AccessPass
An application for music concert lovers.
Timeline
January 2024 - May 2024; 19 Weeks
My Role
UX Designer, UI Designer, User Research, User Interviews, Wireframing, Prototyping, User Testing, Branding
Problem
With so many music event ticketing platforms out there, it can be difficult to know which one can have the tickets one might be looking for. And many of those same websites offer a dull or overwhelming browsing experience. Not only that, the stress of having to go through a long checkout process turn away many users from seeing the artists they love.
Objective
The goal is to create and design a responsive website that is a user’s “one-stop” for all music events. A website that is customized to a user’s music interests while also providing an experience that is efficient, secure, interactive, and fun.
Researching the Users
Research Goals
-Understand specific pain points music concert goers have from music applications/website.
-Create a resource that is comprehensive, efficient, and enjoyable experience.
-Determine what music fans value & dislike the most in a concert/festival website.
-Understand the competition and understand their pros and cons.
-Understand the challenges that many users face before, during, and after attempted purchase.
Competitive Analysis
To identify any areas of opportunity, I studied platforms that AccessPass would compete against. With so many options, there is a demand in the market for a product that can for music lovers, no matter how large or small the event is. Not only that, the demand for an experience that is unique, secure, and efficient is also needed. The platforms that I studied were: Ticketmaster, Insomniac Events, AXS Events, and Eventbrite.
Key Takeaways
All 4 platforms, although similar, have aspects they lack in:
-Ticketmaster and AXS: Wide variety of events
-Insomniac Events: Has clunky UI, geared toward music goers but only for Insomniac sponsored events.
-Eventbrite: Only lists small events/concerts, Only has local music events.
-None of the current set of products offer a specialized and focused music event ticking experience.
User Interviews
The goal of the interviews was to get an understanding of qualities and characteristics users of event ticketing websites find attractive and unattractive. Looking at their preferences, experiences, pain points, and expectations in order to learn what an ideal ticketing website/app looks like to potential users. After 5 interviews, I was able to to analyze the data and come up with these key insights:
Efficient and Secure Ticket Buying Experience
Utilizing innovative and modern solutions to prevent users from experiencing ticket losses, failed failsafe solutions, and general website unresponsiveness.
User Personalization
Allowing users to customize their browsing experience by having specific music events being presented depending on thier music interests.
Ticket Price Transparency
Being able to clearly view and understand all tickdt fees to give users the confienced to purchase the tickets they want to buy.
User-Friendly UI/Interfaces
Giving users an enjoyable and memorable experience when interacting with the platorm while preventing user fatigue.
Building Empathy
Conducting the research on my users gave me a better understanding of the type of users who might use a web resource like AccessPass. But in order to get a better understanding of potential AccessPass users, I focused on creating resources that would help me get a better idea of who I needed to empathize with.
User Personas
Based on the insights that I gathered from my interviews, I created two personas to described two types of users, Kristin and Wade, using AccessPass. The important thing to I had to consider was to create a product that was easy to use for all skills levels of technology and completes any task the user needs to complete efficiently.
Persona #1: Kristin, represents a user who is trying to get into the music concert scene but is faced with issues.
Persona #2: Wade, represents a user who is experienced going to music concerts and showing the difficulties that new and old users have.
Point of View (POV) and How Might We (HMW) Statements
After developing personas and storyboards, I developed two sets of statements In order to pinpoint a key problem to solve, I created two POV statements to help show who I am designing for and what needs to be addressed. Here I have highlighted the statements:
-POV Statement #1: I’d like to explore ways to help new and old users have an efficient and secure ticket buying experience to alleviate the stresses and frustrations that currently affect consumers.
-HMW Statement #1: How might we create an efficient and secure ticket buying system for new and old users that alleviates the stresses and frustrations of the current one?
-POV Statement #2: I’d like to explore ways to prevent overwhelming users and causing fatigue by creating fun and user-friendly interfaces while customizing their experience by catering to their interests/hobbies.
-HMW Statement #2: How might we create a system that informs users with price transparency and easy to understand information?
Feature Set
After taking into consideration of the POV and HMW statements created, I moved onto developing the feature set for the project. But due to time constraints, I only included the essential “Must-Have” features to stay focused on the necessities and the amount of time I had for development.
Design and Prototype
After conducting the research in the empathy phase of AccessPass development, I began to develop the flows and wireframes to develop the journey that a user would take to complete the tasks that the participants would be doing during tests.
AccessPass SiteMap
I created a sitemap that describes the account creation process and the ticketing buying process starting from the homepage. Doing so assisted me in the creation of user and task flows. It also assisted me in viewing the solutions and how they function in order to complete goals and solve issues.
This image shows the journey that a user could potentially go through when they use the resource with and without an account.
This image shows the journey a user could potentially go through when creating a new account.
AccessPass User and Task Flows
Utilizing the sitemaps that I made, I identified two main tasks that a use would be doing when utilizing the website. The two flows describe two situations:
-Task #1: The log in and account creation flow
-Task #2: Buying music tickets through the events page.
AccessPass WireFrames & Iterations
The next step post sitemap and flows was to create the initial wireframes that would give me a basic idea of how I wanted the product to look. The finished version at the bottom is the result after usability testing.
AccessPass Design Kit
Creating a new product from scratch always seems daunting especially with no previous iteration to refer to but I designed AccessPass to keep a user’s experience fun, simple, and efficient in order to get the user from point A to point B without much distraction.
In order to move onto the next step, I conducted usability tests on 7 participants. Following the tasks that I created early on, I designed the test to view the usability of the mobile website at the time of testing. And with 7 successful tests and the adaptation from the feedback I got, I was able to create the next version of the wireframe and the final prototype.
Final Designs & Prototype
Reflection
This project was a big moment in my journey as a UI/UX designer. Being a music lover and a frequent concert/festival goer, this project was quite fun to create due to my own hardships with ticketing websites.
I learned many lessons during development of AccessPass. But the most important, and difficult, one that I had to learn was to not allow my inexperience to pause development of a project. There were many times when I would look at my work and spend more time than I should’ve trying to perfect my designs.
In the end, I am proud of this project due to it being the very first one that tested my skills as a designer. Given the opportunity for further development of AccessPass, I would explore the following:
-I would like to conduct further research and testing in order to make further iterations on AccessPass in the general design or add features that it may be lacking.
-Talking with experts in the field to see where AccessPass lacks.