Objectives / Tasks

• Conduct primary and secondary research

• Use design thinking and ideation strategies

• Create personas and user flows

• Design wireframes and hi-fidelity prototypes / UI

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• Conduct usability testing

• Build style guide and pattern library

• Incorporate HCI and information architecture

• Factor in business goals, branding, and company vision

Introduction

Live concerts are booked at the venue level first and what follows is an often long process of marketing and promotion where in the end, there are no guarantees on ticket sales. Furthermore, this process makes it difficult for new bands to get booked and for established bands to book new cities. So would it be possible to flip this whole archaic model on its head? 

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I thought so, that is why I researched what it would take to rebuild this part of the industry into a model where there were guarantees for ticket sales, preemptively, before the show date even existed. Still, a more important question remained, what would make fans adopt this new way of buying tickets? The solution was something inherent within me, within all of us.

Research

The first phase of research I worked through focused on the needs of the musicians. Very quickly I came across many pain points in the booking process. Musicians just starting out were overworking themselves to get the attention of booking agents and independent established musicians had trouble filling out dates in smaller markets. On top of that, fans were famously emailing their favorite bands asking them to play their small town to no avail. It was clear a new model could be popular among musicians but would fans adopt the new model? 

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I decided instead to start at the core: What makes a fan listen to certain music, go to shows, or support a musician financially? The answer varied from person to person. From all of the answers I received I created three main personas which included: 1) the fanatic who loved music on a deep level, 2) the party-goer who loved the social aspect, and 3) the carefree listener who seemed to like any style of music but did not love any one particular band. So how do we create an app that connects with all three in their own special way?

Ideation

The answer to one question only brought me to another. How might I create a single UX experience that caters to many different kinds of events? As the old saying goes, "...you can't please all of the people all of the time". How would I even start to address this new issue? It seemed massive and much bigger than one person's UX skills could solve. 

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I grabbed a pen and started to list the basic needs of both musicians and fans, and grouped them into features. I added flow arrows left to right and scratched out what no longer made sense. Then from up high, I saw the true essence of the problem. My own UX ideas had clouded the sketches. What if I took a step back and let the music and more so, let the event be the user experience?

User Flow

One thing then immediately came to mind. There are 1,300 styles of music in the world, and most bands have a signature style in visual aesthetic and performance. When creating the event experience, I wouldn't have any prior knowledge about the bands, music, or the events themselves that might be included on the platform. So how would I create the UX?

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Simplicity. If stepping back saved me in the ideation phase, then perhaps that was also the thing that would allow the design to get out of the way of the event experience. A blank slate? Not quite, but I would focus on the hierarchy and user flow, which would bolster basic elements of the event experience and develop a UX that would allow the musician's voice to be heard.

Visual Aesthetic

As I mentioned previously, the musicians need to make connections with the fans and the product's UX must not detract from that goal. So how can the visual aesthetic of the product add to the fan's experience and deliver authenticity?

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Visual design and music have a long-standing relationship. So when looking for inspiration I wanted to deliver a little bit of rock n roll. Bingo, tour posters! From iconic design to timeless style, there was nothing more true to the feeling of music.  

Prototyping

Getting out of the way of the event experience was only half the battle when designing the UX for this product. How could I give the musicians the tools they needed to ensure that they were able to make connections with their fans?

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Going one step further, how could I help the musicians deliver a fan experience within the product that is similar to the experience they might have at an event? Maybe they could be given customization tools to hype up their event's experience.