The first project of IXD104 is to create an illustrative music app.
I started off by identifying some currently popular music apps, their designs, what different functions and features they have and what I like or perhaps do not like about them.
Spotify is a Swedish music and media service founded in 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. Offering both a free and paying version, Spotify has over 490 million active monthly users with 205 million of them being premium members. For the paying members they can choose from a number of plans such a premium individual, premium duo, premium family and student premium.
Spotify has three main screens on the app; Home, Search and Your Library which can be easy distinguished by the icons and labels at the bottom of the page. Within each page there is a number of different screens such as play screen, what is displayed when you search, the look of each album etc.
The home screen on Spotify is represented with a small house icon and labelled “Home”. At the top of the screen it provides a personal touch by adding the words “Good Afternoon”. I think this could be make even more personal by adding your name or username to the end such as “Good Afternoon Rebekah”. Beside the personal message is 3 icons; notifications, recently played and settings. Although the icons for notifications and settings are quite clear, the icon for recently played is not so much. I am a daily user of Spotify and even I had to click on the icon to see what it was. Below is a number of buttons which when selected bring you to your saved music/podcast/audiobook. Although I understand this is for quick access, I am not necessarily a fan of it as below is your most played music/podcasts/audiobooks which is where your top music or recently listened to is. The saved items can also be found really easily in the “Your Library” section.
The search screen is easily identified with the magnified glass and label at the bottom of the screen in the navigation bar. These significantly less icons used on this page with the main one being the camera. The camera allows you to scan Spotify codes to play a song and work the same as a QR code. The main content on the page is broken up using coloured boxes with a photo representing each genre of music/ what the section is. I quite like the feature of the Spotify codes but it is not exactly necessary as people don’t tend to use them apart for aesthetic value on ornaments.
When you press on the search bar the following comes up, as you can see my recent searches are displayed, This is really helpful if you are looking for the same thing as you were before. This can also easy be cleared and deleted by the press of a button (or an icon). I also really like the touch of the text in the search bar before you search saying “What do you want to listen to?” It is a really nice personal touch!!
The library icon would be a bit harder to recognise or know what it is if it wasn’t for it being labelled, I suppose most people could guess but a better icon could be used. At the top of the page the search icon is displayed for you to search songs within your own personally library of playlist, albums or liked songs. The “Plus” icon is very clear that it allows to create a new playlist. Just like the home screen there is a number of buttons displaying your saved playlists, podcast, music etc. I don’t think it is necessary to have these on both pages, yes it is good to have 2 access points but personally I would rather use other ways.
The page for a playlist/album has multiple different icons such as the play/pause button which is in a green circle to make it stand out. This is really easy to read and understand as they use the universal symbols for play and pause. There is also the shuffle button icon which is also really easy to understand and when the function is in use it is green with a little green dot below it. This is a really nice touch visually as it quickly tells you if shuffle is on or not. On the left hand side there is the like button which is clearly represented by a heart and the download button which also makes sense as it makes use of the universal downwards pointing arrow that represents this. They also make use of the 3 dots which represents further options which brings up the following menu below. This is nice instead of having lots of icons and buttons on screen, they keep it simplistic with a few and then use a menu with more options.
This is the play screen which makes use of several different universal icons such as the rewind, forward, pause/play. The shuffle icon, heart and loop icon is also used. When this song is liked the heart is green, the same as when the shuffle or loop icon is selected. Below these icons you can see the stereo icon with the label “Kitchen” in green. This tells me that my Spotify is connected to my kitchen speaker and when not in use it is just grey/white.
This is the play screen which makes use of several different universal icons such as the rewind, forward, pause/play. The shuffle icon, heart and loop icon is also used. When this song is liked the heart is green, the same as when the shuffle or loop icon is selected. Below these icons you can see the stereo icon with the label “Kitchen” in green. This tells me that my Spotify is connected to my kitchen speaker and when not in use it is just grey/white.
To the other side there is the share button which opens the menu to allow you to share the song/album to your friends via multiple different ways such as message or social media. I have to say I barely use this feature apart from sharing personal playlists with my friends or rarely sending a nostalgic song but it is a good function to have. Finally is the icon which is a rectangle and 3 lines represents the queue, to me this icon makes a lot of sense as the top rectangle is the song being played and the lines are the queue but others could argue it is unclear. Overall I really like the layout of the Spotify play screen with an image or the artist in the background with the control menu on top which is a high opacity black. I also like the feature of the lyrics at the bottom for karaoke with the white lyrics being lyrics that have been played and the black being upcoming ones. There is a maximise icon which is clear as well as a share icon so you can share the lyrics with your friends.
When maximised you can see the play pause icon displayed slightly different in a white circle as well as the flag icon at the top which is for reporting any problems. This flag icon stands for surrender which makes a lot of sense and is a good use of an icon.
The screen for an artist uses no new icons but I thought it was important to look at this as I like the layout with the picture of the artist and title at the top with the songs listed below. It is a nice simplistic but effective layout.
I really like the little play bar that sits at the bottom of the screen so that you can see what you are currently playing. This is something I would definitely like to implement to mine.
Launched in June 2015, Apple music is a music, audio and video streaming service. Like Spotify, Apple Music has 4 different subscriptions; Voice, Student, Individual and Family. Ranging from £4.99 to £10.99. Unlike Spotify which offers a free version, you must pay for a subscription to use Apple Music.
Apple music is divided into 4 pages which can be navigated using the navigation bar; Listen now, Radio, Library and Search. All these icons are universal and easy to understand such as the radio being radio waves and the search being a magnified glass.
My first thought of the listen now/ home screen is how it didn’t really have a personal touch, although I don’t use apple music I was still logged in through my apple account. It would be nice is they had a little personalised message.
Apart from the main 4 icons, the only other icons are the famous play and forward triangular logos on the music player on the bottom and the account icon.
In my opinion the layout is quite boring with not very much there as I have no membership. I looked up photos of what it should look like to get a better idea of how it would look for a paying member.
The radio screen is very much similar to the listen now screen with sections broken into large squares that you can scroll through. I prefer the Spotify layout over this as you are able to see more of what's available at a quick glance.
The library page makes use of lots of icons which correspond with each section of the library. The majority of the icons used for the different labels correspond well and make sense such as the music note icon for songs. I know we are focusing on icons for this project but I feel like it was not necessary to use all the icons for this list.
The layout of it is very basic and it just feels very generic and not very personal to your listen experience.
The search screen uses no new icons but I like the layout of the browse categories and the 2 column layout. It is a good use of space and layout compared to the box of the free music AD on top. As an app I think it is important to display more on the screen than making the customer endlessly scroll.
I like the layout of the Apple Music play screen as it utilizes spaces well with a large picture or album cover at the top so you can see what you are listening to. The name and title is easily displayed and contrasts well in a white text. I like how you can control the volume by a button on the page as this is very accessible if the hardware buttons on your phone stop working.
I also like the touch of the lyrics and the button to share on social medias with your friends.
Launches in November 2015, Youtube Music is a part o Google and of course, Youtube. It orientates your musical preferences based on what the user likes to stream. Like spotify it offers a free streaming service and a premium service for users who want no ads, exclusive shows and offline listening and viewing/ downloading content for £10.99 a month.
Youtube Music is broken into 4 screens: Home, Explore, Library and Upgrade which are all labelled clearly with icons. The only icon I'm unsure of is the upgrade icon because I am not sure what it is meant to be.
The home screen of YouTube Music is personalised with the message “Welcome, Rebekah”. The home screen is very personalised with songs they think I might from my YouTube watching data and mixes for me also related to that data.
I also really like the layout of this screen with different genres/ music choices at the top, a collection of songs I might like that I can scroll through horizontally and a collection of mixes. I really like the interactivity on this and is something I would love to be implemented to mine
What I really like about this is the top nav has the same buttons and icons. I think it looks really good because it is consistent and you can access the share to other device icon, the search and account on all pages.
The explore page is broken up really well with icons for new releases, charts and different moods and genres displayed along the top followed by new albums and singles which you can horizontally scroll, loads of different genres and songs for different moods and then at the bottom is trending songs which are labelled from 1 to 20! I love the trending feature and is such a good idea to have for my music app.
As I don’t use youtube music, all the items stored in my library are stored from my youtube account. The only artist I have is Byron Langley. The library page is quite similar to all the other apps with a list of the playlists and artists with buttons along to the top to access just exclusively artists, playlists or songs.
Also featured on this is the plus icon labelled “New Playlist” which allows new playlists to be made and added to the existing list. I like how this button is white as it stands out among the black aesthetic of the app.
The music play screen is pretty generic and similar to Spotify and apple music. It uses the same icons as the others such as play, pause, forward, rewind, loop and shuffle. There is a photo or video shown at the top like the other two as well. The only difference is there is a thumbs up and thumbs down button. This is very relatable for YouTube music as it is the same way it works on YouTube itself for videos.
What I quite like and is unique to youtube music is the menu along the bottom that not only gives you lyrics but what songs are queued to come next which is quickly accessed and related songs you might like. I think this is a really nice touch which is so accessible.
I thought this was quite a good thing to also look like, its how they display an album. As a Spotify user the icons are in a funny order for me as I feel instead of the share buttons and more options beside the play, they should be elsewhere and there should be a loop and shuffle button there. The overall layout of those does not really make sense to me. Like most music aps the songs are ranked from 1 to how many there is in the album. Overall I am just not a fan of how this looks.
Although BBC Sounds isn’t your traditional music app as it is more the radio and podcasts, I really love some of the features and layout of it.