persona to represent my core audience: a Gen Z student who sees music as a form of emotional communication. This helped me anchor my feature around their social habits, device usage, and desire for immediacy and authenticity.

IDEATION + CONCEPTING

I sketched six different feature concepts ranging from collaborative playlists to music-based messaging. The strongest direction was a "Direct Message"-style feature that allowed users to share songs with personalized notes in-app.

STORYBOARDING

I translated this concept into a storyboard to visualize the full user journey — from finding a song to sending a friend a message — which clarified interaction flows and guided our UX priorities.

PAPER WIREFRAMES & USABILITY TESTING

I created early-stage paper wireframes and conducted quick user tests to evaluate usability and clarity. In parallel, I ran a heuristic evaluation using Nielsen’s principles, identifying issues related to visual hierarchy, consistency, and minimalism.

These methods helped me spot moments of confusion in the interaction flow—particularly around navigation and feedback cues. As a result, I refined the user flow to reduce visual clutter, clarify call-to-action buttons, and ensure consistency across screens before moving into digital prototyping.

LOFI WIREFRAMES

I translated my refined user flow into low-fidelity wireframes to define the app’s layout, hierarchy, and key interactions. This stage focused on creating a clear, intuitive navigation system and establishing visual structure without the distraction of high-fidelity styling.

During this phase, I prioritized simplicity and speed, allowing me to iterate quickly based on feedback from early testers. Decisions around button placement, screen progression, and social-sharing gestures were directly informed by my research on Gen Z preferences and existing pain points in Spotify’s current flow.

HIFI WIREFRAMES

We brought the feature to life through a high-fidelity prototype that emphasized clean visual hierarchy, Gen Z–aligned aesthetics, and seamless social interaction patterns. Built in Figma, the prototype closely reflected the final product, incorporating microinteractions and messaging cues designed to make music sharing feel more intuitive, personal, and in-app.

Every visual and interaction decision—color, typography, icon placement—was made to reduce cognitive load and enhance emotional connection between users. The final prototype enabled users to send songs directly, add context through a quick message, and receive friend recommendations without leaving the Spotify ecosystem.

BRIGHT POINTS + PAIN POINTS

CHALLENGES

One of the biggest challenges was designing a new feature that felt seamless within Spotify’s established ecosystem. I needed to strike a balance between honoring the existing design system and introducing new functionality that felt intuitive and native to the experience. Another key challenge was ensuring that the added social tools genuinely enhanced connection without cluttering or disrupting the core music flow.

SOLUTIONS

To maintain visual and functional consistency, I closely followed Spotify’s design system guidelines while introducing the SpotChat feature — a messaging flow that allows users to share songs directly with friends inside the app. I used Nielsen’s 10 Usability Heuristics to guide decisions around clarity, hierarchy, and feedback throughout the interface. The final design enables intuitive in-app sharing and adds lightweight social tools without compromising the simplicity of Spotify’s core experience.

FINAL WIREFRAMES

REFLECTIONS

This project helped me strengthen my ability to design within the constraints of an existing design system. I learned how to reverse-engineer interface elements and replicate Spotify’s UI patterns using Figma components, which pushed me to think more systematically about consistency, hierarchy, and interaction logic.

Through user feedback and heuristic evaluation, I also developed a stronger sensitivity to small usability issues — like visual clutter, unclear entry points, and feature discoverability. If I were to continue this project, I would explore ways to better integrate SpotChat into the overall app flow and refine the process for finding and messaging friends.

Overall, this project sharpened my eye for visual detail, deepened my knowledge of design systems, and helped me think critically about how to introduce new functionality into a well-established product experience.

Maya Solanki

Maya
Solanki