Taking Things Off The Thinking List: Spotify

In Fjord Trends 2016, we asked, "how can we find better ways to identify and deliver what people need, while reducing the thinking required to fulfil their needs and goals? " Let's take the case of something we can all likely relate to: finding new music you really like.

The problem is two-fold. One - who has the time to find new music these days? And two - what are the odds you'll like it even if you had the time to find it? Let me add a third dimension: choice in music is nearly infinite - how would you break it down to find the good stuff?

If you're like me - as a loyal Rdio subscriber, a tear was shed when Pandora announced it was acquiring Rdio and shutting it down. I took that as an opportunity to sign up for a Spotify Premium subscription. I built a few playlists by listening to others and adding songs from them to my own. And then I started listening to Spotify's Discover Weekly playlist - a playlist magically brewed just for me by an algorithm.

The weekly playlists are awesome and borderline eerie in terms of how they understand my taste in music. It's a highlight of the week. This takes finding new music off my thinking list in a significant way and it leaves the thrill of discovery fully intact by going beyond what's popular and deep into my tastes and other people's playlists.

Data is the fuel behind all of this. And for designers, it behooves us to increase our data-IQ and ability to design for data as the increasing complexity of what's happening off-stage makes it easier for users to get stuff done.

Read more here: The magic that makes Spotify’s Discover Weekly playlists so damn good