Overview
Today music streaming is synonymous with listening to music, and it dominates the market for both artists and listeners. As ubiquitous as these services have become, they fall short of capturing the complex functions that music plays in peoples' lives. Amazon Music asked our team to explore this problem space through a blue-sky innovation perspective. We were tasked with designing the future of streaming 5 years into the future.
The Challenge
Creating a vision for the future of music streaming
Our team was faced with this challenge —"look 3-5 years out and develop concepts that leverage Amazon Music’s offerings and reach to bridge digital, in real life (IRL), communal and individual experiences via the use of new devices and emerging technology." Early discussions of this project scope outlined a course that leaned into blue-sky innovation, the result being a solution that leverages Alexa as a key touchpoint for future streaming.
01. Understanding
What missing from music streaming?
With findings gathered from guerrilla research interviews conducted throughout Pittsburgh, our team outlined these 4 main areas of improvement through affinity diagramming. Our goal was to find what users felt is missing from the music streaming experience.
Bringing Back the Human Touch
Many users have pushback to algorithms, instead placing more value in personalized recommendations from a close friend or trusted influencer.
building music ownership
Streaming services result in a decreased sense of ownership, as there is little control and customization afforded.
a more tangible algorithm
Streaming services don't always recommend music that users desire, and there are not enough feedback mechanisms for users to help direct their streaming services.
developing interpersonal connections
While streaming services make music more accessible and affordable, it focuses on insular listening, and misses key aspects of real human connections found through music.
What are the most important friction points?
Speed dating sessions on storyboards that highlighted prominent current streaming issues illuminated the following three pain points as most problematic for users: selecting music when facing cognitive load, selective music for others (co-curation), and controlling individual environmental dis(engagement).
Image: The storyboard examples above helped our team determine which scenarios presented the most friction points for users.
02. Exploring
What are the main opportunity areas in emerging technologies?
For the future-looking aspect of this project, we conducted expert interviews in areas of machine learning, conversational agents, and music composition to help us understand where emerging technologies could push the boundaries of streaming. From the insights, it became clear that advancements in context awareness and CUIs (Conversational User Interfaces) were most relevant and applicable to advancements in streaming.
Image: Through our interviews, our team determined that the most exciting opportunities lay within Conversational User Interfaces.
How do users feel about CUI-centered music streaming?
With the understanding that CUIs would be an integral component of future music streaming, I became co-lead designer in developing an immersive prototype where users would interact with either an informal or a formal voice agent. We found that context is key in determining whether the CUI should speak in an informal or formal manner, and CUIs that use informal language are perceived as more intelligent.
Image: The CUI interactive prototype gave a few different options to users in terms of pathways of exploration.
03. Prototyping
Developing feature-centered prototypes
The prototype process focused on individual features, as this strategy would allow us to rapidly explore potential feature-oriented solutions to existing user issues. The following are a sample of the 9 different prototypes we developed.
Image: Sample set of potential user interface prototypes.
In testing these features, we validated the value that they provided for users and how they could propel Amazon Music into the future. However, in testing these features separately, we became more and more aware of how crucial the form and packaging of the solution would be in order to create the seamless and "believable" future of streaming. To wrap up our ideation phase, we highlighted which features provided he most value for users, and pushed forward into the final stages of our design process.
04. Designing the Solution
The team converged on utilizing an AI Agent across various proposed features of a future seamless streaming experience. We were, however, divided as to whether we wanted to expand Alexa's capabilities or a separate and unique AI. Ultimately, to align with original client goals outlined in our project brief, Alexa became the primary access point for every feature within our solution.
Our team's vision of streaming's future merges music listening with real world environments, revolutionizing how people interact with music both on an individual and group level. This is accomplished through a tangible algorithm within the Amazon Music service and an "evolved" Alexa that serves a musical companion for the future music listener on-the-go.
Retrospective
At times during the summer, we struggled as a team to coalesce around this notion of the future and what it actually means for the music experience. The early focus on Algorithm cards was limited and based heavily on current state music streaming offerings. Our faculty played a major role in pushing us to explore a more radical future where ubiquitous MR and smart devices were commonplace. This shift did have its advantages as it led our team to explore more novel interactions that could happen with Alexa. In reflection, however, it pulled some focus away from advancing the future of the music listening experience and reimagining what it could be.
Once this pivot occurred, the team leaned more towards how music could be applied to interesting technology adoption rather than how future technology like AR could enhance the music listening experience. As a result, it felt like at times the project had become split between two separate goals; the first addressed how users will get the right song right now and learn about their music identity, and the second explored how future technology would lead to novel interactions centered around co-curation. In our internal attempts to bridge this gap, Alexa became the solution’s throughline. In hindsight, the throughline should have been the musical experience and the product solution should have been narrowed down for the sake of fidelity in creating a fleshed out UX product.
Future Iterations
Once this pivot occurred, the team leaned more towards how music could be applied to interesting technology adoption rather than how future technology like AR could enhance the music listening experience. As a result, it felt like at times the project had become split between two separate goals; the first addressed how users will get the right song right now and learn about their music identity, and the second explored how future technology would lead to novel interactions centered around co-curation. In our internal attempts to bridge this gap, Alexa became the solution’s throughline. In hindsight, the throughline should have been the musical experience and the product solution should have been narrowed down for the sake of fidelity in creating a fleshed out UX product.