As the streaming market becomes increasingly saturated and user expectations evolve, Amazon Music faces a growing need to not only attract listeners but to retain them across its tiered service plans: Free, Prime, and Unlimited.
Our goal is to create a differentiating product that engages users, keeps them active month-over-month, and makes Amazon Music indispensable in their daily lives.
Amazon Capsule
An innovative solution to address music streaming pain points and boost customer retention for Amazon Music.
Overview
Team
Duration
1 Product Manager
5 Weeks
1 Lead Product Designer (me)
1 UX Researcher
2 UX Designers
My Role
Led end-to-end design from research, design, to delivery
Stakeholder interviews, wireframes, prototypes, and user testing
Tools
Figma, Miro
The Challenge
The stagnation of algorithmic music streaming.
Rather than broadening musical horizons, algorithm-driven recommendations often create echo chambers—recycling the same genres, moods, and artists, even when users actively seek novelty. Personalization has become increasingly formulaic, leading to growing playlist fatigue and a sense of creative stagnation. Instead of encouraging discovery, these systems tend to reinforce existing habits, limiting exposure to new sounds, voices, and emotional experiences.
Introducing Amazon Capsule
A new feature designed to reimagine the music streaming experience by moving beyond traditional algorithmic recommendations. By integrating personalized suggestions, nostalgia-driven playback, and subtle social features, Amazon Capsule transforms passive listening into a rich, emotionally resonant journey.
The Solution
Relive Favorite Moments, Discover, Share, and More
Encapsulate your monthly listening journey. Explore highlights, discover new favorites, and share your Capsule with friends.
Unlock Exclusive Drops with Amazon Music
Amazon Capsule bring fans closer to artists through interactive challenges, personal messages, and exclusive behind-the-scenes moments.
What We Achieved
Curious what went down behind the scenes? Stick around to explore the research, wild ideas, and design twists that shaped our solution👇
Discover
We conducted surveys and in-depth interviews to identify areas where we can improve our services and address our customers’ pain points.
These are insights that defined the launch of a new feature designed to enhance the Amazon Music streaming experience.
“It’s pushing me the same few songs/playlists in my daily recommendation playlist, it feels repetitive.” - User
“As a fan, I want to interact with my favorite artists in a meaningful way, and just to support.” - User
“I like to see who my friends are listening to, it makes me feel more connected to my friend!” - User
Identifying potential problems and opportunities
Empathize
Our research revealed 2 personas that provide valuable insights that guide our design decisions. By understanding their motivations, behaviors, and pain points, we ensure our proposed solution is tailored to user needs, delivering a more personalized, engaging, and delightful music streaming experience.
Persona 01- Casual Listener
Jane wants music streaming to be a fun, social, and interactive experience.
Persona 02 - Music Enthusiast
Marcus seeks deeper engagement with artists and meaningful fan interactions.
Understanding who we are designing for
Our Focus
Reimagining music streaming as a social space that connects users through shared tastes and artist engagement, making the music discovery more enjoyable.
The core opportunity is…
How Might We
innovative new ways for listeners to discover and connect through music to drive deeper engagement and retention on Amazon Music?
Ideation
We brought together diverse ideas through brainstorming sessions to craft a feature that would uniquely position Amazon Music in the competitive music streaming landscape.
Piecing Together the Capsule Concept
Tiered Feature Breakdown
By enhancing the value of each tier and streamlining access to personalized features, we aimed to deepen user engagement, reduce churn, and strengthen Amazon Music’s position in the competitive music streaming landscape.
Implement Feedback
To ensure the Amazon Capsule feature aligned with user needs and expectations, we conducted usability testing with targeted participants. Their feedback revealed key opportunities to enhance clarity, navigation, and engagement. Based on these insights, we iterated on the design to improve the overall user experience and feature relevance.
Validating Through User Feedback
01. Clarify access for better feature discoverability
02.
Before
The original entry point to the Amazon Capsule on the homepage lacked visibility, making it difficult for users to locate the feature. To address this, I added a clear CTA button, offering immediate and intuitive access to the Capsule experience.
After
Differentiate suggestions for clearer content understanding
Users struggled to interpret the curated Capsule Blender feed. To help users recognize the unique value of Capsule Blender, I added a “Suggestion Type” filter to the result page. This addition clarifies the curated nature of the content and helps users navigate their blend more intentionally.
Before
After
Final Design
Get Refreshed Feeds With a Quick Vibe Check
Start each day with a personalized music preview. Get a handful of handpicked song snippets when you first open Amazon Music. Skip what doesn’t fit, like what does, and instantly shape your feed to match your vibe.
Unwrap Your Monthly Capsule
Explore, Engage, and Earn With Listening Points
Track your fan journey and turn every listen into a reward. Check your rankings, boost your fan level, redeem exclusive merchandise, all driven by your listening activity.
A monthly roundup of your listening, highlighting your top tracks, artists, and trends. Relive your favorite songs, uncover new trends, and share your unique listening journey.
Blend, Match, Discover With Maestro AI
Team up with friends to blend your Capsules and unlock a curated mix of songs, playlists, podcasts, and more. Powered by Maestro AI, every blend uncovers something fresh to explore, enjoy, and share.
Reflection
As streaming platforms grow more efficient and AI becomes a powerful force in personalization, the differentiator will no longer be how fast a user finds what they want, but how deeply they feel connected to the experience.
This project reminded me that emotional design isn’t just about aesthetics or delight—it’s about empathy, resonance, and designing for the inner lives of users. As AI continues to evolve, our role as designers is not just to build smarter systems, but to humanize them. That’s what turns utility into loyalty, and products into long-lasting experiences.
What I Learned
Next Steps
Integrate with the Amazon Ecosystem: Explore how features like spatial listening can be enhanced through Amazon devices such as Echo and Alexa. Creating a seamless, multi-device listening experience could deepen user engagement by leveraging voice interaction and immersive audio technologies.
Activate the Flywheel Effect: Develop strategies to encourage less active users to engage more by fostering community interaction and offering personalized incentives. This approach can build momentum, where increased engagement fuels further activity, creating a positive feedback loop that drives user retention and growth.