UX Research Proposal
Why is Spotify a preferred audio streaming platform, and which of its features are most popular?
Collaborators
Caroline Nielsen · Dylan Kapadia · Eric Harrison · Katie Teitelbaum · Marissa Villano · Edward Chase
INFO 690 — Understanding Users: User Experience Research Methods
Spotify has changed the way the world interacts with the music industry.
Popular audio streaming companies generally provide their users with similar services.
There are many reasons the findings can benefit Spotify, both the product and the company.
Two methods were selected to sufficiently conduct the study and obtain accurate results. The second runs as a follow-up to the first.
Method 01
An online survey whose goal is to collect data on participants' sentiments.
North America holds roughly 87.7 million Spotify monthly active users, 47.9 million of them premium subscribers (Dean, 2021). A sample of 1,000 is large enough to account for the variability and diversity in behavior across a population that size.
| Segment | Recruitment channel | Share of sample | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current users — non-premium | In-app pop-up | 25% | 250 |
| Current users — premium | In-app pop-up | 25% | 250 |
| Previous users | Email campaign | 50% | 500 |
| Total | 100% | 1,000 |
Most people invited will not respond, so recruitment starts far wider than the target. We assume a conservative 10% response rate from the pop-up and 5% from the email campaign, where old addresses and spam folders add engagement barriers, and so plan to approach 5,000 current and 10,000 previous users to land these completes.
Method 02
A combination of task observation and a week-long diary study run as a follow-up to the survey. The goal is to analyze how participants use Spotify, bridging the gap between perception (Digital Survey answers) and reality (Task Observation and Diary Study).
Where the survey provides data on participants' sentiments, this method allows us to analyze how participants are actually using the application. It lets us see the path taken to complete tasks, and gather data on how participants interact with Spotify when not being observed — a much more organic picture of how the app is used.
Participants first work through five short observation tasks covering their library, liked songs, search, shared playlists and podcast discovery. They then keep a diary for one week, answering the same eight questions each day about how and how long they used Spotify, which features they reached for, and whether they turned to any other platform.
Both methods provide strong stand-alone results; using them together provides greater depth and analysis. Each method's weakness is the other's strength.
| Method | Strengths | Limitations |
|---|---|---|
| Digital Survey |
|
|
| Task Observation + Diary Study |
|
|
Both methods on one relative schedule. They share an initial research phase and a closing analysis and write-up, and Method 02 adds the observation and diary week.
Method 01 · Digital Survey
Method 02 · Task Observation + Diary Study
Durations are relative, with no fixed start date. Recruitment windows may run longer if participation is slow.
Streaming services have grown in scale and popularity over the last ten years, changing how songs and musicians are marketed. Spotify has contributed to that change, becoming one of the most popular services in the market. This study asks where the value in Spotify lies for its users: what makes it stand out, and which features are part of that enduring popularity.
Both proposed methods are viable. The survey obtains more detailed answers from a larger number of respondents and helps explore the "why." The observation and diary study gathers more concrete data from fewer respondents, with some risk of altered behavior from being monitored.
Conduct both methods. Together they cover each other's weaknesses while keeping their strengths. This costs more and takes longer. It also gives the best result. Spotify could grow as a service, offer a better experience to all users, and push other audio streaming services to improve their own products.
The full survey, diary and consent materials proposed for the study.
Before the diary begins, participants are observed completing a series of tasks in the app.
Participants record their activity each day for one week by answering the same set of questions.
This survey is for research purposes only. Participation is completely voluntary. The goal is to learn why current users prefer Spotify as an audio streaming service and which features are most popular. The survey should take less than 20 minutes.
This survey is for research purposes only. Participation is completely voluntary. The goal is to learn why previous users of Spotify stopped using the service. The survey should take less than 20 minutes.
This study gathers and analyzes how users interact with the Spotify app. The participant is first given a set of tasks to complete. After the tasks, the diary reflects on each day's usage of Spotify, with the participant answering the same questions each day.