Understanding Spotify’s Organizational Limitations

Spotify is one of the most widely used music apps, but its playlist organization system is limited. Users can create playlists, like playlists, and sort them—but the experience becomes overwhelming for people with large libraries. The more playlists you have, the harder it becomes to find what you want quickly.

Discovery & User Research

I began by interviewing Spotify users and analyzing my own habits.

Key questions included:

• “How many playlists do you have?”

• “How do you currently organize them?”

• “What slows you down when finding music?”

• “What would make your library easier to navigate?”

Shelves allow users to:

• Group playlists

• Rearrange categories

• Add custom icons or colors

• Reduce scrolling

• Personalize their library

Why Shelves?

Because Spotify’s UI is already strong, the goal wasn’t to reinvent it—it was to extend it in a way that feels natural and solves a real problem.

Visual Design Strategy

Because Spotify’s brand is iconic, I focused on:

• Maintaining their typography and spacing

• Using their existing color palette

• Keeping interactions familiar

• Ensuring Shelves felt like a natural extension of the app

Design Goals

• Seamless integration

• Minimal cognitive load

• Clear hierarchy

• Familiar Spotify patterns

Iteration & Critique

After presenting my initial concepts, feedback highlighted:

• The need for clearer visual distinction between Shelves and playlists

• A more intuitive “Add to Shelf” interaction

• Better spacing for collapsible sections

I refined:

• Shelf card design

• Iconography

• Interaction flow

• Empty state screens

Problem Statement

Spotify users need a more intuitive way to organize their playlists so they can access their music faster, reduce scrolling, and personalize their listening experience beyond simple alphabetical or recently played sorting.

Design Challenge

Create a mobile feature that:

• Integrates seamlessly into Spotify’s existing UI

• Enhances playlist organization without disrupting current user flows

• Feels native to Spotify’s visual language

• Solves a real frustration for daily users

• Balances UX clarity with UI consistency

Key Insights

• Users with many playlists feel overwhelmed by long lists

• Sorting options aren’t enough for people with diverse music tastes

• Users want folders, groups, or categories

• People often create duplicate playlists because they lose track of old ones

These insights validated the need for a new organizational system.

Information Architecture

I mapped out how Shelves would fit into Spotify’s existing structure.

The final prototype introduces Shelves as a clean, intuitive organizational layer within Spotify’s library.

Impact

Shelves reduce scrolling, improve organization, and give users more control over their music experience—without disrupting Spotify’s existing design language.

Future Development

If developed further I would add:

Shelf Icons & Colors — Allowing users to personalize Shelves visually for faster recognition.

Smart Shelves — Automatically grouping playlists based on mood, genre, or listening habits.

Shared Shelves — Collaborative categories for friend groups or shared music tastes.

Shelf Analytics — Showing which Shelves users listen to most.

Cross‑Platform Sync — Ensuring Shelves appear on desktop, tablet, and web versions of Spotify.

Key Features

• Create Shelf button in the Library

• Customizable Shelf names

• Drag‑and‑drop playlist organization

• Collapsible Shelf sections

• Playlist settings updated with “Add to Shelf”

• Smooth animations for expanding/collapsing

Retrospective

This project highlighted the importance of designing with an existing system rather than against it. Working on Spotify Shelves reinforced:

Respecting established design systems — Spotify’s UI is already strong; the challenge was enhancing it without breaking it.

Solving real user frustrations — Organization was a genuine pain point validated through research.

Balancing UX clarity with UI consistency — Shelves needed to feel new but also unmistakably “Spotify.”

Iterating through critique — Feedback helped refine hierarchy, spacing, and interaction patterns.

Overall, this project strengthened my ability to analyze existing interfaces, identify meaningful opportunities for improvement, and design features that integrate seamlessly into established ecosystems. It deepened my understanding of how small UX enhancements can significantly improve daily user experiences.

User Flow

1. User taps “Create Shelf”

2. Names the Shelf

3. Selects playlists to add

4. Shelf appears in Library

5. User can expand/collapse or reorder Shelves