product design
BOOKIT!
Improving Communication and Organization between Artists and Talent Buyers
Problem and Objective:
BookIt! is an event management software.
The challenge was to simplify the booking process, provide transparency, and enhance communication for both parties involved.
SO what was I going to do about it?
Role:
UX Researcher, UX/UI Designer
live entertainment is complicated.
I carried out user interviews with performing artists and talent buyers to identify pain points, motivations, and needs.
Let’s talk about feelings
New bands feel overwhelmed and confused by booking complexities, including proximity clauses, and struggle to understand talent buyers' roles.
“I’ve found that venues really want you to do most of the work.”
The absence of feedback on unsuccessful booking attempts frustrates and leaves new bands uncertain about improving their approach.
What are others doing?
Event Creation
Ticket Sales and Payment Processing
Event Promotion
Data and Analytics
Prism and Bandsintown offered the most services but I found that Eventbrite was more widely used by a massive margin.
how might it work?
Whiteboard User Journey for both the Artist and the Talent Buyers
Whiteboard Site Map
Imagining the architecture of the site.
What might it look like?
Whiteboard sketches for ideation.
Utilized Figma for the design process, creating wireframes and high-fidelity prototypes.
Designed a calendar for date selection, a form for artists, and an administrative portal for talent buyers.
Whiteboard sketch of form for venue website. Additionally, on the right is another iteration of the calendar sketch.
its all coming together.
Utilized Figma for the design process, creating wireframes and high-fidelity prototypes.
Designed a calendar for date selection, a form for artists, and an administrative portal for talent buyers.
Created Mock-Up of a fictional venue site to see the design in a real world scenario.
A booking form can eliminate concerns about whether or not a musician is providing all of the right details in their booking requests. They can feel better knowing their chances are higher with a properly filled out form.
What did they think ?
“this is awesome! we would use this at our venues for sure!”
“I love that it tells me about when to expect a response.”
“Maybe the drag and drop could have a drop down menu where i can customize or edit dates?”
“I love the clickable calendar. That makes it so much easier to see what’s available from a quick scan.”
Usability Test with Stakeholder who is a local venue manager and talent buyer.
Gathered feedback through mentor critique and usability testing with potential users, both artists, and talent buyers.
Iteratively refined the design based on user feedback and suggestions.
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 further usability testing, refining the design, and expanding functionality, especially in the administrative portal. Additionally, gathering feedback from more talent buyers will guide the development of a mid-ground solution, providing valuable features at a reasonable cost.
I love post-its. They are great way to chunk out information into bite sized pieces.
“I wish artists were aware of and understood radius clauses.”
Booking is intimidating for new bands due to their limited connections, making them anxious about essential information.
“I just can’t get any venues to respond to me. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.”
Tools:
Figma, Sketch, Zoom, Notion, Otter Ai, Google Docs
Methods:
Competitive Analysis, User Interviews, Prototyping, Usability Testing, Desirability Interviews
Talent buyers were also challenged due to the huge influx of requests, lacking easy-to-use tools.
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.
Imagining how each path interacts with the other.
Imagining the musicians path to success.
Whiteboard sketch of calendar designs and admin portal.
Imagining a 2-way calendar that accepts inputs from both the public and the administrator. The admin would be able to control which dates were available or not available. The user would be able to click on available dates but not on dates that had been booked.
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.
With a simple drag and drop format, Venue buyers can organize their shows through the entire process in a logical way that is also more visually accessible than a spreadsheet or massive google docs folder.