This project taught me how to work within the constraints of an existing application and design within an existing ecosystem, relying on already present design patterns and components. Since users are already familiar with these conventions, breaking conventions could damage usability.

One challenge I overcame during research was learning how to gain insight into what users need without asking them directly (“What feature do you wish this app had?”), since that leads to wishful thinking. Indirectly feeling out for user pain points is a more effective method of learning what problems users need to be solved and how to best solve them.

Assumptions are fine to take note of but untested assumptions are dangerous and counterproductive to the design process. When I began this project I had assumed people wanted more social and sharing features with music, and my responses confirmed that. Through this, implementing a social feature such as SharePlay facilitates more social music listening, which has already seen success on other platforms such as Spotify and Youtube. Music consumption varies widely across users, and providing features to increase social consumption allows for greater enjoyment.