Users can add any 3rd party service they want in the Sonos app and enjoy it all in one system.
Sonos is a service provider
free 1st party service, Sonos Radio, and premium service, Sonos Radio HD.
Process
Design an Aggregated Content Feature
where users can interact with content from different services.
My Process
Discover
Identified Pain Points and Needs
from user interviews (10) with Sonos and non-Sonos users.
01
We discover from word of mouth
Authentic content recommendations from people you trust are the most memorable and meaningful.
02
It's in our nature to share what we like
As evidenced by the popularity of Spotify wrapped, people are proud to share and announce their listening habits.
03
Content discovery is time-consuming and tedious
because services are separated like a computer file system due to legacy code.
04
Content discovery from other platforms feels repetitive
Listeners find it difficult to discover content that feels fresh because the algorithmic populate recommendations based on previous listening history.
Define
How might we...
Given Sonos design principles:
Final Design
Content Discovery Through Sonos Prompts
My solution will bolster user engagement and add value to the Sonos app by solving a user need — it tackles the lack of functionality to discover new and unique content from the app with a more personable lens.
Similar to browsing through a friend’s album/book collection...
Users can discover friend’s authentic recommendations all in one place...
Sonos users can respond to prompts to share their own recommendations and organically connect with others based on common interests.
01
With Weekly Prompts
Sonos users can respond to prompts to share their own recommendations and organically connect with others based on common interests.
02
Row In My Sonos
Seamlessly discover music, playlists, radio, audiobooks and more from people you know and trust.
03
Deep Dive into a Friends Recommendation and Their Stories
Seamlessly discover music, playlists, radio, audiobooks and more from people you know and trust.
04
Service Swapping Paradigm
Users can seamlessly play from a shared service, add and discover playable services, select when they have multiple services.
05
Brand Partnerships
Prompts are also an opportunity for non-audio brand partnerships. Brand partners can increase their brand exposure by creating a prompt to engage with Sonos users.
Monetization
06
Prompts & Profiles for Artists & Creators
Not only can users develop connection to their favorite content, prompts can also become a tool for artists/creators/influencers to form a personable connection with people their content has an impact on.
Monetization
Benefit to User
Technical Requirements & Dependencies
Ideate
What could be Sonos's competitive edge?
From my research that content discovery is tedious, time consuming, and challenging, I explored various ideas (from the nitty gritty interactions to blue sky) that enable more seamless discovery of content types across services.
What does personable discovery look like?
I narrowed down the focus area to explore concepts for making content discovery more personable for users to be more blue sky and strategic.
Concept 1
Auto-generated Profile
HMW make the aggregation of content feel more personal to the user?
Concept 2
Auto-comparing
How might we use our understanding of people’s content discovery process to improve the aggregated experience?
Concept 3
Content Deep-dive
How might we bridge the gap between browsing through different types of audio content?
Concept 4
Interest Based Community
HMW leverage aggregation of audio content to create a community of listeners?
Evolving into Prompts
As I was prioritizing my final solution I asked myself: How can I reduce the cognitive load of deciding what content to recommend? How can I make the content discovery process across multiple content types more frictionless and less manual?
That's where the idea of prompts that Sonos asks came to mind. Prompts is a simplified solution of all my concepts because it reduces the manual workload of recommending a combination of content types. It removes friction from discovering new content with a fresh perspective with a mental model that feels joyful, connected and easy.
Wireframe
1. Prompt Card
2. Sample Stories
Once the user has clicked on a Prompt Card, it takes them series of responses called sample stories. In addition to the Sonos design principles Easy, Joyful, and Connected, I also wanted to prioritize Curiosity because it increases engagement and helps Sonos achieve it's buisness goals. See paper on Token-Reinforcement Systems
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