We’re simple people at Chaptr, and we are creative people.
We seek ideas out from many places, whether it be movies, design blogs, great architecture or one of our great inspirational sources; music. This shouldn’t be a surprise to those who have read previous articles and special features on the site dedicated to this particular topic. It goes without saying that we really enjoy music in the studio.
Over half of the Chaptr team count towards Spotify’s worldwide 180 million monthly active subscribers and the studio is always abuzz when a new album from one of our favourites is released. And we get even more excited when a new feature arrives on the platform. (You can blame our constant prowling of Spotify’s user forums ) Every now and then though, we can’t help thinking of something that would improve our Spotify experience even more. For as much as we love it, one thing that we (by we I mean me) think could improve Spotify is reminders.
The (my) Problem
Socially, Spotify plays a large part in everyday conversation. Whether it’s with friends or family; recommendations of singles, EPs and LPs happens daily. If you are anything like me then forgetting these recommendations happen way too often and you find yourself in an awkward conversation with friends asking you whether you have checked out their recommendations.
‘Hey, did you check our the Our Girl album yet?’
‘Uh….’
As is too often the case, you forget to check it out and now your friends are beginning to question the existence of said album, and even you as a friend ( Maybe a bit dramatic but I really need this reminder feature! ). Spotify already has the ‘Save’ feature but whilst this is occasionally helpful, we feel that it hasn’t perhaps reached its full potential. Especially as it’s mainly for albums you want to keep in your library. However, we know that notifications play a big part in modern day smart phone use, so why aren’t Spotify using them? These days, people are always busy and the use of a ‘Remind me’ or ‘To-do’ app is very common when dealing with important tasks and to keep lists of entertainment to catch up on. With this in mind, why not have a ‘Remind Me’ feature in Spotify?
The Solution (How Spotify could be better)
When you think about it, the feature would fit perfectly into Spotify’s house style with no unnecessary design changes. Sharing the album would work exactly the same way that it currently does, so when a user sends a recommendation through an email or text to their target, that user will be able to click through to the recommendation.
After landing on the targeted album, the user will be given the choice to set a reminder, save the album or both. Alternatively, the user would be able to slide right on a individual song, giving a reminder for that specific song. After selecting the reminder option, the user will then be able to determine the amount of time that passes before receiving a notification. At the correct time the user will receive a notification on their phone; this notification will let the user know that they asked Spotify to remind them that they should listen to the chosen music. If the user accepts this action then Spotify will open and give them the choice to go to that album or snooze the reminder for an allotted time (like any other reminder or alarm). Finally, there will be a new menu item within the library section of Spotify. This will work in the same way as albums, songs, playlists etc. In this section there will be the user’s list of reminded albums or songs, and in effect this list can double up as a ‘To-Do’ list meaning that they can cancel the reminder on albums that have been listened to.
So there you have it. My little proposal for a Remind Me feature on Spotify. It may not be something that everyone will use, but to people like me it would go a long way to saving us from our own lack of organisation, and the subsequent social embarrassment. Hopefully others feel the same way, and see how Spotify could be (just a little bit) better.
For more on the kinds of designs we love, see our journal!