Spotify's new episode indicator does not vanish

This is the fourth post on my never ending Spotify building bad UI and UX following my posts on Spotify’s new Create button , the long road to add an item to a playlist and changing the view while the user interacts with the app . Now I’m back with something new: the blue dot that is not indicating that a new episode or album was released.

The Blue Dot

The blue dot next to an artist or podcast is a good indicator to know when something new is released.

This dot is also known from iOS. After installing an app update, before opening the app for the first time, the blue dot is shown next to the app’s name. When you then open the newly installed or updated app, the blue dot vanishes - as expected.

Spotify’s blue dot - a bad experience

In the Spotify app, the blue dot is still visible when a newer episode has already been released and that is marked as finished. This is a perfect example for bad user experience:

1. Indicate that something new is released
2. Let the user click on the (new) release
3. Let the user discover that there’s no new episode

Even after going through these 3 stages from excitement to grief, the blue dot is still visible. I’d expected the blue dot to vanish as soon as I click on the podcast or artist with a new release. The user is smart enough to remember that there’s a new release even if he does not listen to it immediately. I do not know why this is not implemented.

The major flaw is that this feature is not well thought out but there’s more to come: After listening to the newest episode - an episode that was released after the one that led to the blue dot - and marking it as finished, the blue dot remains visible. If one listens to the newest episode there is no reason to show a new episode available indicator whatsoever.

From a developer perspective it looks like the blue dot is bound to some entity, i.e. a specific episode or album release, and is only removed after the entity is marked as listened. This is a bad UI- and development-decision. The blue dot should not be bound to some entity but rather indicate there’s something new since the user last clicked on the episodes list or artist.

The blue dot image from above was taken just moments before showing this view. The blue dot remained visible.