MIX - Feature Addition for Apple CarPlay Music
Apple CarPlay is a software which is integrated with the in-car infotainment systems that allows use of the iPhone while driving. The CarPlay makes use of the in car displays to perform tasks like getting directions, making calls, sending and receiving messages, and listening to music. As a UX practitioner I have developed a skeptic approach towards all interfaces and screens to identify problems. I closely interacted with the CarPlay during the summer of 2021 where I explored California for three months by hitting the road. I traveled solo, with my family and also my friends. Two months in, during a conversation with a group of friends on a road trip, I shared one of my frustrations. I found it very difficult to identify common music among people who I traveled with. All my friends jumped into the conversation and expressed their similar feelings for this issue. Further, when I evaluated this issue and explored the solutions, I realized this issue could be easily overcome by integrating the friends feature from the Apple Music iPhone app into the Apple Music CarPlay app. This case study unfolds the different phases of research and design which I implemented to add what I call the “MIX” feature in the Apple CarPlay.
MIX is envisioned to be a feature for CarPlay music app which allows users to identify common music and create a playlist for their travels in few clicks!
Information Gathering
Adding a feature to an existing system was something which I was going to attempt for the very first time. It was crucial to have a good Understanding of the fundamentals of systems built and working in order to effectively add in a feature. In addition to my personal user experiences, my main source of understanding the system was the developer tools and guidelines provided by Apple. In the CarPlay App Programming Guide, Apple affirms the CarPlay to be a smarter and safer way to use the iPhone in the car. The guidelines further state the requirements for user flows to be implemented without interacting with the iPhone. This was one of the things which stuck in my mind and eventually set a direction for my approach. The guidelines further helped me determine the feasibility of implementing this feature. A number of considerations for content to be shown on screen, viable features, use of templates for specific data were also obtained through the guidelines.
User Interviews
Before I could come up with a user experience-aligned solution for this problem, it was paramount to validate my hypothesis and avoid unwanted assumptions. I created a semi-structured interview protocol which focused on allowing users to talk in a broad context. The protocol did not contain questions that directly addressed the problem of identifying common music. Rather, the interview was structured to gain an understanding of users' behaviors surrounding their practices, to listen to music during long drives and road trips with friends and family. The interview script was structured into three sections. The first section included demographic questions intended to be ice-breaking questions to understand the participants' backgrounds and to get along. The second section had general questions to understand the participants’ familiarity with the Apple CarPlay music app. This helped set the tone for further questions related to playing music while driving. In the third section, the participants were asked questions with help of scenarios to understand the challenges faced in terms of music preferences while traveling. Parameters like traveling with a group of people, and power dynamics in a car were discussed in this section. If the participant responses indicated a relation towards my hypothesis, I asked them questions to identify the pain points for their experiences with CarPlay. Follow-up questions to understand participants' current practices for playing music with family, friends and friends of friends were also noted during this part of the interview.
I interviewed five people who were regular users of CarPlay and possessed frequent driving experiences to evaluate their music playing practices. Participants for the interview were recruited by identifying users among my colleagues, friends, and family. I sent out a broadcast message on WhatsApp with the screening criteria to seek interested participants for voluntary participation in the interview. With several positive responses to participating in the interview, a total of five participants were shortlisted for the interview. Given the small sample size, participants were fairly diverse in terms of age, gender and profession.
Interview Overview
In their words…
Coming up with common music was the biggest challenge faced by the participants. Four out of five participants mentioned having a hard time figuring out common tastes in music while traveling with friends.
Participant 1, who is a graduate student, says: “I often plan one day trips with my friends, most of us have a common taste in music but sometimes we have friends of friends accompanying us as well, that’s when I have experienced that it usually takes a long time for us to discover common music. This usually happens towards the end of the trip!”
Participant 3, who is a parent of two teenagers, says: “We have this rule, the parents play songs en route and the kids play their music on the way back or vice versa. We have now kind of started having favorites from each other's music. We can probably combine them to make a playlist now.”
User Journey
I was performing the analysis phase all on my own. I had no one to assist me with something like thematic analysis for the qualitative interview data. Hence, I decided to explore various ways in which analysis could be performed individually. By looking at various resources online, I found narrative analysis to be a perfect fit for this case study. The research aimed towards adding a feature by identifying a common problem among people, narrative analysis allowed me to gather insights and meanings from each story, respectively. Another reason to select narrative analysis was the small sample size of the interviews. Comparing and contrasting interviews helped me understand interpretations of users for the problem. By the end of this phase I was able to come up with a new story which connected all the interviews in a novel and insightful manner. The journey map is an attempt to visually represent the user story for the overarching UX problem.
Personas
The previous phases gave a clear perception of the users problems to find common music during their journey. The CarPlay MIX aimed to address not only the identified users but the general audience for their problems of this type. To understand specific user behaviors and goals aligned with CarPlay Music, I decided to create two personas of people. For this I took inspiration from social media influencers. With help of hashtag search like #RoadTrip #CarPlay #Tavel #Music I was able to imagine personas with diverse needs and expectations who used CarPlay and went on road trips.
Sketches and Low Fidelity Wireframes
I have had experiences in the past where I referred to design guides and best practices which influenced my designs and sort of restricted my creativity. I decided to approach the low fidelity design phase in two iterations. I started the design process by sketching quick wireframes on Figma. Doing this I had myself with multiple layout alternatives and elements for new features.
In the second phase, I used my sketches and created wireframes for the MIX interface that satisfied Apple developer guidelines. The design guidelines allowed me to adapt the internal consistency for placement of elements along with interface layouts. Doing this, I was also able to identify and determine the task flow for the MIX interface. After careful consideration of all use cases and avoiding dead ends, I finalized two screens for the MIX interface.
Key parameters from Apple’s human interface guidelines considered in this phase:
Limiting the content hierarchy to three levels or fewer.
Including single-touch playback actions at the top level of the hierarchy.
Supply of succinct titles and descriptions.
Providing supplementary artwork.
Not requiring sign-in or configuration steps in CarPlay.
Design Standards
Prior to creating the high fidelity designs, I created an Apple CarPlay UI Kit. I gathered these elements from the web. The prime source for fonts was Apple Design Resources and icons from Figma Community.
