SOUNDCLOUD FEED

_________

SOUNDCLOUD FEED _________

Redesigning Soundcloud’s Feed page so that it better facilitates new music discovery

I use Soundcloud to discover new artists and music, and so I am a frequent user of the Feed page - a page which is intended to show me what new music the artists I follow are posting/sharing and to also show me new music that I may like from similar artists to those I follow. However, I do not find it an enjoyable experience, and I can see ways in which it can be improved. Doing a little bit of digging into reviews and posts on the feed page confirms that other people feel the same way as I do, so I decided to take on the redesign of this page as a personal project.

RESEARCH

RESEARCH

Personal Feedback

It is my own personal use that initiated this project, so I will include my feedback as part of the research

“Swiping to scroll, like in TikTok, is fine and I do like seeing the large images that go with a post - something that is quiet recognisably of Soundcloud. However, my view to what has been posted is limited to once at a time, post by post. This is frustrating, especially when I’m fed a number of posts from the same artist and I can only see their posts for a few swipes.”

Public Reviews

I searched the internet to get a sense of how other people felt about the feed page, these were sourced from app reviews on the App Store, reddit, and other public posting forums.

  • Many long-time users strongly dislike a newer “TikTok-style” or “tile-format” feed. >
    “The new tile format is awful … it makes it so hard to scroll the feed … now it’s next to impossible.”

  • On Android, some say the feed now only shows one track at a time, which greatly reduces scan-ability “You can only see one track at a time! … show me at least 3 tracks.”

  • According to users: the feed has become cluttered, especially with reposts. Many feel it's harder to find new songs or “real” uploads from the artists they follow.

  • There’s also frustration from users who preferred the old “bubble feed” (grouped by artist) — they feel the new chronological feed removes control: “It’s impossible to find new music … you now have to scroll through the feed and view posts one-by-one … give your users their choice back.”

  • The new “TikTok-inspired” layout prioritizes visuals over functionality, hurting discovery and community aspects.

Concept Idea 1

Keep the visual elements but move to a tile format

This can include filter by artist, genre, original tracks only, giving the user the flexibility to see what they want

Concept Idea 2

Include a filter

This increases scan-ability and allows uses to see multiple posts from multiple artists

ANALYSIS & DESIGN

ANALYSIS & DESIGN

Customer Journey

Before designing, I designed what was the optimum user flow:

  1. Open feed page

  2. Select “discover” or “following” to filter for artists Soundcloud thinks they will like vs those they are already following

  3. Scroll through tile feed screen

  4. Select post to open expanded view, those shows hashtags that gives an overview as to what genre etc the music falls into

  5. Unmute expanded view to listen to a sample of the track

  6. Click play button to open Soundcloud player and listen to the track

Prototype

To generate my prototype, I initial sketched out how I thought the page should look, based off my research and the customer journey I had created. I used Figma’s AI tool to generate a quick first prototype to test the user flow before committing to creating my own prototype. The prototype I created allows for the full user journey, from opening the feed page, discovering new music, to playing it in the Souncloud player.

Next Steps:

This was just a small personal project which I ended at this stage, however, if I were to take it further these are the steps I would take:

  • Conduct usability testing on wireframes with current Soundcloud and also people who have not used the app before - it should be intuitive for new users.

  • Iterate design based on the findings from usability testing. This should be an ongoing process.

  • Develop a high-fidelity prototype to validate the page’s design, including playing audio files, before moving into development.