Since this was Spotifys first venture into Airlines, it was difficult to form any kind of base-line experience

There were no prior data around passenger expectations, mindsets, behaviors, and pain points

We also lacked baseline data on primary target audiences and contextual use cases, requiring us to define user profiles from scratch

Early iterations of user-journeys & use-cases revealed that critical user touchpoints extended far beyond isolated IFE app engagement

How does user access or create their accounts was missing when we focused only on core app engagement

Early iterations revealed low baseline awareness of the Spotify IFE app, which obscured the core value proposition and hindered discoverability

Integrating new touchpoints into the journey introduced unforeseen complexity to design and technical scope beyond the initial assessments

We needed to capture product requirements and create design execution plan. Aligning scoping, deliverables, and dependencies against realistic timelines

Prioritized as a lean pilot initiative, the project was led by a core team of Product, Engineering, and Design leads rather than a fully resourced squad

Revised scope and timelines ruled out a ground-up build, forcing a pragmatic shift toward leveraging existing frameworks.

We had to evaluate several core framework options to establish a strong structural foundation for the IFE experience.

Since we were building this experience for the first time, we needed to build some base-lines criteria’s for usability

Pivoting our design strategy from a tablet UI to a scaled TV framework required extensive alignment with executive leadership.

While the TV app was optimized for D-pad navigation, supporting touchscreen interactions required integrating custom touch patterns into the UI.

Addressing our key touchpoints, awareness and activation from prior, required us to design dedicated, in-app support within the TV framework