App Critiques 01 — Spotify Mobile
I’ve begun writing app critiques as a way to sharpen my product thinking and enhance my design skills. To kick things off, I’m focusing on apps I already know and use regularly. For the preference of the Apps, I would choose the well-established ones instead of the ones still in the MVP stage.
About Spotify
Spotify is a leading global music platform, described on its official website as a digital music service offering access to millions of songs. It provides a range of subscription options to suit different needs. Spotify’s library includes a vast collection of copyright-protected music and podcasts.
Users can search for content by artist, album, or genre, as well as create, edit, and share custom playlists or mixes. Recently, Spotify introduced new social features, such as “Jams,” which allow users to host collaborative listening parties that others can join and enjoy.
I’ve been a Spotify user for over five years, but I’ll approach this critique with a fresh perspective.
Home Screen
The main menu bar consists of three clear and equally prioritized tabs: Home, Search, and Your Library. Additionally, there’s a secondary menu at the top near the profile picture, featuring options like All, Music, Podcasts, and Audiobooks. When you select a tab, it turns green — the signature Spotify branding color. However, the inclusion of the profile picture here feels unnecessary and inconsistent with the hierarchy of the other tabs. If its purpose is to indicate access to the user’s social profile, this functionality is already more intuitively located in the “Your Library” tab, making the profile picture redundant.
Swiping right reveals a hidden panel with three shortcut options: What’s New, Listening History, and Settings. Personally, I rarely use these shortcuts, especially Listening History. It’s not that the shortcut itself is unnecessary, but rather that users might be unaware of the panel’s existence. Traditionally, this area is associated with accessing the user profile, which could create confusion. Moreover, there’s no clear indication or visual cue suggesting a swipe-right interaction to access this panel, especially since the rest of the app’s interactions rely entirely on taps. This inconsistency can make the feature feel unintuitive and underutilized.
When selecting the “All” tab in the secondary menu, the top section prominently displays recently played albums, playlists, podcasts, or Daily Mixes, with “Liked Songs” always positioned first. This design choice is particularly effective, as it highlights frequently accessed content in a prime location, improving user efficiency. The use of a rectangular layout for album covers, as opposed to squares, enhances the touchable area.
Furthermore, a long press on any rectangle — including the cover and title — reveals context-sensitive options such as “Add to Your Library” or “View Artist,” dynamically adapting based on whether the item is a playlist, album, podcast, or “Liked Songs” collection. This thoughtful interaction design adds functionality without cluttering the interface.
Beneath the recently played section is the “New Releases” feature, where Spotify’s algorithm suggests new albums from artists users are likely to enjoy. This placement is strategic and well-justified — occupying the app’s second most prominent position. If Spotify aims to increase user engagement and retention, introducing users to fresh content that aligns with their tastes is a compelling approach. At the bottom of each card are two key buttons: “Add” and “Play.” This streamlined, one-click design enhances usability, allowing users to quickly engage with new music they discover and enjoy.
Following the “New Releases” section, the “Recently Played” tab appears again, marking the third instance where users can access their recently played songs. This redundancy feels unusual and somewhat inconsistent.
Overall, the primary purpose of the home screen is to facilitate music discovery through Spotify’s algorithm and provide quick access to songs users already enjoy. Spotify successfully balanced those two key goals.
User Flow — Add a song to your playlist
The “+” icon is primarily used by users to add a song to a playlist, with “Liked Songs” set as the default playlist. However, this interaction feels inconsistent, as the “+” symbol intuitively represents “add” rather than “like.” If users want to add the song to a different playlist, they must click “Change” on the time-sensitive banner at the bottom of the screen.
This process can be problematic, especially for first-time users, as the banner is subtle and the clickable area of the “Change” button is quite small. Combined with the brief visibility of the “Successfully added to Liked Songs” message, it may lead to confusion or missed opportunities to change the target playlist. A more intuitive and accessible design could greatly improve the user experience.
Other things I like about Spotify's UI
There are some feature sections such as Daily Mixes and Recommended Stations, designed to encourage user exploration and engagement. These sections showcase playlists leveraging Spotify’s algorithm to curate content based on listening history and user behavior.
One notable design choice is the visual presentation of these mixes and stations. Each cover is dynamically generated, incorporating a blend of vibrant colors and a collage of album covers from the included tracks or artists. The use of varied colors adds a sense of personalization and freshness to the experience, ensuring that even familiar features feel dynamic and engaging.
Conclusion
Spotify has a very well-established and cohesive design system, that effectively balances minimalism with dynamic visual elements. The cards are thoughtfully designed to provide clarity, with clean layouts and intuitive interactions for its diverse user base. Overall I really enjoy using Spotify and looking forward to seeing more feature updates.
