Diane Murphy
I nonetheless bear in mind the primary playlist I helped identify at Spotify. I’m a UX Writer on the Personalization crew at Spotify and naming — speaking what a playlist is — is an enormous a part of what I do. A product supervisor, a designer, and I held a fast brainstorm. We set a three-minute timer on my iPhone, threw names up on a whiteboard (with one rule: no such factor as a nasty concept), after which talked by way of our concepts. That brainstorming led to what would finally be referred to as Family Mix, and what could be our first ever Namestorm.
It was a scrappy course of, however it labored. Brainstorming (or Namestorming) remains to be on the coronary heart of how we identify customized playlists at Spotify, however because the variety of made-for-you playlists has grown, we realized our course of for naming them wanted to evolve, too. We wanted to consider our complete ecosystem of customized units, how the names would work collectively, and decide a option to doc all of the thought that went into this course of.
Our world of customized playlists
There are over 4 billion playlists to select from on Spotify. Some are made by Spotify customers, some created by our own-in-house music specialists referred to as editors, and a few are a mix of human experience and algorithms.
The Personalization (PZN) crew, has its personal portfolio of playlists which are made only for you, like Discover Weekly, Daily Mix, Release Radar, and Your Top Songs. These playlists are created by algorithms and assessed by people earlier than you take heed to them on Spotify.
Once these playlists are created and the content material in it’s accredited, the playlist’s cowl artwork, description, and identify are key to speaking what it’s and why it’s best to take heed to it.
What’s in a reputation?
A reputation must be memorable and interesting, however it additionally has to perform. The names of our customized playlists want to offer a glimpse of what’s inside that magic bundle of songs (or podcasts!). A customized playlist identify must:
Describe what’s within the playlist
A playlist can include music, podcasts, or a mixture of each. The identify wants to offer some sign to that, and whether or not the music in it’s new or acquainted to you.
Help you determine if you wish to take heed to it
Some playlists are supposed to provide you with a sense of nostalgia (Time Capsule) whereas others intention to offer you data, like the most recent headlines (Daily Drive). The identify ought to provide you with some indication of the kind of audio within the playlist with the intention to assist you decide.
Let you already know it’s made for you
“Your” was our go-to for letting listeners know a playlist was made for them, like “Your Discover Weekly,” “Your Daily Mix,” or ”Your Release Radar.” But as we created an increasing number of customized playlists, “Your” turned so overused it misplaced its which means. It turned repetitive, inconsistent, and was inflicting translation points. So we’re dropping “Your” from virtually all of our “made for you” playlist names (you might have even observed!). We know there are different methods to speak personalization — like exhibiting a picture of an artist that’s acquainted to you:
Digging in
So how can we method naming? The coronary heart of our course of remains to be a Namestorm, similar to we initially did approach again for Family Mix. But the method has develop into extra thorough and detailed, with extra work put in earlier than and after the Namestorm.
The course of has 4 elements:
We at all times begin with the objective for the playlist: Why we’re creating it and why it’s good for our listeners. This helps give attention to and prioritize an method. What’s most essential to emphasise in that identify? Is it the replace cadence (“Daily Mix”), a particular time or second (“Summer Rewind”), or a behavior or routine (“Daily Wellness”)?
When it involves Namestorming, suppose blue sky, however follow the approaches you recognized earlier than the Namestorm to offer some steerage.
A Namestorm will be completed as a crew or solo. Either approach, it’s easy: timebox your self to a couple minutes and brainstorm any names that may match the playlist. Jot them down on a whiteboard, stickies, in a doc — simply get what pops into your mind down. Even concepts that appear loopy can typically be the spark that helps get that identify that’s good.
Once you will have your mind dump of concepts (the larger the higher!), set up names by theme and slim down potential names and listing the professionals and cons of every. I listing ours out in an precise desk to match and make it simpler to share with my crew.
One of probably the most helpful workouts could sound a little bit bizarre, however I promise it really works. Think about — write about — how a reputation you’re critically contemplating may match into the true world. Imagine the way you may describe it to a buddy, the way it’d seem in a Tweet, or the way it’d sound as a headline. This was a step I’d do for my very own profit, however I now embrace it in our naming decks. Turns out stakeholders like to see how this performs out.
Lastly, we will’t overlook what could also be crucial piece of naming — suggestions from Spotify listeners. In analysis classes, we will get suggestions on our narrowed-down listing of names and even ask contributors what they’d identify a playlist. The smartest thing about usability testing is we will present the playlist in context; how they’d see it within the app. We’ve additionally run fast naming surveys with customers if we will’t come to a consensus on a reputation.
Wrapping it up
Next steps! Ideally, you come out of this course of with that good identify in your playlist and may stroll away from all of it patting your self on the again. But in all honesty, that hardly ever occurs.
It’s laborious to get consensus on a single identify. From product to advertising to authorized to translations groups, everybody desires (and will have) enter on a playlist identify. But we at all times get there, and having the method and ideas documented in an artefact (our artefact is only a low-fidelity deck) is so helpful.
It’s a artistic course of, and any artistic course of takes time and a variety of work. But it’s value it — names (whether or not it’s a playlist, a characteristic, or a product) are so essential to creating a great expertise in your customers. When the method appears powerful, I simply suppose again to a few of the early names that just about made it onto playlists if we didn’t have this course of in place ( “Your Current Obsession,” “BackTracks,” and “Blast Off” 😬) and it jogs my memory that it’s well worth the effort and time.
Credits
Diane Murphy
Senior UX Writer
Diane is a UX Writer on the personalization design crew, primarily based in Boston.