Gig V1 for Mobile
date. 2022
city. Portland
role. UX design / UI / UX Research
tools. Figma / Illustrator / Google Forms
The Problem.
Artists have always had to jump through hoops and explore endless, not so promising, avenues when it comes to booking shows. Oftentimes artists don’t know what venues best suit their needs or are not familiar with local music scenes in cities other than their own. Artists have to scour the internet for information that is often very difficult to find.
User Surveys & Competitor Analysis.
Surveys are a great way to discover user’s concerns, wants, needs and motivations.
I crafted a survey titled ‘Understanding your Experience Booking Shows/Tour’ and deployed it to a wide range of artists in the community.
The results helped me build a SWOT analysis and influenced my line of questioning for user interviews to come.
After consulting with local musicians we concluded artists typically use several social media platforms and websites to engage with the music community. From here we can begin SWOT analysis to make educated assumptions on how to craft a better experience for our users.
What are other sites/platforms offering their users?
Do they satisfy my solutions?
What are their stengths and weaknesses?
If not, how can we better address these problems?
Indie on the Move
Instagram & Facebook
Reverb Nation
Personas & Web Flow.
Using the results of the interviews, I created two main personas to focus on. My design solutions will cater to the needs of Shannon and Stephen. The user flow of the mobile application is dictated by our users' needs. Reflected in this sitemap:
We have four main launching pages:
City Search / Contacts / Chat / Profile
Wireframes & Final UI.
Wireframes of the landing page and the product selection were designed first, as these were key pages. They were designed with our users motivations and needs in mind. When designing the high fidelity mockup I wanted a clean design that kept accesiblity and simplicity a priority. The purple & blue color pallete was chosen because the color purple is often associated with creativity and blue with trust, imagination and inspiration.
Challenges & What I Learned.
Reminding yourself of your original objective is important. When building an app from scratch it is easy to get lost or overwhelmed with new ideas or suggestions. Constantly remind yourself of your main objective. Research and test. Then test some more. Listen to your users and make the nessasary adjustments. Design is an iterative process.
There were times when I wanted to add new features to Gig. Keeping an MVP in mind helps when working on a time line. There is always room for expansion in the future.
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Testing and interviews provided me with invaluable insights. This information helped me create the app and organize information in ways I would have otherwise missed.
Without research a design will have no practical application.