In accordance with the company's ambition to become the "complete destination for all of people's listening needs," Spotify introduced audiobooks to its platform in late 2022. However, preliminary research revealed low user satisfaction with the new feature. I set out to uncover the root of the dissatisfaction and design a solution.
Note: Since the completion of this project, Spotify has changed the way that users purchase audiobooks, allowing up to 15 hours of free audiobook content for monthly subscribers. This case study is based on the user experience as of Q1 2023.
Spotify users encountered a dead-end screen when attempting to purchase audiobook content in-app, leading to frustration and abandonment.
A streamlined checkout process where users can discover audiobooks within the Spotify app, seamlessly transition to their mobile browsers for purchase, and effortlessly return to the app for an uninterrupted listening experience.
To better understand Spotify’s position in the audiobook market and business objectives for the new feature, I looked closely at the press releases surrounding the introduction of audiobooks to the platform and did a feature analysis of competing products to benchmark market expectations.
The audiobook market is heavily saturated with competitors—including powerhouses like Audible—that Spotify will have to contend with in order to convert customers. This meant that there was a definitive bar that Spotify would have to meet in order to compete.
Compared to its competitors, Spotify’s audiobook feature is incredibly simple, lacking basic features common among many other providers including bookmarking, personalized recommendations, and options for organizing one’s library.
My user interviews took the form of four in-depth conversations with people who were avid audiobook listeners and had used a variety of audiobook providers and services including Spotify, Audible, Libro.fm, and Libby.
My goal for these interviews was to discover:
"I literally felt catfished by Spotify." — Interview participant
People overwhelmingly listen to audiobooks while doing something else, whether that be checking work emails, sitting in traffic, or walking the dog. This also means that people tend to listen to audiobooks from their mobile devices.
Users experience frustration when unable to make audiobook purchases directly within the app where they listen. This is particularly problematic for individuals on the move, as the inconvenience of switching to another device or application to complete the purchase often leads to abandoned transactions.
While the interviews turned up a few different pain points in Spotify’s audiobook features, in narrowing the focus of my design I realized something important:
If users can’t figure out how to buy your product, the number of cool features built into your product doesn’t matter.
It became clear that, before thinking about adding new features like bookmarking to Spotify’s audiobook player, I’d need to help users actually purchase audiobooks and start listening to them.
I needed to pinpoint where the friction was occurring, so I went through the flow of trying to purchase an audiobook through my own Spotify app.
Above is the screen that users reach in Spotify’s mobile app after trying to purchase an audiobook, and the point where users abandon their purchase. A quick evaluation of this screen against the 10 usability heuristics turned up a couple of red flags:
It’s not an uncommon practice, as many businesses want to circumvent the fees collected by Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store for purchases made through their apps (30% and 15%, respectively).
I returned to competing products to see how competitors handled this same issue.
Even without a premium subscription, Audible allows for in-app purchases, but charges more through the app to adjust for the cut taken by the App or Play stores. Libro.fm, on the other hand, funnels the user over to the browser to buy credits.
I still wanted to explore potential solutions, so I did a quick brainstorming session to see what I could come up with. The top potential solutions were:
Though the most simplistic solution, it is a clear non-starter. Spotify has explicitly expressed its unwillingness to yield to the high fees imposed by Apple and Google.
Another way to help users hang on to audiobooks they intended to purchase was by implementing a wishlist feature, where users could save audiobooks to a special playlist that they could easily find later in their browser. However, this didn’t seem distinct enough from Spotify’s existing Library and Playlist features, so I was concerned that throwing “Wishlist” in the mix would be too confusing.
The most elegant solution by far, was to emulate Libro.fm and connect the mobile app to the browser for a seamless purchasing experience. I did some preliminary research into feasibility and found that through deep linking, it should be a simple solution to implement on the backend.
To determine where link to the browser would go, I sketched out two different ideas.
Option #1 seemed like the more user-friendly option, as linking from the “Want to listen?” screen would communicate the system status to the user, adhering to the 1st usability heuristic. To check my thinking, I presented my sketches in a design crit and received feedback confirming my gut feeling.
I carried out unmoderated usability tests with 13 subjects who fit into the target demographic for Spotify’s audiobook feature. I centered the prototype and test around the primary use case, where the user finds and purchases an audiobook, moving back and forth between the mobile app and browser.
“The steps of the task were straightforward and they were in line with my expectations. The buttons and words were clear and easy to read.”
Of the 13 participants, 4 (46%) rated the task as easy, and and 5 (38%) rated it as very easy. However, there were 2 respondents (15%) who rated the task as neutral in difficulty, so there were clearly some areas for improvement.
In my original design, I left the locked play button from Spotify’s original interface unchanged. This didn’t give users sufficient information about its function, causing unnecessary confusion and delays and resulting in a high potential for abandonment.
In the initial design by Spotify, the audiobook details page on the mobile app did not display pricing, likely as a way to emphasize that purchases couldn't be made within the app. However, as users gained the ability to proceed with purchases directly from the app, the absence of pricing information caused hesitation, as they were unsure about the amount they were committing to spend.
Strategically replacing the icons of the purchase button with a simple command helped to reduce confusion and the potential for abandonment.
Users are presented with all the information they need to make an informed purchasing decision up front.
A seamless audiobook experience from discovery to streaming, all from within Spotify’s mobile app.
When I started this project, I wasn’t expecting to design such a simple solution, and I worried a lot about my scope being too small. However, my mentor assured me that small changes can have a big impact, and that delivering value to users was the top priority. She also encouraged me to think long-term and consider alternative solutions that might fit better into Spotify’s existing subscription model. Overall, this project was a valuable opportunity to learn how to frame my design choices in terms of the overall business strategy.
As next steps, I would like to:
