Apple Music Redesign
*Note I did this redesign right before they came out with dark mode and updates to apple music.
For my senior capstone project, I wanted to push myself more into being a UI/UX designer. I decided that I would redesign Apple Music. I focused strictly on a mobile view and following the User Experience process.
Client
School
Category
App, UI/UX
Delivered
Spring 2019
Why?
I chose Apple Music for a few reasons…
1. I used this app consistently and had found my own problems with it.
2. I wanted to do an app that was well known by almost everyone.
3. I wanted to push myself by picking a company that does great design.
Objective
- Create an easier navigational experience.
- Make the app layout more customizable to give the user a unique and catered experience.
- Introduce various features that are not represented.
Research
A huge chunk of my project was collecting data and talking to others. I did everything from interviews, surveys, videos, phone calls, etc. Just trying to figure out what people preferred and why. Here is a stat from my survey showing the amount of Apple Music users. As you can see Spotify was dominating this space. The survey was my first step to understanding why.
Apple Music
18%
Spotify
53%
Youtube
10%
Google
8%
Ideation
Sketches & Flow Charts
My research led me to creating mindmaps, feature maps, problem areas and where everything could be connected. From that, I did a user flow with to map the navigation I wanted to follow. This was based off the similar mapping Apple already had.
Wireframes
My wireframes were close to low fidelity prototypes because a big chunk of my project was how the user interacted. I needed to see movement in order to better understand what I wanted to achieve. The biggest hurdle was the number of screens I had to create. I basically doubled my screens by doing customization.
Your Music. Your Way.
I found that users either wanted a simplified view or everything laid out in a list…why not both?
Dark Mode
I wanted to give you the ultimate customization. For those who prefer a darker version, you could now have it with one click.
A New Design
A new “For You” tab with two different ways to view, a limited pallet of music, and a preview button. I found that this page was usually not used, and many felt it was overly cluttered. Don’t like the recommendations? Shuffle and a new deck of recommendations will appear.
Music Reimagined
I tried to maintain the same look as Apple but also wanted to take advantage of the space. You can see what song is coming up next and turn on lyrics if you want. All without scrolling.
Browsing Made Easy.
Browsing can become overwhelming when you have as much content as Apple. But, once I added a little navigation you can find exactly what you are looking for, no more. no less.
Results & Conclusion
In the end, I had so much of this project left to share. This was only a small glimpse into the changes and problems I found. I consider this to be a whole-hearted success. Not long after finishing this project, Apple went on to introduce dark mode and changes to their interface. Many of which I had talked about and designed here.
