Slacker Radio

Digital Product Design and Strategy
2014-2015

Challenge

Slacker is a fantastic streaming music service that you've likely never heard of. Though they had maintained a small, fervent following, their growth had stagnated and prospects were seemingly limited in the face of competitors.

Looking to start 2015 off with a bang, they brought us in to redesign their desktop and mobile experiences, help define their brand going forward, and stand out in a crowded space.

Idea

Slacker works a bit differently than the other music services–they've got DJs on the payroll. Damn good ones.

Unfortunately, this wasn't immediately apparent. But once we learned of the people manning the virtual mixing boards, it formed a powerful story that needed to be told.

While this core offering of programmed stations has been the backbone of Slacker since its birth, users have come to expect the expanded offerings of competing services. In order to keep users around (and maybe get them to stop subscribing to another service), Slacker would have to offer functional parity plus a little extra.

Though Slacker paves the way, it's up to users to find their own path. We created new routes for music discovery within the service and provided opportunities for users to customize everything imaginable.

Website

The new experience needed to accomplish two things: communicate what makes Slacker different from any other streaming service and allow new users to test out the features that the design would hinge upon.