We worked with Spotify Design to relaunch their website, an inspiring resource for the design community and a platform to shine a light on the talented individuals inside Spotify. We interviewed Spotify designers from across the globe to understand what they wanted from this new site. It was unanimous, it needed to be playful and delightful ensuring that we were creating a site that felt true to the values of what makes Spotify unique.
A workshop in Stockholm gave us the opportunity to interrogate the brief together, whilst co-creating ideas and concepts, with global participants joining remotely. The new design makes it easy to find content, with playful nods to Spotify’s audio expertise allowing visitors to skip and shuffle their way through the archives.
Visitors can listen to playlists curated by Spotify designers, anywhere they go in the site. Putting “In the Spotlight” content front and centre of the homepage gives anyone visiting the site a chance to put faces to the designers who make their favourite product.
Accessibility and usability are rightfully at the heart of this site. Following A11Y and WCAG 2.1 standards to level AA as a minimum. A new site that exceeds these expectations and makes Spotify Design truly inclusive.
Chartering new territory, one of the more challenging aspects of the build was the development of the Listen section, using Spotify’s beta API to allow the music to follow the user throughout the site without interruption. This is one of the first instances of the API being used outside of the core product. The ambition of this feature was to empower Spotify designers to share their individuality and influences through their taste in music, not just their words and opinions.
This feature stood out as being uniquely ownable and made the best use of Spotify's audio expertise. In its early concept stages we already had a list of designers eager to share their playlists with the design community. We’re excited to see how the Listen section continues to evolve over the coming years.
This was a true partnership with the Spotify Design team and a site design and build that we believe delivered on our shared ambitions.