Karen Dela Cruz / Product Designer

InTune - mobile app
CASE STUDY




project summary
InTune was created to give Music lovers a seamless experience of purchasing & distributing tickets for a group of friends. The app has a specific feature that can easily send & receive payments, set payment plans between friends and distribute tickets to each individual in 1 platform instantly. Easing the financial burden of group organizers in a secure & organized manor.
My responsibilities
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Product Strategies
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User Research/Interviews
-
Competitor Analysis
-
User Flow
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Wire Framing
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Prototyping
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Usability Testing
MY PROCESS

Discovery
Research
Ideation
Design
Usability Testing
WEEK 1-2
WEEK 3-4
WEEK 4-5
WEEK 6-7
WEEK 8
Define Problem
Interview & Survey
Target Audience
Affinity Mapping,
Comparative Analysis,
Persona, User Journey
Priorization Matrix,
Conceptual Modeling, Information Architecture
Wire Framing,
Low & High
Fidelity Prototyping
Usability Testing
& Iteration
Collecting & analyzing information
Present Research Finds
Create Product Strategy
DEFINING
THE PROBLEM
DISCOVERY
An area of opportunity is in browsing & purchasing music concert tickets.
To start off, my goal was to discover an outcome to make possible through my target audience, active concert goers & music lovers
- like myself. What were my users thinking & feeling, what’s important to them, & what do they want to achieve in this product.
How might we create an easy way to concert goers to connect with friends for upcoming shows?
How might we narrow down the number of platforms for ticket distribution among friends?
How might we find a way to inform fans about release dates to pre plan purchasing concert tickets?
How might we find we create a way to discover artists of all levels on one platform?
Initial Problem Statement:
Active concert goers need a way to seamlessly discover & purchase local ticket shows to discover new & big artists under 1 platform because it will help them connect with their favorite artists
New Hypothesis:
We believe that by creating a platform for artists of all levels for active concert goers we will achieve a simpler way to browse, discover, and purchase concert tickets. We will know this to be true when fans save time from browsing online to see their favorite artists live.
INTERVIEW
TARGET AUDIENCE
DISCOVERY
I planned and conducted 7 in person interviews within a span of 2 weeks with 3 friends. I used the snowball effect on them to gather 4 strangers. Total of 2 Festival Lovers, 3 musicians, 1 sound engineer, & 1 hip hop fan. After interviewing my target audience I gathered my research and categorized my findings using the affinity mapping method leading me to a new problem statement

USER GOALS:
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Discover music through a single platform.
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Share concert information seamlessly
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Simplified way to purchase group ticket orders
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Receive instant notifications on local concert shows
MOTIVATIONS:
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Staying up to date with favorite artists while watching their success grow
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“Live music is a better experience”
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Concerts are fun with friends
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Make new friends with people who have the same taste in music
Distilled 3 main findings after careful observation of my interviews that
lead me to a more specific problem statement

People will naturally want to attend concerts with a group of friends.

Fans will purchase concert tickets from a specific platform based on the ease of its features. Ex) Tickets catered to big Vs. small venues, presell code, application ease.

For busy adults, planning a group concert is time consuming due to seat placements, ticket distribution, and payments.
New Problem Statement:
Music fans need a seamless process to purchase and distribute group tickets to friends. Easing the financial burden of group trip organizers, alleviating the headache of accessing individual tickets and providing a more organized format to plan logistics.
COMPARATIVE
ANALYSIS
research
Once my new problem statement was defined. I needed to conduct a competitive analysis on other mobile applications for purchasing concert tickets. I used the feature comparison matrix to compare & contrast layouts, UI patterns, content strategy, branding, why do they exist in the market?, observing what they do well vs. what they can improve on and most importantly,
what problem are they solving




Songkick
TicketWeb
BandsinTown
TicketMaster
Pain Points Addressed
Feature A
Resell Feed
Feature B
Mobile Seat Preview
Feature C
Radius Adjustment
Feature D
Pre-Set payment method
Feature E
Song Preview

Songkick
Spotify
BandsinTown
TicketMaster




Displays Airbnb options
Near venue upon purchasing ticket options
Displays artists “next concert” in artist profile
Users can preview artists song when browsing for concerts on the home page
Displays Ad's on first screen
PERSONA
research
Now that I had synthesized my user research I created a persona, named Melissa specifically designed as a typical user for InTune.

Melissa Rae, 29
Brooklyn, NY
Marketing Manger
BIO:
Issa is a grad student at NYU & has a passion for music, loves attending shows to connect with friends and their favorite artists. She is usually the friend of the group that handles purchasing the tickets then distributing to each individual. At times, she can get overwhelmed by the amount of platforms she needs to search for the best deal that fits her party, tracking everyone down on multiple platforms for ticket logistics and keeping track of everyones payments. She wishes there was a single platform that could handle group ticket purchases seamlessly.
GOALS:
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Simple way to distribute tickets without using multiple platforms.
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Request payments from friends who she purchased tickets for
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Organized process to view current & past concerts with different friend groups
PAIN POINTS:
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Connecting friends with their ticket seamlessly under 1 mobile platform
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Time constraining trying to find the best deal for group tickets.
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Needs resell ticket platform for last minute cancellations
BEHAVIORS:
Usually creates a group chat to keep friends connected with concert info, but can be difficult when users are a mix of Android and IOS. Primary choice to pay for tickets is through a Paypal option to know there is a sense of Freud security if a ticket is bought from a scammer. Enjoys attending local shows not just well known artists connecting with people with similar interests
USER JOURNEY
research
In order to solve Melissa’s financial burden of purchasing everyones tickets then requesting and receiving payments from everyone. I created a brief storyboard showing the potential flow of how she would receive payment on time. In the 5th screen, it shows a final payment reminder for the user following screens with the remaining balance, completing the request and ticket being sent to her directly once fulfilled.

After creating a storyboard for Melissa’s problem it helped me distinguish her user flow of where to place the MVP feature (send and receiving split payments) in the app. In the storyboard she is already considered a “existing user” from the start. Which lead me to place the MVP after purchasing the tickets. (outlined in blue). From there, I then realized it would be a few steps to actually build out the feature.

FEATURE
PRIORIZATON MATRIX
ideation
Using the MoSCow method I was able to choose the most valuable features through Melissa’s user flow. This was one of the most difficult steps for me personally to eliminate - I wanted to include so many “cool” features but slowly realized with the given time line it wouldn’t be possible to complete and I had to question whether it was really solving my user’s problems.

Post It’s marked with an X did not make it through the final version of InTune (for now).
INFORMATION
ARCHITECTURE
ideation
In order to discover InTunes content structure I used the open card sorting method to create the site map.
Due to Covid-19 we were all under heavy quarantine at the time. I was only able to do card sorting in person with one individual the other 3 were online using the platform Optimal Sort.

Summary of results viewed through the actual agreement method on a skeptical dendrogram

Using music as my main topic, gave my surveyors a pretty simple task since subjects in this world can be pretty straightforward. Everyone had the same subjects & categories for the most part
Instead, this method was able to assist me with the flow by asking them to place their topics in order from the beginning (searching for a concert) to the end (purchasing the tickets and splitting payment). All users placed the split payment feature (MVP) directly after the purchase.
SITE MAP
ideation

After card sorting I was able to structure the context for InTune. The categories my surveyors provided during my open card sorting made this process very simple for me to create an over all view of the user flow.
DESIGN

Once the site map was complete it was time to start designing the product. The first step was to paper prototype and sketch out the main key screens Melissa would initially see reflecting her user flow and the site map.
I was able to conduct two rounds of paper prototyping to see how my users would generate the flow of the app. from their perspective before I started creating the low fidelity wire frames. The two individuals I tested with were 1 female and 1 male in their mid twenties, both fairly knew how to navigate through mobile applications. Some of the major feedback I received were implementing back and exit out buttons, no shopping cart icone, there was confusion with my search and home page - perhaps combing them into one. The genre format & most importantly where were the onboarding pages and what would they contain?
LOW-FI WIRE FRAMING
design
After the brief paper prototyping, it was time to implement the feedback I received and sketch them into low-fi wireframes. Below are a few of the main key screens I sketched before sending them into usability testing.

Browse

Home

Friends Feed

User Profile

Browse Concert by Genre





Artist Profile
"Group" Page
Add Friends by Adding new group
Individual "Group"
"Add" friends to concert at checkout
Usability Testing
Once I completed my wireframes it was time to prototype my screens on Invision and conduct the first round of usability testing. Unfortunately, due to Covid-19 we were under strict lockdown at the time and I was only able to conduct 1 in person testing. The remaining two were done via zoom with a shared link so I could take notes by observation based on their environment and any questions they had during the testing. I required each user to follow a list of tasks to navigate through the app and then review their feedback with me on the zoom - call each round took no longer than 40 minutes and each user was rewarded with a $5 Starbucks gift card for participating.
User Tester #1
(Pictured - In person testing)
Name: Andre, 30
- Attends concerts 1-2 times a year
- Prefers purchasing tickets at the
box office to avoid additional
online fee's
User Tester #2
(Pictured - Zoom Test)
Name: Camille, 20
- Never purchased or attended a
concert in her life.
- First time browsing on a ticket
platform
User Tester #3
(Not Pictured - Zoom test)
Name: Mercedes, 28
-- Frequents concerts/festivals all year around.
- Usually the person to purchase bulk tickets for group or friend.




*Pictures used approved
by individuals for project
usability
testing results
Usability testing
After the first round of usability testing I created a formal reporting method to synthesize all my research. A few of the tasks are listed below - This format allowed me to view each participants individual process for specific tasks and take notes based on solutions vs my observations. After gathering the first round of feedback my next step was to update my high fidelity screens. I had time for another round of testing until my final prototype was due.

hi fidelity
testing
Usability testing
After conducting the final round of usability testing, the feedback was applied into high fidelity screens for the final prototype. Below are a few main screens with updated feedback after the final testing I conducted with my 3 users.
















final prototype
Task:
Purchase tickets to an Alicia Keys concert split the payments and distribute the tickets after purchase with your existing “Best Friend” group.
Link:
Whats next?
Short Term Goals:
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Create receiving end screens
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Run usability tests on the resell ticket feed
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Change screen transitions
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Refine Flows
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Create PC version of app
Long Term Goals:
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Interactive Seat Maps
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More research on competitors. Music streaming platforms have become big direct competitors