Ther: Never Miss Out
A mobile application for all your entertainment, Ther allows users to link their FB, Spotify, LastFm, and other social media sources to:
· Track their favorite bands, plays, musicals, and comics.
· Receive notifications for when they’re in your areas.
· Search via google maps upcoming shows
· Share their concert experiences in a community.
Background
I’ve always enjoyed going to concerts and local shows. However on several occasions, I had wanted to see a particular artist, only to find out they had just been in my area. Then I discovered BandsinTown. It allows users to track their favorite bands and artists via their social media sources and be notified when they are coming to a users' area.
After a couple days however, I realized BandsinTown had the potential be a much more intuitive app and that it may be missing out on other entertainment sources. I wanted to see if the data supported my theory first however.
Research Report
Twenty-five respondents were surveyed of various ages, incomes, and genders along with five potential users completing personal interviews on how they navigate finding events to attend. This data was then analyzed to the seven areas of interest below.
-Frequency of Events Attended
-Likelihood of Sharing the Upcoming Event with Others
-Receiving Notifications about Upcoming Events
-Types of Events Attended
-Purchase Time Prior to an Event
-Difficulties while finding/purchasing event tickets
-Travel Distance to Events
Correlations
After analyzing the data, several correlations were identified based on the respondents' answers in relation to their age, sex, and income. Below are some of the more interesting findings.
Persona and Empathy Maps
A persona is a fictional character created from research data to represent a common user type for a brand, product, or application. An empathy map is a visual tool for designers that represents the users needs; how they think, feel, hear and say during interaction with a project. From the surveys and interviews, two strong personalities emerged.
Young&Free Fallon
An under 25 social butterfly who loves music and all that it encompasses, Fallon uses Ther to see her favorite bands and to create memorable experiences with her friends and her 23455 IG followers.
GetMoneyGreg
GetMoneyGreg uses Ther for information. It helps attract and retain clients. He doesn't care about sharing with others, but likes to know whose playing where and when without having to research it himself.
Defining Context
What is Context?
Every build Ikea furniture wrong because the directions were hard to understand? That's Context. Context is how users' interpret a product based on the environment it resides, not only by function, but also by language.
Card Sorting Exercise
Results
The six participants generally created the same labels to fit the different sections of the app. Pertaining to personal settings, every person had some label referencing the user in some way; Subscriber, Help, Profile, and Settings. Further, four of the six labeled event detail-oriented sections as “Artists” and “Artists Homepage.”
User Flows
User flow is the path taken by a prototypical user on a website or app to complete a task. The user flow takes them from their entry point through a set of steps towards a successful outcome and final action, such as purchasing a product.
Sign Up User Flow
Search/Buy Tix User Flow
Find, Add, and Track Artists
From Sketch to Prototype
Taking everything above into consideration, I began sketching then wireframing the app's layout to support the developed information architecture. From there, I used Balsalmiq® to create a low fidelity prototype so I could quickly test the functionality of my scenarios with others and make changes rapidly if needed..
Rough Sketches
Low Fidelity Prototype
Style Guide
