CRESCENDO
Redesigning the Music Streaming Experience for Simplicity and Emotional Connection
Crescendo is a music streaming app concept designed to enhance user experience through intuitive navigation, personalized features, and emotional connection. The goal was to simplify common user tasks like playlist management and song discovery while reducing friction and distractions.
Music streaming apps are everywhere but users still face annoying hurdles…
Too many steps to do basic tasks
Distracting ads and cluttered layouts
Lack of personalization based on emotional state
Poor contrast and unclear navigation
We aimed to design an intuitive app with fewer steps, familiar patterns, and emotion-driven music personalization.
We surveyed and spoke to over 50 users—some who regularly stream music and others who didn’t.
Most of our respondents were between 15 and 25 years old. Almost everyone used apps like Spotify, YouTube Music, or Gaana. Phones were the most common device for listening.
What we learned
From our research, we saw that people just want music apps to be simple, fast, and personalized. They love smart playlists, good suggestions, and high audio quality, but get frustrated with too many ads, confusing layouts, and unnecessary steps. Some didn’t use these apps at all because they felt too complex.
Design goals
Design an app that’s easy to use, emotionally in tune with the listener, quick to navigate, and clutter-free, something that feels familiar and helpful, whether you’re a regular user or just starting out.
We mapped out all the common struggles people face with music apps and explored ways to fix them
Our Focus
Minimizing intrusive ads
Reducing steps to perform basic actions
Making the interface more intuitive and easy on the eyes
Introducing features like mood playlists and Shazam-style song recognition
Version 1
Tested with real users
Some liked the layout, but others found the text hard to read
A few icons weren’t very clear
Navigation felt off in certain flows
Version 2
Improved layout grid, better contrast, familiar flows → smoother task completion
If I were to do it again, I’d bring developers into the loop earlier and test design assumptions sooner which would’ve saved time and less efforts in reiteration.
Broader User Base
Reaching more non-users of streaming apps for deeper insights
Real-time Testing
Running live interactive sessions instead of relying only on surveys
Accessibility Testing
Including users with disabilities for a more inclusive design