Eliminate Friction in Product Design
We have been listening to music for many years. Specifically, digital music has made it easier than ever for people to access their favorite songs. However, there’s still an opportunity to remove friction in listening to music through enhanced product design. The way to accomplish this is to observe how people are using music services and identify where the friction points are occurring.
Using an example from Amazon Music, we asked customers about their experience with streaming music services. The biggest complaint was tied to having to pay extra to download songs that people could listen to when they were out of network range. As a result, we created Prime Music which offered something completely different for streaming music.
In addition to ad-free streaming, we provided customers with unlimited downloads to listen to songs on the go. Initially, we thought that we had completely solved the problem. However, we found that they were growing bored of listening to the “same old songs” that were on that downloaded playlist.
Our intent was not to only allow customers to download songs. Instead, we want customers always to have access to music they love – even if they aren’t on a network. As a result, we added a new feature that downloads extra songs based on the songs they choose to download. Furthermore, this playlist automatically updates every time they connect to wifi – so they always have access to new songs.
In summary, we had to do more than just provide the option for downloads. As a result, our product design introduced an intuitive way to discover new music.