Build a Playlist Together
Design a collaborative playlist flow that makes contribution, ordering, voting, and ownership understandable for a small group.
The brief
Understand the problem
Background
Shared playlists can quickly become chaotic when everyone can reorder or remove tracks. Groups need lightweight contribution rules and clear attribution without turning casual music planning into formal administration.
User context
Sofia is building a three-hour road-trip playlist with four friends. One person prefers explicit-content filters, two friends keep adding the same songs, and nobody agrees on the opening sequence.
Product problem
Contributors need freedom to add music while the group needs a fair way to resolve duplicates, ordering conflicts, and access changes.
Objective
Create invitation, contribution, group ordering, and change-history states for one collaborative playlist.
What to design
Define the experience
Required experience
- Join a playlist with a clear role and contribution rules
- Add tracks while seeing duplicates and content restrictions
- Suggest or vote on an order without silently overwriting changes
- Review and undo a recent playlist edit
Screens and states
- Playlist overview
- Track search and add
- Group ordering
- Activity and undo
Core user flow
Follow the critical path
- 01
Sofia invites friends as contributors and enables an explicit-content limit
- 02
A friend searches for a track and chooses an existing version instead of adding a duplicate
- 03
The group suggests opening tracks and sees where preferences overlap
- 04
Sofia confirms the opening sequence while the rest remains collaboratively ordered
- 05
A mistaken removal is restored from the activity history
Product rules
Requirements and constraints
Requirements
- Show owner, contributor, and listener capabilities before invitation acceptance
- Detect likely duplicates across album, live, clean, and remastered versions
- Attribute additions, removals, and ordering changes
- Offer a visible rule for how votes or suggestions affect final order
- Support undo for recent destructive edits without discarding later unrelated changes
Constraints
- Track availability can differ by contributor region
- A content filter cannot guarantee that every track is correctly labeled
- Only the playlist owner can change membership roles
Reality check
States worth considering
Finish line
What to deliver
- Four responsive screens covering contribution, collaborative ordering, and recovery from a mistaken edit
Optional direction
Visual resources
Use these as a starting constraint if you want one. They are not part of the required solution.