Designed a gamification system to boost music discovery and retention, allowing users to level up, earn rewards, and engage with artists through interactive games on Amazon Music.
Interaction Design
Game Design
Retention Strategy
Teamwork
First place in Amazon Music Design Competition
My Team:
Chloe / Chelsea / Charlene
Amazon Music Mentor:
Alexis / Samantha
My Role:
Prototyping Motion & Interaction
Ideating a gamification system
Leading weekly sync with mentors
Timeline:
02.2025 – 04.2025
Tools:
Figma
00 Problem
AMAZON MUSIC NEEDS A RETENTION STRATEGY
Amazon Music struggles to retain users across its tiered offerings because listeners don’t feel incentivized to stay, find music discovery repetitive, and lack meaningful ways to engage with artists. Amazon Music needs a differentiated experience that enhances the value of its tiers, supports long-term engagement, and provides exclusive, rewarding interactions beyond just listening.
DESIGN PROCESS AT A GLANCE
Survey
User Interview
Competitive Analysis
Ideated 3 Solutions
Prioritize Solution 3: Why Gamification
Decide on MVP gaming features
User Flow
Mid-fi design
User Test
High-fi prototype
Pitch
01 Solution
GAMIFICATION SYSTEM
Our solution: A level-up system in Amazon Music to gamify & reward listeners for discovering and engaging with the music & artists they love.
Some of our newly added features include two music games, a redeem shop, and updated profiles and home pages. Use the "jump to" menu on the right to skip to see the interaction design breakdown!
HOW DOES IT WORK
Goal: To differentiate Amazon Music amongst other music streaming apps and to increase customer retention.
BPM = Benefit Per Music, a word-play on "Beats Per Minute"
Amazon BPM Level:
Level up by listening to music, complete daily listening tasks, and playing music-related games.
Game One
VIBE-CHECK A SONG
Listeners can ‘vibe-check’ a song based on listening to a snippet from a randomly-chosen song, and sorting it into an unhinged playlist.
Amazon Artist BPM Level:
Level up by playing artist trivia games, and engage with artist and community activities, like pre-saving new releases.
Game Two
LYRIC ME THIS
Listeners can select an artist they want to quiz their lyrics knowledge in. They will be asked to fill in the blank with the correct lyrics after hearing the song snippet.
Every time a new level (Amazon and/or Artist BPM Level) is reached, listeners are rewarded with a form of coins called Beats. With Beats, they can redeem rewards in Reward Shop.
Every time a new Artist BPM Level is reached, listeners also get new artist badges to display on profile.
02 Research
BUSINESS PROBLEM
Amazon Music is seeking a Customer Experience (CX) strategy to improve retention across its tiered offerings and create a differentiating product that engages users, keeps them active month-over-month, and makes Amazon Music indispensable in their daily lives.
User Retention: Amazon music needs a strategy that addresses retention while clarifying and enhancing value across tiers.
Enhance Value of Tier System: Amazon Music needs to encourage tier upgrades without alienating customers at lower tiers.
Differentiate Amazon Music: Amazon Music needs a way to make their product stand out amongst other music streaming platforms.
USER INSIGHTS
Music streaming users are looking for interactions beyond simply listening & finding music.
Listeners want ways to discover new music beyond repetitive algorithms.
“I feel like it is pushing me the same few songs in my daily recommendation playlist, it can feel repetitive...”
Listeners don't feel incentivized enough to stay with Amazon Music
“I once used Amazon Music for a while. My experience was that the music library wasn’t comprehensive enough, so I eventually stopped using it.”
Fans value exclusive content to engage with artists and their music.
“I’m happy to pay for their music or even buy merch because I feel like the platform’s interaction features make me, as a fan, feel like I’m actually supporting their career in a meaningful way.”
EMPATHY BUILDING
To better understand how we can increase Amazing Music’s user retention rates, we also asked interviewees if they will continue to use their current music streaming app.
“Yes, I already curated my algorithm and my playlists so to start again on another app like Amazon Music would be a big headache!”
— Current long-time music streaming user
“Yes, I already curated my algorithm and my playlists so to start again on another app like Amazon Music would be a big headache!”
— Current long-time music streaming user
Time-sunk cost: Despite pain points, all our users have never or rarely thought about switching music streaming platforms. They have already spent a lot of time personalising their accounts, whether it's through creating numerous personal playlists or diligently curating their algorithm
HELP AMAZON MUSIC TO CO-EXIST WITH OTHER MUSIC APPS
We research similar products that retains users using not their core features, but their unique & unconventional value, for example:
Duolingo
Besides language learning, there are some users who downloaded Duolingo solely for Chess Learning.
Letterbox
Besides its core features, film lovers downloaded Letterbox solely for shared social experience.
Apple Watch VS Garmin
When deciding between Apple Watch and Garmin, some customers made a decision to purchase Apple Watch solely because Nike Train Club (NTC) is not available on Garmin.
Lesser Known Music Platforms (in North America)
There are users who switch between 2 music streaming apps because some songs are streamed exclusively on one app. ie. users who only uses NetEase Music to listen to Chinese songs that Spotify does’t have.
DEFINE STRATEGY
Thus, we decided to go the unconventional route: Create a differentiating product so strongly engaging user’s listening habits, so even with less song collections, Amazon Music can co-exist with other music streaming app.
03 Solution Ideation
HOW MIGHT WE…
HMW
help fans feel closer to their favorite artists through exclusive content and interactions?
HMW
give listeners fresh ways to discover new music beyond algorithms?
HMW
design playful, tier-specific experiences that feel aspirational to upgrade into?
HMW
encourage users to return to Amazon Music daily in ways that feel fun and rewarding?
3 SOLUTIONS
Social Features for Engagement?
Offer in-app social media features to encourage sharing music & community engagement in Amazon Music
Rewards on Amazon.com?
Reward loyal Amazon Music listeners with Amazon.com grocery points
Gamification features?
Gamifying Amazon Music to cater music discovery to both casual listeners and avid fans
SOLUTION PRIORITIZATION
Using a User Value x Implementation matrix scale, we want the product solution to best balance between answering the user pain-points that came up during research, and relatively easier to implement. After our prioritization session, we brought our ideas to consult our 2 Amazon Music Product Manager mentors, who also agreed that gamification is the most ideal solution compared to the other 2.
WHY GAMIFICATION
Our solution: A level-up system in Amazon Music to gamify & reward listeners for discovering and engaging with the music & artists they love.
Design strategy rationale 1:
Amazon Music would be the first to introduce music-related games on its platform ahead of other music-streaming competitors.
Business Problem addressed:
Amazon Music needs a way to make their product stand out amongst other music streaming platforms.
Design strategy rationale 2:
The nature of the two games offered helps user discover new music they might enjoy in new, fun, & immersive ways.
User Problem addressed:
Listeners want ways to discover new music beyond repetitive algorithms.
Design strategy rationale 3:
With the incentive of high-value rewards earned by playing games, users are motivated to spend more time & engage with the music they love on the app month-after-month.
Business Problem addressed:
Amazon music needs a strategy that addresses retention while clarifying and enhancing value across tiers.
Design strategy rationale 4:
Reward each Amazon Music subscription tier with exclusive gameplay benefits (e.g. more free skips, more daily attempts), but all tiers of customers can access the music games.
Business Problem addressed:
Amazon Music needs to encourage tier upgrades without alienating customers at lower tiers.
NAVIGATING AMBIGUITY
We explored: What kind of level-up system and what kind of game(s) to design?
Ideation Session 1
A currency system was sketched out & earlier version of Vibe-check and Lyric Me this was born!
Ideation Session 2
We strategized on how to earn points to level up, and what makes users incentivized to level up.
Ideation Session 3
We deep dived into the possibility of trivial games for lyrics and for artists; the levelling-up & reward system became more solidified.
Ideation Session 4
BPM Leveling systems are introduced & solution idea is finalized!
04 Interaction Design & Rationale
HOME & DAILY TASKS
We added a few elements to Amazon Music's Home Page to incorporate the UI of the gamification feature without cluttering the screen, while designed a new page "Daily Tasks" to give user a list of low-effort tasks and help them get more points to level-up. Some tasks are designed to incentivize users to spend more time on the app and use the app everyday.
VIBE-CHECK A SONG
90% of users create playlists purely based on the vibes, as they told us in our research. We thought about something that plays into human's habit of categorising things into places, while discovering new music!
LYRIC ME THIS
90% of users create playlists purely based on the vibes, as they told us in our research. We thought about something that plays into human's habit of categorising things into places, while discovering new music!
INTRODUCING GAMIFICATION TO USERS
One thing we added after user testing is a onboarding pop-up for users, because many testers suggested that they were not aware about new features on Amazon Music when they first click onto the Home Page.
PROTOTYPE
To better communicate our ideas, we prototyped our designs when pitching it to the Amazon Music team. Make sure your volume is on!
05 Reflection
PITCHING TO AMAZON NYC HQ
As the winner of the Amazon Music Design challenge, our team of 3 pitched our product at the Hudson Yards headquarter of the Amazon music office.
If GIVEN MORE TIME
Recruit more participants for further usability testing & analysis on hi-fi
Analyze quantitative data and measure expected impact on KPIs
Ideate more new music games!
Expand profile customization with achievement titles, ability to switch UI themes, and daily streak-counters