All names and trademarks are intellectual property of Pandora Media, Inc. All information pertaining to this study are my own and do not reflect the views of Pandora Media.
The Challenge
Increasing the Value of the Pandora Experience
Competing pressure with on-demand streaming offerings are a leading factor in Pandora's current performance. Many listeners find on-demand listening experiences more valuable and paid, uninterrupted subscriptions have risen tremendously with the new leader in the space—Spotify.
This has caused Pandora to update their offering to match Spotify, but is this what users expect from Pandora services? To promote revenue for Pandora subscription, we must first start by improving their free service, which begins with the following high-level goals:
• Enhance the user listening experience
• Promote extended use of Pandora's services
MY ROLE
My participation in this project occurred between May and June of 2018 in collaboration with one remote graphic designer, whom I mentored in a management role at a previous company. I led the project strategy, coordinated efforts, and developed the content writing. Due to the size of the team and the length of our study, our focus was for the project was for the Apple Watch.
RESEARCH AND Insights
Hitting the Right Notes
In search of our areas of focus, we began our research with business metrics to gain insight on the overall industry. Then we moved onto metrics for application usage as well as user polls to gain more knowledge as to what users really want from their listening experience. Here are some interesting figures that we uncovered:
ADDRESSABLE AUDIENCE
Spotify vs. Pandora
Source: Roth Radio Group blog article: Pandora vs. Spotify - Which is Right for Your Advertising?, 2017
The comparative data between Spotify and Pandora’s addressable market, clearly exemplifies the stronghold that Spotify has on the industry with the revenue generated by user subscriptions. However, Pandora, still manages to lead in free memberships as well as the overall user base. The value of this user base still has great potential for generating revenue from businesses interested in Pandora’s advertising platform. By focusing on improving Pandora’s free service, we not only promote more use for free Pandora users, but also provide more value to users to purchase subscriptions as well.
TOP PROPERTIES ACCESSED BY MOBILE
By Minutes spent (mm) on Site/App, June 2017
Source: The Interactive Advertising Bureau report on digital advertising trends from the first half of 2017
Just one year from our study, Pandora had led the charts for highest mobile accessed application within the music streaming market—more than doubling that of Spotify. Shockingly, Pandora managed to even contend with tech giants within their own categories: Facebook and Google. This data validates the value that users have for Pandora's services.
AVERAGE TIME SPENT PER MONTH PER USER
[hh:mm:ss]
[hh:mm:ss]
U.S. Adults, Ages 18+
![BAR GRAPH: Average Time Spent per Month per User [hh:mm:ss] - U.S. Adults, Ages 18+: Spotify (02:56:43), Pandora (05:44:56), TuneIn Radio (03:15:16), Apple Music (00:41:29)](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/b108afcb3f9552f4df52d1ae8694c7f0/92efb3e4-b5f1-49ac-b2cb-fcc13e800807_rw_1200.jpg?h=613f30ac27c1cb38cec828ffa567e38d)
Source: Verto Watch index for the music streaming category, February 2018
Despite Pandora's low volume of subscription purchases, they still continue to hold value with users by leading the charts in monthly usage time—nearly doubling Spotify and TuneIn Radio. Apple Music pales in comparison with just under 12% the duration of Pandora users. Specific-use activities geared for longer listening sessions, such as daily commutes or social gatherings, could be a contributing factor for these figures.
AVERAGE SESSION DURATION
[hh:mm:ss]
[hh:mm:ss]
U.S. Adults, Ages 18+
![BAR GRAPH: Average Session Duration [hh:mm:ss] - U.S. Adults, Ages 18+: Spotify (00:02:55), Pandora (00:07:57), TuneIn Radio (00:15:27), Apple Music (00:03:27)](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/b108afcb3f9552f4df52d1ae8694c7f0/a8fa5195-6049-439b-9bc5-716a869c1cf9_rw_1200.jpg?h=98da9bced411a4c0c0537606ad835131)
Source: Verto Watch, February 2018
In contrast, the average user session duration differs from the overall duration of monthly use. Pandora manages to more than double the average listening session of Spotify users, which parallels the previous figures. However, we begin to see some divergence in regards to TuneIn Radio, which doubles the figures of Pandora, and Apple Music, which closes Pandora’s margin to roughly 50% of Pandora’s performance. The correlation between the duration of user sessions and monthly usage further supports that users may prefer music curation for activities that require longer listening sessions.
RADIO LISTENING NEGATIVES
Why Are You Listening to Radio Less Than You Did 6 Months Ago?
The chart illustrates that radio services are still in demand and may be reflective of situational activities where curated music is preferred. By providing more options to further personalize music curation, we could improve radio as an overall preference in music listening services.
MUSIC VARIETY AND PRICE MATTER MOST IN MUSIC STREAMING SERVICE SELECTION
Adults Evaluate the Importance of Each Feature of Music Streaming Services
Source: Morning Consult's article To Win Streaming Music Wars, Spotify Has Potential Edge in Its Appeal to Young Adults, 2018
This comparative polling of different age demographics provides more insight into the behavior of music streaming users. The data provides a lot of insight to the divergence in demand from the younger audience, who want more device integration and flexible personalized experiences. Improving device integration could increase user sessions by allowing users to hand-off their streaming sessions for changes in environment. By delivering a quicker, more personalized listening experience, the duration and volume of sessions could potentially improve as well.
The Vision
Smarter Radio
Through our research, we defined a few factors that could improve Pandora's value to users: device integration and a better personalized experience. With this in mind, we decided to choose the Apple Watch as our platform of choice, because of its convenience and its accessibility for a wide range of situational usage.
Convenience is a common denominator for both music radio stations and the utility of a smartwatch. Pairing the two just seemed obvious.
Smartwatches are slowly gaining traction, but have some key characteristics that make this a powerful option for the focus of this study. By accompanying the user for a large portion of the day, a smartwatch has the ability to be flexible in operation, which can be a great asset for service hand-off for integrated devices. And its simplicity in function, allows for quick actions are parallel to user listening preferences.
Deeper Insights
Tuning into the Experience
Before we begin exploring the design, we need to gain a comparative perspective of the experience for Pandora users as well as users of competing products. At the time of this study, evaluating Pandora on the Apple Watch was not possible as they have discontinued the app until they can focus energy on improving the experience. We will instead evaluate the mobile experiences because the Apple Watch is a companion device to the cell phone and has many similar characteristics.
PROS
From left to right: navigation, music player, artist information, browse music feature, membership upgrade information
CONS
From left to right: login advertisement, video advertisement, music player advertisement, membership upgrade advertisement, artist notitifcation feed
Overall, Pandora's app is what you would expect from a music streaming service. Simple user controls with extra information on the artist and options for discovering more music. However, the app bombards the users with ads, which appears the moment you log into the app and follows with a video ad and image ad the moment you start playing music. In addition, upsell ads for Pandora's subscriptions pop up periodically. Many users familiar with the trade offs of free services understand that ads are a necessary part of the service, but the amount of these promotions can create user frustration and decrease the value and usage for users of the app.
At its core, Pandora's rise to success is ultimately due to the Music Genome Project, which intelligently adapts to an individual's preferences by comprehensively analyzing data from the full user base, related categories and keywords, the individual's rating of songs, and more. The Music Genome Projects boasts over 450 attributes for each song and has a complex algorithm tailored for the personalization of listening experiences.
HOW DOES THE COMPETITION STACK UP?
PROS
From left to right: on-screen guide, music player, browse music feature, top charts music curation.
CONS
From left to right: personal music library, membership upgrade advertisement, membership upgrade advertisement, top charts section.
Apple Music stands out in the crowd with their rich content that spans from in-depth artist information, music variety, videos, and curated playlists. Their native platform for iOS devices give them an advantage in the space in terms of the overall user base, but their expanded offerings, which includes the playback of personal music libraries, present a complex and confusing experience for the user.
PROS
From left to right: on-screen music personalization guide, music categories section, dynamic radio suggestions, playlist information, device connection.
CONS
From left to right: music player, artist information, radio information, pop radio stations.
Spotify's app is a beautiful execution of an interface for a younger, modern demographic. Upon log in, an on-screen guide asks the user to choose 5 or more artists of interest and informs the user that the experience is personalized based on the selection. Because Spotify's free service also includes on-demand streaming, with some limitations, they have the ability to display more contextual information for playlists. They also a feature for device integration that is intuitive and quick to select.
In contrast, Spotify also poorly handles additional information for artists and playlists. Displaying a variety of keywords and phrases, this section is aimed more towards displaying data collection than supporting information of the user's selection. Spotify also has a great variety on discoverable playlists, but presents it in a manner that is heavily identified by photos that may be arbitrary to the user.
SWOT Analysis For Pandora's Mobile App
Created by me.
Following our evaluation of the most popular music streaming apps, I performed a SWOT analysis in order to define more specific design goals, which can be found in the opportunities section. This analysis also provided key areas of strengths and weaknesses that could potentially be enhanced, as well as threats to keep in mind of, when developing our concepts.
The solution
RESPONSIVE RADIO
Pandora's music curation has the potential to enhance listening experiences further by using user analytics in conjunction to its already powerful Music Genome Project database and algorithms. This flexibility for diverse music preferences could give the user a richer and more meaningful experience. By using the Apple Watch as a platform, we also provide more flexibility for the ability to hand-off the experience to integrated devices, which further promotes extended use of the service and increases the value of Pandora to its user base.
Designed by me.
AUDIO SEARCH
Song identification is already a popular offering by other companies, but what if the song was not only identified, but was also used as a method in curating music based on categories like genre, playlists, and artists. This additive criteria allows for more music discoverability and enhances the personalization of a user's listening experience.
Designed by me.
DYNAMIC STATIONS
User music preferences are diverse and change based on a variety of factors. The user's listening experience should be flexible to match those variables. By allowing the user to toggle multiple radio stations and genres, we expand the music curation diversity and serve more meaningful experiences. We have also explored selections based on mood that further adapt to user behavior. And lastly, with help from the Apple Watch biometric data collection, which includes the accelerometer and heart beat monitor, we can serve content that caters to specific activities that call for a different pace.
Designed by me.
PROXIMITY PLAY
Continuing use of the Pandora app in a different environment can be a tedious task. Reconnecting to Pandora and re-selecting the radio station, it's no wonder that many users decide to stop using the app rather than jump through hurdles to extend their experience. But what if Pandora not only remembered the devices you paired, but also remembered your preferences on how and when to hand-off to another device? From stepping into your car leaving work or walking through the front door of your home, what if the listening experience responsively moved with you to the listening settings of your choice for each situation? Recent advancements in Bluetooth technology make this feature a very robust option with their bandwidth and maximum range improvements.
Designed by me.
PANDORA REMOTE CONTROL
Controlling music playback through a Pandora-enabled device through the comfort and convenience of a smartwatch allows for additional flexibility. The constant struggles with having to search for device-specific controllers are no longer an issue when it is physically attached to the user.
Designed by me.
THE Ideation PROCESS
Complexity has its Limitations
When we defined our design goals to emphasize device integration and enhancing curated music, we focused on the user workflows through an ideation method called design charrettes. This exercise is carried out through individual rapid sketches, followed by timed group critiques, and ending with rapid reiteration. This process was repeated until we were satisfied with the result.
First image: Concept sketch for general app navigation. Second image: Concept sketch for expanded features. Sketches created by Francisco Jimenez.
First image: Concept sketch for various features. Second image: Concept usage of analytics-based music curation. Sketches created by me.
Because my other teammate was remote, we found the ideation process to be challenging to facilitate time exercises. Group critiques were also difficult without the ability to physically direct attention to an area of interest. But as we repeated this process, it became more familiar and easier to manage.
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
Concept Information Architecture for Pandora app for the Apple Watch. Designed by me in collaboration with Francisco Jimenez.
The Apple Watch is a limited platform in regards to navigational menus. Because of this, we built the Information Architecture to follow the Force Touch feature and pattern, which calls for a limited amount of navigational items. For more complex actions, we decided that the Apple Watch was not a suitable platform and would best be served on the mobile companion.
The Framework
Reading Between the GuideLines
The wireframing process proved to be a challenge for the design system itself. We wanted to carry over the familiarity of the Pandora experience, but also did not want to disrupt the Apple Watch experience that users have grown to be comfortable with.
INITIAL DRAFT
Initial screens designed by Francisco Jimenez. Layout designed by me.
In the preliminary draft, my team member worked within the spatial confines of the Apple Watch and was attentive to spacing of the elements. However, he had missed Apple's Human Interface Guidelines for WatchOS, which required a number of reiterations in which I revised through a number of iterations.
FINAL ITERATION
Designed by me in collaboration with Francisco Jimenez.
Leveraging Apple's Human Interface Guidelines enhanced the intuitiveness of the app by seamlessly integrating the app with the smartwatch system itself. When compared to the initial draft, we can observe the consolidation of design patterns help to reduce the overall cognitive load for the user; thereby making workflows easier and more familiar to use.
Refinement
Harmonizing Two Distinct Styles
To create a seamless user experience, we felt it was necessary to leverage the fonts used by the Apple Watch system. But Pandora's visual style needed to be represented as well. To do this required a bit of finesse in regards to color and iconography. For the color, we leverage the gradient that can be found on the other Pandora platforms and used those primarily for actionable items. And any new iconography were extensions of those found on the music player, which were also leveraged from Pandora's visual style.
MUSIC PLAYER
Music player navigation. Designed by me in collaboration with Francisco Jimenez.
The music player navigation needed to be simple and act in a similar way that the mobile app does. By clicking the song name or swiping left, the user is able to access their playback history within their radio station in a familiar and natural method. Alternately, the user can click the artist name on the music player as well as the radio information to get more information on the artist.
The radio information screen also provides the users the ability to fine tune their music preferences with dynamic stations and curated song selections based on mood and activity.
ADS AND ACCESS TO THE SETTINGS MENU
Navigation for key screens. Designed by me in collaboration with Francisco Jimenez.
The settings menu can be accessed by means of Apple's Force Touch feature as well as the hamburger menu so that there is no confusion. In our study, we did not focus on advertisements heavily, but did have the intention to push more towards audio ads that were not as saturated as what was observed in the evaluation of the mobile experience.
SETTINGS MENU EXPANDED
Settings and child page workflows designed by me in collaboration with Francisco Jimenez.
The settings menu provides a plethora of options that are simple and provide flexibility of selections through the use of toggle buttons. When using the Audio Search feature, users are able to select categorical preferences in the same way that they can modify the radio station in the previous image. We have also made the subscription purchase accessible through the Apple Watch for the user's convenience.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
FOCUSing ON Strengths in a Diverging Market
It is clear that curated music still is in demand despite the availability of on-demand streaming. Having developed a strong radio following, Pandora still has an opportunity to:
EMBRACE strengths instead of chasing aN ALREADY captured MARKET
IMPROVE CURATED MUSIC THAT STILL HAS A SITUATIONAL DEMAND
INCREASE AD REVENUE THROUGH BETTER, UNOBTRUSIVE LISTENING EXPERIENCES