The initial design sprint laid the groundwork for getting everyone on the same page about improving the site. These user personas also guided the series of design sprints that followed, in which we invited members of a variety of disciplines - product designers, a UX writer, a product manager, an engineer, and a user researcher - from other web teams that work on. We developed user personas to uncover and prioritize opportunities so that we could begin exploring how to create the optimal experience for both new and existing users. So before we could set up an experimentation framework in order to test designs for a new homepage experience reliably, we had to invest in modernizing the tech.Īfter the user researcher gathered insights through surveys and web analytics to help frame our thinking, the next step was to define our most common site visitors, their primary user goals, andthe problems that got in the way of reaching them. That said, try one of the current playlist options.Because the website had existed for a number of years, previous teams who were already preoccupied with site maintenance and bug fixing didn’t have time for design improvements. Unfortunately, it just isn’t possible to accommodate every animal out there. Why aren’t goldfish/tarantulas/snakes included? The information is not stored and is not used for any other purpose.

By the way, we only use the information you provide us for the purpose of creating your Pet Playlist. For a more scientific playlist, please check out Mellow Meowsic, which Teie curated exclusively for Spotify. The rest of the process was mostly inspired by our own furry, fuzzy and scaly friends.

David advised on the general likes/dislikes of each animal – for example, dogs don’t respond well to music in the lower register as it’s often viewed as a threat.

While music for pets isn’t an exact science, we initially consulted with musicologist David Teie, a cellist with America’s National Symphony Orchestra, who pioneered species-specific music and composed two albums of Music for Cats. An algorithmically created playlist based on your listening habits and your pet’s attributes, so it’s music you both can enjoy.

Spotify web page