Read some great articles on Spotify's user-friendly interface.
Here are 8 notable UX decisions it makes🧵
1/ Dark mode (which Spotify was been using since early days)
◻️ White text on dark background is easier on the eyes
◻️ Visual comfort = more browsing
◻️ The color scheme is a major contrast to Apple Music
2/ Mobile player more spacious vs. Apple Music
◻️ Apple (L) has the volume control, which crowds the screen
◻️ Spotify (R) has *no* volume control (most people control mobile volume with side phone button)
3/ Mobile optimization
◻️ Browse feature rolled into Search as the primary navigation tool
◻️ Sub-tabs are laid out as high-contrast cards
◻️ Cards are optimal for mobile screen real estate
4/ Interactive buttons
◻️ Primary (green) and secondary (ghost outline) buttons easy to navigate
◻️ Buttons "pop" when you hover, indicating interactivity
◻️ Change in text and color states communicate changes
5/ Visual hiearchy
◻️ Spotify uses size, color and positioning to orient users
◻️ Top left is the artist and the content is categorized into easy to navigate "Songs", "Albums". Playlist".
◻️ Page includes a list of other related "arists" in case search is wrong
6/ Consistent design language
◻️ Artists are always in circular frames
◻️ Songs and albums always in square frames
◻️ This consistency allows users to navigate platform more "intuitively" and interact almost sub-consciously
7/ Discovery
◻️ Spotify is constantly giving you reccomendations based on: 1) collaborative filtering (which tracks your behaviour and others); 2) text NLP and 3) audio analysis
◻️ Its Discover Weekly playlist is a music streaming staple
8/ Spotify year-end Wrapped = viral masterstroke
◻️ Turn a user's streaming stats into shareable social content
◻️ Instead of choosing traditional colors (red), Spotify picks "uncommon colors" (pink, neon) which are fun, have no emotional association and are attention-grabbers
9/ Follow @TrungTPhan for other business threads and really dumb memes
The invention of bánh mì is a combination of climate, trade and urban layout of Saigon in late-19th century designed by French colonist.
When the French captured the area in 1859, most economic activity in the region took place along the Saigon river.
The population built makeshift homes tightly bundled by the river banks. Outgrowth from this eventually lead to narrow alleyways between many buildings that is trademark of the city (the Khmer named the region Prey Nokor then French renamed it Saigon and then it was renamed to Ho Chi Minh City in 1976 after end of Vietnam War).
Over decades, the French created European street grids and built wide Paris-type boulevards in the city to funnel commerce to larger markets (also make the city easier to administer).
It was at these markets that French baguettes were introduced and traded.
Bánh mì bread is known for being flaky and crispy on the outside while fluffier on inside (so god damn good).
Two features of Saigon helped create this texture:
▫️Climate: The heat and humidity in Southeast Asia leads dough to ferment faster, which creates air pockets in bread (light and fluffy).
▫️Ingredient: Wide availability of rice meant locals added rice flour to wheat flour imports (which were quite expensive). Rice flour is more resistant to moisture and creates a drier, crispier crust.
Fast forward to the 1930s: the French-designed street layout is largely complete. Now, the city centre has wide boulevards intersected by countless narrow alleyways.
The design was ideal for street vendor carts. These businesses were inspired by shophosue of colonial architecture to sell all types of goods as chaotic traffic rushed by.
Vietnam has some of the most slapping rice and soup dishes, but many people on the move in the mornings wanted something more portable and edible by hand.
Bánh mì was traditionally upper class fare but it met the need for on-the-go food.
Just fill the bread with some Vietnamese ingredients (braised pork, pickled vegetable, Vietnamese coriander, chilies) along with French goodies (pate).
Pair it with cà phê sữa đá (aka coffee with condensed milk aka caffeinated crack) and you’re laughing.
Haven’t lived in Saigon for 10+ years but ate a banh mi every other day when I did.
While there, I also sold a comedy script to Fox (pitch: “The Fugitive meets Harold & Kumar set in Southeast Asia”).
reminder that no “asian guy and stripper” story will ever top Enron Lou Pai’s “asian guy and stripper” story
Totally forgot Lou Pai got the stripper pregnant.
If this story was transplanted to 2020s, Pai would probably have been a whale on OnlyFans and gotten got…anyways, I wrote about the economics of OF here: readtrung.com/p/onlyfans-sti…
Boston Consulting Group (BCG) trained an AI slideshow maker called “Decker” on 900 templates and apparently gotten so popular that “some of its consultants are fretting about job security.”
Sorry, called “Deckster”. That excerpt was from this BI piece that also looked at McKinsey and Deloitte AI uses: businessinsider.com/consulting-ai-…
The Mckinsey chatbot is used by 70% of firm but same anonymous job board said it’s "functional enough" and best for "very low stakes issues." x.com/bearlyai/statu…
Here’s a r/consulting thread based on Computer World last year. Deckster was launched internally March 2024…some think it’s BS…some think it helps with cold start (B- quality): reddit.com/r/consulting/s…