70% of users said they attend art events to support the artists. A majority of users also said they attend art events looking to be inspired and have a meaningful experience.
Many users complained that art events are often too crowded which makes it more difficult to have a comfortable experience and see the art. Other users complained about a lack of food options and seating.
A majority of users expressed a desire to connect with the artists behind the art.
We used a value proposition canvas, starting with the customer profile to assess customer jobs, pains, and gains. We identified obvious jobs such as "see art", but we also identified social and emotional jobs. Art festival attendees want to connect with the artist, visit with friends, and have a meaningful experience. Physical discomfort, crowds, and a disorganized space, get in the way of these "jobs".
How might we improve the physical and emotional comfort of attendees at the event?
How might we help our attendees plan their visit and see everything they want to see without missing out?
How might we help our attendees have fun?
During this phase of the design process, We ideated and designed a solution based on user and stakeholder needs.
Our MVP was designed to satisfy user needs and wants while aligning with the "blue ocean" we previously identified.
Our MVP includes features to prioritize attendees' comfort including the option to reserve comfort stations and a festival app that provides navigation and information on the level of crowds at each exhibit.
Attendees have the option to attend virtual meetups with their favorite artists prior to the event. At the event, users have access to a personalized recommended schedule and a curated playlist chosen by the artists.
The Blue Ocean we identified previously is personalized and upscale. Our MVP is highly customized and aimed at providing a high quality, upscale experience for attendees.
This flowchart maps the user flow for an art festival attendee planning their visit using our microsite then attending the event and using our festival app. The green path represents the "happy path" that I expect and want the user to take. In this case, the ideal path is a user planning their visit and following their recommended schedule during the event.
During the Delivery phase, We began designing our solution and tested with users to identify problems in layout and ontology. We created low fidelity mockups for our desktop and mobile solutions to mitigate risk by finding issues quickly before investing too much time.
Several screens confused users as they tried to input their preferences. Talking with users revealed that the visual hierarchy did not make sense to them and did not align with their mental models.
In our next iteration of prototypes, We made more educated decisions on layout, including making buttons more obvious and the ontology clearer. Our misclick rate was still high, so we further refined our layout in the high fidelity prototype.
My teammate and spent a significant portion of our process ensuring that our visual design met our brand attributes and made users feel the way we intended.
Jessi and I chose five words to represent our brand based on our features and intended audience.
I created a mood board to reflect our chosen brand attributes. We tested it with users to see what emotions and words the mood board evoked for them. My teammate and I asked users for their rationale behind their word choices and learned that the image of a woman in the upper left made the board feel more feminine than I had intended.
In our style tile, I made an effort to make the design feel less feminine and luxurious with darker colors and stronger fonts to better reflect our brand attributes. This time, the feel of our design was fairly close to our brand attributes. However, the design still came across as feminine to users, which I kept in mind as I designed the high fidelity prototype.
Users can use the festival microsite to input their preferences and receive a customized schedule for their time at the event. I used progressive disclosure in order to avoid overwhelming the user with information. I also made sure that users are able to opt out of decisions and go straight to ticket purchase if they prefer.
I created the high fidelity prototype for our desktop site while my teammate, Jessi created the prototype for our mobile app. In the final design, I attempted to make the design more unique and engaging by using interesting shapes and bold colors. Our mobile app is designed for use at the time of the event.
We chose brand attributes that were somewhat ambiguous, which made testing our mood board and style tile more difficult.
It can take a while to get your design to align with your brand in the eyes of users.
We learned so much with each iteration of testing both for our prototypes and visual design.
I am currently open to new opportunities. Reach out if you would like to work with me or simply want to chat!