A connected service enhancement to find and listen to your favorite songs from Netflix shows and movies.
My role
Research . Wireframing . Prototyping . Storytelling . User flow . Motion Design
The Challenge
How many times have you said while watching a show or movie on Netflix, “Hey, what is that song that’s playing here?” and you go pause the show or scurry to find your phone, search on Google or YouTube for that song that you are hearing now on TV. To the dismay of others watching the show with you, thinking to themselves, “What an a**!“.
Don’t be that guy!
Story time
Here’s my wife and I, on a quaint evening watching an episode of one of our favorite shows on Netflix.
Suddenly, a wild song appears on the show. I really want to know what the song is so that I do not forget it, by the time the show ends.
I pause the show. I see the the forehead vein on my wife popping, but that doesn’t deter me in finishing the mission of finding the song.
How might we allow a music lover to discover songs from Netflix and add them to their Spotify playlist seamlessly?
Solution
Song detection
As Spotify detects a song or music score already in its database, a nudge appears on screen to show song being played.
Easy Configuration
Widget allows you to easily connect your Netflix account to Spotify.
Add to playlist - Instantly!
Once Spotify is connected to Netflix, add the song to your Spotify playlist right from the screen you are watching.
Research
This design exercise started off, as finding a solution for a problem I faced when I was watching Netflix.
Many times I discover new artists and songs when I am watching a Netflix show or movie. When I hear something I like I am frantically searching for the song, usually at the price of disrupting the viewing experience of mine or worse, those around me.
These are some of the ways I usually do it.
Pausing the show, turning ON the caption and replaying the scene to to figure out the song.
Activating Google voice assistant and searching for the song.
Using my phone, if I have to on me, to activate apps like Shazam.
Hold on, but is this actually a need?!
Surveys were sent out to dig more into the needs of people who watch shows and finds new music through them.
Insights
More comments from YouTube that validate the hypothesis of people further seeking out music discovered on Netflix.
Market analysis for services that helps find music
There were many solutions out there that could help user find the song, mostly, through an audio fingerprint. These services are - Shazam, Genius and MusixMatch
All of these solutions require you to have your phone on you and the main drawback being, taking you away from the content you are watching on Netflix to figure out the song and, maybe, adding the song to a playlist that you can listen to later.
Opportunity
Design
Technical assumptions made
1. The designed solution will be for Netflix viewing in a large screen format (TV) where the interaction is with a remote control.
2. Spotify has the audio detection software embedded in its code.
3. API has been developed for Netflix and Spotify inter-communication.
4. Each user profile in Netflix needs to be connected to a Spotify account to use this feature.
User flow
A flow was developed to understand how a person would navigate finding music in the Netflix and Spotify ecosystem.
Takeaways & Next Steps
Prototyping
Although Netflix was the platform I concentrated on, it would be interesting to see how this solution could be integrated to other OTT platforms like Prime, HBO, Apple TV etc.
Widget expansion for other services
I can see widgets like these for other services like Pinterest. If a user wanted to save a particular screenshot for inspiration, like a Wes Anderson movie set, they could initiate the Pinterest widget.
Testing
Usability testing with prototypes to learn how a user would navigate within the system and incorporate feedback into the next iterations to optimize the experience.