In recent years, factors like the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of music-sharing through streaming platforms have significantly impacted the concert-goers' experience. Technology is now available that allows us to meet consumer demands in previously impossible ways. As the live music industry bounces back from the pandemic and more people attend concerts, we were inspired to create a platform that offers features to make their concert experience more enjoyable and convenient.
Our research delved into the influences that drive the average music lover's concert experience. Through a comprehensive approach of conducting a survey(73 responses) on Qualtrics, hybrid card sort(11 participants) on Optimal Workshop, and user interviews(11 participants) via Zoom; we uncovered the user needs for a platform that aims to enhance the concert experience. Our prototype empowers users to track and review concert details, enhancing their experience before, during, and after the live music event. The final prototype not only facilitates easy venue navigation but also enables users to locate friends attending the same concert. ConcerBuddy ensures convenience and seamless integration into concert-goers’ lives. Finally to assess the learnability of our prototype interface we conducted a cognitive walkthrough with UX experts focusing on 5 main tasks : 1) adding a new concert/ticket; 2) finding a parking spot; 3) locating amenities such as bathrooms; 4) documenting memories through reviews; and 5) reviewing parking locations .
"There is a shift in the industry as album sales decline, and live concerts are in demand"
- Mortimer, J. H., Nosko, C., & Sorensen, A. (2012). Supply responses to digital distribution: Recorded music and live performances.
User Research Methods: A survey with 73 responses user interviews with 11 participants, and a hybrid card sort with 11 participants.
Competitive Analysis: A thorough examination of existing products such as ConcertArchives, POSH and Spotify. Using ChatGPT 3.5, we analyzed the reviews on the App store for our closest competitor 'ConcertArchives' to find gaps in user satisfaction.
Identifying User needs and Features: Detailed personas, scenarios and a customer journey map to better understand and visualize how our product will fulfill the needs of the target user.
Create, Ideate and Usability Testing: Prototypes were developed based on scenarios, personas and card sort results. After which a group of 4 UX professionals performed a cognitive walkthrough.
Survey
Early in our research phase, we constructed a 17 questions survey on Qualtrics to gain insight into the concert-goers habits when attending a concert. We had 73 participants and this helped by providing initial data on what people prioritize in their concert experience.
User Interviews
The goal of the interviews was to dive deeper into the concert experience and find the pain points and user needs. We asked specific questions related to the artists, the venues, and the overall environment. It was important to find people who attend concerts or festivals at least once a year (preferably more) so we recruited participants through online forum channels and acquaintances. Once the interviews were complete, we coded them using Atlas.ti and grouped them in an affinity diagram based on users actions, frustrations, needs and wants. The common areas we found : transportation information, safety and security(including crowd management),venue amenity details and reviewing/saving concert history.
Hybrid Card Sort
Using the online tool Optimal Workshop, we created a hybrid card sort activity. The goal of this was to help with the information architecture of our platform. We wanted our app to be usable and straightforward, and card sorting is a great way to find out how users would approach the layout. Here is a snapshot of the placement matrix for our card sort labels.
The main competitors we identified were ConcertArchives and POSH. These two platforms have similarities to our product, but we believe there are areas for improvement that we can provide to the market. We also compared our idea with ticketing apps such as TicketMaster and music apps such as Spotify, however we do not believe our platform competes with these.
POSH is a live event experience app to buy and sell tickets and discover events in your area. You can also find information about who is attending the event you are going to. Its features include :
- Event Discovery
- Event creation
- Ticket Purchasing
- Event Details
- Mobile Tickets
- Alerts and Notifications
ConcertArchives is a diary app to track the concerts users have attended. They can also search for upcoming concerts . Users can post content about their experiences and view setlists of the songs they experienced.
Its features include :
- Record and comment on concerts and venues attended.
- Post photos and videos from concertsView setlists from the concerts you’ve been to.
- Discover upcoming concerts and receive personalized recommendations based on history.
Since ConcertArchives was our closest competitor, we used Chat GPT 3.5 to analyze user reviews from the App store to identify user needs and frustrations.
We used a persona spectrum, persona, scenario and customer journey map to identify user needs and potential features to prototype. The goal of these tools was to create a template user for the team to have in mind while designing the platform.
With the data compiled from the literature research, surveys, and interviews; we created a persona spectrum diagram to identify a pool of potential users.
Then we detailed one user persona and developed a scenario for our product would best fit this personas needs.
Cathy is a 27 year old going to see Bad Bunny with a group of friends at the United Center. It is her first time going to a concert there as she usually prefers small venues, and she wants to prepare for her experience. She logs into Concert Buddy, and clicks on “my upcoming concerts.” There, she will be able to find helpful peer-based information about the venue. Cathy looks to make sure she can bring in her purse and looks for recommendations on how to get to the venue. She can then click on the artist, and see what songs he will be playing. It looks like he posted a poll, so she can vote on which song she wants to hear!
Finally, we developed a customer journey map to kick start the wire-framing process.
After dividing the customer journey into different phases, we sketched UI interactions according to what features users would desire. The phases are :
1) Booking phase
2) Pre-concert phase
3) During concert phase
4) Post-concert phase
Adding a new concert, saving concert tickets and being able to notify friends of attendance.
Receiving alerts & announcements, being able to see who is attending, finding parking, and reading reviews about the venue
Way-finding and navigating concert venue for necessary amenities & friends.
Reviewing and rating the concert venue and adding a concert memory with images/videos
We developed our mid fidelity screens for our Cognitive walkthrough. Here are a few screens based on the the phases mentioned earlier.
To view the full clickable mid-fi prototype click the button.
Adding a new concert, saving concert tickets and being able to notify friends of attendance.
Receiving alerts & announcements, being able to see who is attending, finding parking, and reading reviews about the venue
Way-finding and navigating concert venue for necessary amenities & friends.
Reviewing and rating the concert venue and adding a concert memory with images/videos.
The interface was praised for its simplicity and not being crowded. The icons, buttons, and menus are easy to understand. The interactions were also easily learnable according to the experts of the walthkthrough.
Available actions were generally intuitive. Users mentioned a need for a confirmation details screen for tickets. A confirmation popup was implemented in the next prototype to ensure this confirmation feedback loop for the user.
The app followed majority of the design principles. The experts of the walkthrough suggested improvements for the tasks feedback loop and helping users recognize the progress of each task.
Although tasks took a relatively short amount of time certain tasks were challenging i.e reviewing the venue We enhanced the user experience by prominently featuring the concert and venue details, providing users with more information to further distinguish the reviews of the venue to the concert memory.
We developed our Hi-fidelity screens incorporating the feedback from the cognitive walkthrough
To view the full clickable hi-fi prototype click the button.
The user adds a new concert by uploading and manually entering details. Saving concert tickets will add it to your archive when you save a memory post concert. Once you confirm ticket details, the app will ask you to notify people that you are going to be attending the same concert, this is how people will find out who else is attending the same concert.
For finding parking, the app will provide the user with the best parking spots available vetted by other users and would enable them to reserve a parking spot. In the end The user can navigate to that parking spot through their 3rd party GPS navigation system.
Way-finding and navigating concert venue for necessary amenities & friends.
Reviewing and rating the concert venue and adding a concert memory with images/videos.
One limitation of our study is the relatively small sample size for certain research methods, such as the card sorting activity and usability testing. While these methods provided valuable insights, the results may not be fully generalizable to the broader population of concert-goers. Additionally, the informal nature of the usability testing will have introduced biases or inconsistencies in the feedback which will be provided by participants. These limitations should be considered when interpreting the results of the study.
While our project successfully achieved most of our goals through the design and testing of the ConcertBuddy prototype, there are clear pathways for further advancement.
- Conduct broader and more diverse usability tests.
- Incorporating A/B tests for the home screen design.
- Exploring the app's usability on smartwatches.
- Prototyping an artist interaction feature within the app
