Introduction

Melodic Flora on Amazon Music: transforming music into a social activity using games

Melodic Flora is an add-on game for Amazon Music transforming listening to music from a passive to an active social activity. Users can listen to music with friends to earn points and grow themed gardens with plant species that showcase their favorite genres.

My project was selected as a top 5 finalist for this design sprint with Amazon Music, with possibility for future integration.

Skills

End-to-end prototyping

Game Design

Ideation

Rapid UX Research

Design Systems

Outcome

A live interactive mobile game prototype expanding on Amazon Music’s listening experience, delivered in a presentation with Amazon Music clients.

Slide deck

Figma prototype

Design sprint challenge

Design a product that leverages Amazon Music’s offerings with emerging technologies in 3-5 years.

Project overview

My approach

The design sprint

I was given three weeks, Amazon Music’s design system, mentorship with an Amazon Music designer, and the prompt above.

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I started the sprint with secondary research to determine the medium of my product, identify target customers and empathize with customer needs.

With this information, I proceeded to ideate designs, gather user feedback, and finalize an interactive prototype to present to Amazon Music clients.

Melodic Flora demo walkthrough

Key flow

Access your plant via the Amazon Music dashboard

The player is welcomed with previews of friend activity with shortcuts to join group sessions and recommendations. The player can also access their plant in the navigation bar, where the plant grooves to their current song.

Informed by research

A common pain point from music platforms is their lack of engagement, music suggestions, and visibility of friend activity. Users normally skip songs and turn off their screen while listening to music.

Key flow

Group listening sessions with friends

Players can invite friends to group listening sessions where they can share song recommendations. They see a shared plant garden with species representing different genres. The shared session shows lyrics and comments for the played songs.

Informed by research

To differentiate Amazon Music from competitors, it’s important to emphasize social connections. Participants from surveys felt a lack of social interactivity with friends due to busy schedules and bad texting habits.

Key flow

Grow musical plant gardens with friends

When friends listen to music together, they can grow plant gardens and forests for other people to see. Each plant species represents different music genres and styles.

Informed by research

Participants felt isolated in their music interests and found it difficult to share recommendations. They also felt pressure to have others like their music and prefer sharing music in groups and indirectly rather than 1-on-1.

Key flow

Listen to music to earn points for plants and merchandise

When players listen to music, they earn points that can be used to unlock and customize new plants for their garden depending on the music genre listened. Points can also be used to purchase official merchandise from their favorite artists.

Informed by research

Listening to music on popular platforms is a passive solo activity. Participants sometimes find it difficult to enjoy all the songs on their playlists without skipping or even discovering more songs from their favorite artists. A points-based system adds more engagement to listening to a variety of music, especially when different plants can be unlocked.

Research overview

Within one week, I conducted secondary research in the form of a competitive analysis and market research as well as quick user surveys to determine the best emerging technology for my product, focus on a target user base, and identify user needs.

Competitor analysis for Amazon Music and media streaming apps

With these findings, I determined the following key opportunities:

Amazon Music needs differentiation from competitors to the point where it’s worth watching ads for its free version
Implement more engaging ways to enjoy and discover songs, i.e. videos, lyrics, livestreams, or short previews
Increase visibility of friend activity and connections with friends

Market research

I also conducted market research to identify my target customers and medium for my product. I found that:

The largest user base for Amazon Music is adults aged 18-25 who regularly listen to music on streaming platforms.

There is a growing market for AR/VR, gaming, and streaming. Amazon recently acquired Twitch.

Given only three weeks to research and design, I chose gaming as my medium for the “emerging technology” requirement. Games are a popular individual and multiplayer hobby due to the rewarding experience of growing items over time.

User surveys

I conducted surveys on 23 participants aged 18 - 30 to support my previous research and collect information on their general lifestyles, hobbies, and music interests.

50%

of participants mentioned playing games during their free time.

Popular examples include Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley as they’re “collaborative” and “easy for new gamers”.

72%

of participants felt isolated in their music interests and recommendations.

“I can’t see who listens to my suggestions. I share music on Instagram stories but people skip them with no reactions.”

84%

of participants struggled with loneliness and keeping up with friends, whether in-person or through social media.

This is due to “busy schedules and bad texting habits, so it’s easy to forget about checking in”.

Insights from user surveys

Participants saw difficulties in keeping up with friends and sharing music recommendations, so I saw potential in combining a social game as an active activity with music as a passive activity.

Games generate long-term engagement without violating user privacy, and studies suggest gardening activities generate calm and ease anxiety.

Ideation

I decided to design a gardening-based game. Why?

Surveyed participants preferred games like Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley as they’re beginner friendly and less time demanding.

Additionally, the concept of plants and gardening engages long-term growth and can substitute real-life plants that are harder to care for.

85% of participants struggle with loneliness from busy schedules and bad texting, and virtual plants embody low-maintenance companionships.

Reference from Animal Crossing

User flow and interactions

The game interactions create a productive exchange between listening to music and earning points, allowing players to purchase new plants for one’s music-themed garden or artist merchandise. Here are the four main flows:

Users can either listen solo or begin a group listening session. Friends will be notified if they are invited to a session.

Users earn points for listening to songs, allowing them to purchase different species of customizable plants depending on their listened music genre.

Players can access and edit their plant at all times, whether through the homepage shortcut or while listening to songs.

A greater amount of accumulated points can be used to purchase merchandise from favorite artists!

Incorporating Amazon Music’s design system into game

Given Amazon Music’s futuristic color palette and typography, I created the following illustrations for the game’s plants and layout for the mobile interface.

Takeaways and opportunities

There is an edge case where users can inactively play music in the background to earn points. However, I maximized Melodic Flora’s interactiveness by having plants move to music and displaying friend activity banners.

Given more time, I would’ve loved to incorporate a greater artist presence and interaction into Amazon Music. Rather than having plant gardens be only within friends, it would be fascinating to see collaborative gardens with artists and their fanbases.