The Google Home app is the central controller for all Google smart home products, including speakers. The app can be used to stream music, connect devices, control lights and more. I worked with the Google Home UX team to design a feature that would allow users with multiple speakers in their home to dynamically group speakers and seamlessly transfer music streams from one room to another.
Google speaker owners with multiple devices in their home frequently run into moments of frustration when switching their music stream from one device to another. In order to do this, they must disconnect from their current device and reconnect on the other, causing a break in their music stream. Users are also unable to play on multiple devices at once in the event that they want to play music throughout their home.
The Google Home app allows users to dynamically select and unselect which speakers are playing their music as they move throughout their home. If the user wants to switch rooms, they can simply select which speaker they want to play on and unselect the one they want to turn off. The music stream continues without jumping or stopping the music.
The feature design process started with customer requests, user interviews and competitive analysis, which led the team to put the dynamic speaker group feature on the roadmap. To kick-off the project, we ran user interviews to find out how people interact with the app to play music, in what contexts they use their speakers and when they might want to play on multiple speakers. We went through four rounds of designing and testing until we handed the feature over to the development team.
The team collected feedback from surveys, interviews and Google Home product reviews to find out what the customer pain points were. Based on the feedback, we were able to see that the Google Home app needed an easy way to dynamically select and unselect which speakers in the house to play music on.
Sometimes I want to play music on all of the speakers downstairs without playing upstairs so that the kids can focus on homework or sleep.
When I host a party, I want the music to play in the backyard and in the house so that all of my guests can hear the same music.
When I’m cleaning the house, I move between rooms and would like to hear my music playing everywhere.
It can be frustrating to stop the music in the kitchen and then start it again in the living room when I’m ready to move to the couch.
We outlined the user journey for dynamically selecting speakers while streaming music in the home. In order to address the pain points of the users, we made sure to cover the need to have the music stream move with you from one room to another and the need to choose specific rooms to play music in based on the scenario. The following is how we envisioned the happy path for dynamically selecting where to play the music.
We went through four rounds of ideation, designing and testing before we handed over the designs to the development team. However, the developers were consulted along the way to make sure we were accounting for technical limitations. For example, we learned that it was not technically possible to unselect a device if it was the only one playing. So in order to transfer a stream to another room, the user would have to first select the new speaker, then unselect the old.
To start a music stream, the user opens the app and taps “Play”. Since there is no music playing yet, an empty state will appear, encouraging the user to play something. Then, a list of speakers appears where the user can select which speaker to play on. The app will automatically start playing the user’s Spotify, Apple music or Google Play Music—whichever music app is the device’s default.
Google speaker owners with multiple devices can now use the controls to open a list of their home speakers while playing music and move the music stream by selecting a new device and unselecting the one they want to turn off.
When users are cleaning the house, hosting a party or just hanging out in multiple spaces with the family, they might want to add multiple speakers to their music stream. With the dynamic speaker group feature, users can simply check speakers on and off.
A household may have multiple family members casting music to their Google Home devices at once. The media tab shows all active casting sessions across all devices in the home.
The Google Home UX team collaborated with the brand designer on the team to develop an inclusive illustration style. A decision was made not to represent humans literally, but instead to use all abstract geometric shapes to tell stories. This series of illustrations was made for the Digital Wellbeing features in the app.
