Streamlined booking with a user-friendly form and interactive calendar.
Designing for both sides of the live entertainment coin.
For new bands just starting out, learning how booking works is daunting. They often do not hear back and have no idea why.
On the other hand, booking managers and talent buyers are overwhelmed with a constant influx of show requests and have limited options for how to organize and respond to all of them.
I knew there had to be a better way so I started by talking to artists in my area to find out what their experience was with booking shows and how they approached it.
For the Performing Artists requesting booking dates.
Laying it all out for bands makes the whole process so much easier.
This is a clear and direct step by step process to improve usability and eliminate confusion.
The information in this section was generated using the answers from both talent buyers and artists.
A booking form can eliminate concerns about whether or not a musician is providing all of the right details in their booking requests.
They are confident knowing their chances are higher with a properly filled out form.
Additionally the booker is guaranteed to receive all the info they need to make a decision.
Booking Calendar built in Figma gives bands immediate knowledge of what dates are available for request.
This provides them with more confidence that they are more likely to get booked.
For the talent bookers managing all of the booking requests.
The archive allows the manager to view and organize past shows for reference when booking new shows.
An in-app calendar for simplicity and focus.
Only venue related info on this time saver.
The data from the booking form autofills the show cards which can be moved along the progression using a drag and drop feature or using the tab button and arrow keys.
Choices made here are reflected on the public facing site.
The booking manager is able to control which dates are shown as available, which are shown as booked or on hold.
Here’s how I landed on those designs.
Role
UX Researcher
UX/UI Designer
Tools
Figma
Sketch
Zoom
Notion
Otter Ai
Google Docs
Google
ChatGPT
Midjourney
Methods
Competitive Analysis
User Interviews
Prototyping
Usability Testing
Desirability Interviews
User Flows
Information Architecture.
Let’s talk about feelings!
New bands feel overwhelmed and confused by
booking complexities
proximity clauses, and struggle to understand talent buyers' roles
“I’ve found that venues really want you to do most of the work.”
Booking is intimidating for new bands due to their limited connections and experience making them anxious about essential information.
“I wish artists were aware of and understood radius clauses.”
Talent buyers were also challenged due to the huge influx of requests and lacking easy-to-use tools.
“I just can’t get any venues to respond to me. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.”
The absence of feedback on unsuccessful booking attempts frustrates and leaves new bands uncertain about improving their approach.
What’s already out there?
I conducted
competitive analysis of event management platforms
to understand
design,
features,
and user experience.
I love seeing
how others are already solving similar or identical problems!
It’s always
a key part of my UX toolkit.
Prism and Bandsintown offered the most services but I found that
Eventbrite was more widely used by a massive margin.
The primary services offered were
Event Creation
Ticket Sales
Payment Processing
Event Promotion,
Data and Analytics.
There are some comprehensive options but they are cost prohibitive to smaller venues.
How might it actually work?
Imagining all of the steps and touchpoints the booker would interact with over the course of the engagement to decide what I need to design.
I really needed to understand this from inside and out from the first request all the way through to renewal.
Visualizing the path of the struggling new artist trying to book their first show.
It needed to be
intuitive and logical so that the artists can feel
confident and excited
rather than
daunted and discouraged.
Research informed me that the best way to increase delight and engagement was to
not force bands to create an account.
With that in mind, I designed the architecture of the site to be
useable with no required login or account creation.
It’s important to me to consider the journey through both sets of eyes and how the two will engage with each other over the course of the booking process.
From talking with bands and bookers, I found them to be
comfortable using emails and texting to communicate at each step of the process.
I knew from talking with bands that
a two-way clickable calendar would provide transparency.
Which builds trust and sets clear expectations.
For bookers, I found they were being overwhelmed by spreadsheets and using Google Drive to manage everything.
So I designed
a drag and drop organizational tool which would help lower the risks of cognitive overload.
After speaking with other bands and talent buyers, I found the list of necessary information for useful and repeatable form.
Which included
Name
Band name
Email
Phone
Link to music
Small bio
Specific dates requested
In the same way that job applications can autofill from a resumean Electronic Press Kit or EPK could be uploaded to save time.
With a tight deadline, I had to get the most out of my time.
So I designed a prototype for users of both groups to test with.
Additionally, I wanted to get their insights so I asked them to think aloud as they worked through the key tasks.
Let’s hear from the bookers and bands.
“This is awesome! we would use this at our venues for sure!”
“Maybe the drag and drop could have a drop down menu where I can customize or edit dates?”
“I love that it tells me about when to expect a response.”
“I love the clickable calendar. That makes it so much easier to see what’s available from a quick scan.”
Results and Impact:
The iterative design process ensured that the platform addressed the needs and pain points identified during research.
Users found the initial version exciting, particularly appreciating the functionality.
However, feedback highlighted the need for design improvements
Including layout and information presentation.
Conclusion and Future Recommendations:
The platform aims to create a seamless experience for both artists and talent buyers, enhancing the booking and scheduling process.
Future iterations will focus on improving UI, adding more organizational functions for the manager such as the ability to manage more than one venue which many do.
Additionally, gathering feedback from more talent buyers will guide the development of a mid-ground solution, providing valuable features at a reasonable cost.