The Problem
Concerts are more than just events, they’re unforgettable moments. But as exciting as they are, navigating the logistics can be overwhelming. That’s where Concert Buddy steps in. Designed to simplify and elevate the concert-going experience, this app helps you prepare, enjoy, and relive your favorite concerts with ease.
The Backstory
Attending a live concert is exhilarating, but the journey isn’t always smooth. Whether it’s struggling to find parking, losing track of friends, or missing out on venue details, concert-goers often face avoidable frustrations. Existing apps focus on ticketing or archiving but leave much to be desired in enhancing the overall experience.
We saw an opportunity to change that by creating a solution that truly supports concert-goers before, during, and after the event.
How We Tackled it (The Process)
Our journey started with understanding the concert experience from a user’s perspective. We used various methods to uncover their needs.
Surveys with 67 participants revealed broad trends in preferences and pain points.
Interviews with 10 concert enthusiasts provided deeper insights into their frustrations & desires.
Card Sorting helped us design an intuitive information architecture for the app.
Competitive Analysis of platforms like Concert Archives and POSH highlighted opportunities to stand out.
Empathize
Define
Research
What We Discovered
Key Findings from the Survey
Companionship Matters: Over 25 participants emphasized that attending concerts with friends enhances their experience.
Performance Over Place: For most users, the artist’s performance held greater importance than the venue itself.
Preferred Transportation: Many respondents favored taking a cab or taxi rather than driving their own vehicle.
Health & Safety Considerations: While not a top priority, venue safety still played a role in attendees' decision-making process.
Building on what we learned from the survey, we took a more personalized approach to our Interviews. Working together as a team, we spoke with 10 participants to better understand their experiences, uncovering their challenges and what they truly value when attending concerts.
We uncovered key insights into concert-goers actions, frustrations, needs, and wants. Users value features that enhance convenience, like real-time crowd updates, intuitive navigation. Common challenges include parking difficulties, poor crowd management, and a lack of useful venue information. Participants expressed a strong desire for seamless ticketing, safety, and opportunities for memorable experiences
User Actions
User Wants
User Frustrations
We created this journey map to understand the concert-goer's experience, including their emotions, challenges, and interactions at different touchpoints. By visualizing their journey, we were able to identify pain points and opportunities to design solutions that enhance their overall experience.
Check out the detailed mapping and persona spectrum here.
Bringing the Vision to Life
After conducting a competitive analysis, we moved on to a deeper competitive review to identify where our platform could make its mark in the market. Our primary competitors were Concert Archives and POSH (View analysis here).
To gain more insights, we analyzed customer reviews from the PlayStore and AppStore using an AI tool. This helped us understand the features users appreciated the most and highlighted common pain points. These insights gave us a clear understanding of our target users' needs, helping us shape a more user-focused platform (View insights here)
From our analysis, we set four clear goals for our platform.
Make parking hassle-free by offering detailed, practical information about available parking options, ensuring attendees can arrive and leave their events with ease.
Provide users with detailed, practical information about concert venues to make their overall experience smoother and more enjoyable.
Help users easily keep track of their concerts and share reviews, making it simple to relive and reflect on their favorite moments.
Introduce a detailed rating system that goes beyond basics, offering users personalized insights and a richer understanding of concert experiences.
User Needs
What led us to this point?
Once we had a clearer idea of what the market is looking for, we proceeded with research on what the design of the platform should look like.
After finalizing our mid-fi prototype in Figma, we conducted a cognitive walkthrough with our peers. Their feedback was extremely helpful, revealing 13 errors across the five tasks we tested.
Our project goals developed as our project grew. We allowed our research to narrow down what users were really looking for. Hence our project goals had to be dynamic at the beginning. However, once we had a better picture, we accomplished our objectives.
The Features That Make It Work
Using the feedback from the cognitive walkthrough, we refined our design and developed a HIGH-FI Prototype in Figma.
This included creating six key user task flows to address core user need.
What's Next?
Future Directions and Opportunities for Growth
While our project successfully achieved most of our goals through the design and testing of ConcertBuddy prototype, there are clear pathways for further advancement. To begin with, we intend to conduct broader and more diverse usability tests to deepen our understanding of user interactions. Additionally, exploring the app's usability on smartwatch platforms is another avenue for future exploration. Although time constraints led us to prioritize the mobile interface, expanding the interface's compatibility to smartwatches could significantly broaden our user base and improve accessibility.
