Kosmic Kingdom Music Festival App Case Study
Summary
Kosmic Kingdom Music Festival App (KKMF App) was created in order to facilitate the link between client and company by providing direct access to all KKMF related content in one site. Kosmic Kingdom is a music festival situated in a Renaissance Fair in Des Moines, Iowa. This project is the start to finish curation of a user application that was developed for festival-goers and music fans.
Overview
In this case study we are going to explain the full development of the Kosmic Kingdom Music Festival App, its problems and its features. The KKMF app plans to be a coherent and smooth experience for people who have attended, or plan to attend the Kosmic Kingdom Music Festival which is currently on halt due to COVID.
Problem Statement
Client requires an app that generates engagement with community members and allows users to purchase tickets and other goods for the festival that he owns.
- Ensure that any user can buy tickets for the festival.
- Ensure that any user can purchase merchandise
- Ensure that any user can see the lineup for the artists
- Ensure that users can see the social media
- Ensure that users can receive notifications and updates
- Ensure that users can find important information about the event and FAQ
- Ensure that users feel safe within the environment
- Ensure that users have access of use and knowledge for all the amenities provided to festival-goers
- Ensure that media (photo, video) is available for users
- Ensure that users can interact with each other and with the media available
User and Audience
Festival goers, people that attend events regularly, people who enjoy bass-oriented music, young people of Des Moines, Iowa and its surrounding areas.
Roles and Responsibilities
I thought of the idea to make a festival app long ago in which community members could stay in contact with each other for the music. I asked a good friend and mentor of mine if he had any ideas for an app and he pitched the idea to make one for Kosmic Kingdom which is a yearly music festival held in Des Moines, Iowa. I developed the app design, received feedback from client and created a prototype. Additionally, I tested the prototype on several individuals and found it to be efficient for its requirements.
Scope and Constraints
During the initial meeting with the client I was able to create a basic set of requirements that could feasibly be met within the time range of the project. This included only 8 tasks which became 8 scenarios for our user testing. The scope of the original project was to make lo-fi wireframes however we had enough resources to create high-fidelity prototypes for clients and members of the community to look at. The only constraints we had during the course of this project was time and a some difficulty gathering enough participants for the user surveys and usability tests.
Process
Discover
Name and project planning
After finishing the prototype for the festival app and conducting several usability tests, it was concluded that the current design is the most efficient for festival-goers and other festival community members. During the usability tests, subjects were tasked with scenarios that are closely-aligned to the original problems discussed with the client. The results of this test were that the current interface has no visible usability errors.
User Survey
During the testing of our prototype, it was revealed that most of the test subjects had no problem navigating the prototype, but about half wanted a different icon for the music tab, and one test subject thought the community board icon should be switched to something different.
Competitor Review
Two competitor apps were analyzed as well as a sister app in order to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each and add them to our own project.
515 Alive App:
This app is a sister app to the KKMF App since it was developed for the same client. From this model, the menu feature as a tab that slides out and contains more tabs within it, was extracted.
Ultra Festival App:
This competitor app is a festival app for a franchise of festivals held throughout the world. The app's sleek features were very attractive to the project envisioned. From this app, I extracted the idea of using four tabs at the bottom in order to compartmentalize and categorize the different parts of the app. The home app also had a category in which you could select to register or sign-in to a "passport account" this will be kept for future reference.
Tomorrowland App:
Another competitor app for franchise of festivals in Europe. The app functions as a music player and contains a radio for electronic music which features the artists. A decision was made to keep the artist-centered tab as well as the bottom tabs used for navigation.
Define
User persona(s)
Alfonso moved to Des Moines, Iowa after graduating from high school. He is currently working as an assistant manager at one of the stores in the outlet malls in the suburbs. He works weekdays and enjoys his weekends at the bars or at different musical events held throughout the city.
Jackie recently graduated from Iowa State university with a business degree. She has wanted to run her own business since she was in high school and wants to save money during her time as a sales agent.
Jackie enjoys going out to music events, hanging out with her friends at the clubs. She also likes to stay active and works out and has an active following on social media. She is 25 years old, lives in two-bedroom apartment with a flatmate and enjoys cooking.
User Stories
Sticky Notes were incorporated based on the 'How Might We' technique, in which the clients initial concerns were formulated for the app to solve. This technique was useful for thinking about what pages would be needed and how to properly categorize them.
Empathy Map
I created an Empathy Map based on our fictional user persona and her journey at the entrance of the festival and gain a deeper insight into our target customers
Journey Map
This journey map is based on a fictional user, Alfonso, who has just received news of Kosmic Kingdom festival happening. This journey map details his highs and lows through the experience of needing, searching, finding and exploring the KKMF app.
User Flow
A user flow was developed for KKMF App. This flow outlines the the paths that would be available for the app user once he/she opens the app.
Develop
Wireframe Sketches
During this four-part assignment, the most important aspects of the development of this app were narrowed down and simplified into categories.
The first sketch that I created was based on ideas that formed in my head as I started thinking about the app and it's most important features. Since my client already had an app for another festival, it was easy to recognize elements that I I felt were missing and needed to be included in KKMF App. I was also able to recognize elements that were already done well and would work for the goals of KKMF App.
The second sketch was where all the ideas were put together. I created sketches for how I pictured each page of the app will look like. For the pages that my client and I agreed were most important , I added tabs at the bottom of the pages, in order to locate these important elements of the app seamlessly and quickly.
Eight different iterations of the home page were created. All of them featured the logo on top. A few contained the trailer for the show at the top (later on some of the participants thought this would be a good idea). Other versions had no tabs at the bottom.. Some of the ideas for other pages also came about from one of the other sketches. For instance, like the scrolling of videos on the homepage and a place to spotlight a specific performer that would be featured at the festival. Ultimately, the first crazy 8 design was chosen.
The final design for the pages was decided.. The main logo and title would be at the center of the design and right below, a button to purchase tickets and and a button to take you to the merchandise shop. The tabs at the bottom would designate the four sub-categories of the app. Homepage, Music, Community board, Menu.
The homepage would also have the ability to scroll down to view more recent KKMF updates.
The ‘Purchase Tickets’ button would lead you to the ‘Sign-in or Register’ button and below it a button to purchase tickets; below that, different ticketing options would be outlined. The ‘Shop’ page on the right would contain the exclusive KKMF gear, rave clothing from sister company, Festival Gear and the KKMF sponsors below them. The second category would have the lineup at first and a way to scroll through artists performing at the festival.
Clicking on this card-like element you would be taken to another page that would feature the artist’s music and social media links.
The third category would be a community board in which users with an account could communicate with each other. On top of the community board, a row of scrollable video media would lead you to trailer and/or KKMF after-movies. The last category is the menu, this would contain items that don’t fit neatly in other areas. Social media, account info, map and FAQ would be placed in here. This open tab design was inspired by the 515 Alive app.
A storyboard was sketched, using a storyline of a staff member or artist on the lineup informing one of their friends about the upcoming event and the app on it. How this person searched for the app, downloaded it, bought tickets and left a comment on the community board.
Paper Prototype
A paper prototype was shown to the client during the second meeting. From this meeting the client gave me the go-head to continue working on the project. He felt that all the requirements were met that we established during the first meeting and was satisfied with the direction of the app itself.
Digital wireframes
Following the design sketches, digital lo-fi wireframes were designed at this stage.
There were no other major changes made to the sketches except the iconography for the tabs. From these wireframes, a prototype was developed for an usability test
Link to clickable lo-fi wireframes is here
Deliver
Usability Test
A screener survey regarding festivals and digital apps was created and sent out to several friends and members of my community as well as posted on social media.
Scope
From the survey 15 people responded and answered all the questions. Out of those 15 about 7 were selected based on the answers that most corresponded with the user persona Jackie. In exchange for the usability test the people who completed the test would receive a ticket to an event in late February 2021 held by our client. After selecting the candidates, we sent them an email with another survey that would allow them to select between an in-person meeting or a zoom meeting and the time and schedule of the meeting. After this survey was filled out, we contacted each participant and conducted the meeting.
Screener and pretest questions can be found here
Tasks
Scenario 1: You have just downloaded the app and need to purchase tickets for Kosmic Kingdom
Scenario 2: You are excited for the event and want to purchase Merch to show your support.
Scenario 3: You just found out that your favorite artist is playing at KKMF, find out the time and day they will be on stage.
Bonus: You want to show a friend information about the artist.
Scenario 4: You want to follow Kosmic Kingdom on Facebook and Twitter.
Scenario 5: They have just announced the date of the show and you want to know what dates you need to take off from work. Find the updates page.
Scenario 6: You have just bought tickets to the festival, you want to know about the amenities of the festival (locker rooms, accessibility access, refunds, etc).
Scenario 7: Wondering who will attend the festival, you leave a public comment on the community board of the festival app in hopes that someone you know will reply.
Scenario 8: You want to watch the trailer for the event.
In-Test Questions:
- What is this? What is it for?
- What did you think of that?
- So, what happened there?
- Was that what you expected? Why or why not?
- So, what goes through your mind as you look at this?
- Did you find what you were looking for?
- What would you do next? Why?
- Is there anything else you would do at this point?
- Is there any other way to do that?
- In what ways would you want this changed to make it better for you?
- What additional info would have helped?
Debriefing
- Which parts of this page are most or least important to you?
- What do each of the tab icons mean?
- What do you like or dislike about this?
- If you had three wishes to make this better for you, what would you wish for? Why?
The following is a table created with the results of these tests.
Findings & Results
Users who participated in the usability tests agreed on one thing and it was how quick and easy it was to access the pages. Some users felt that the icons used for the main tabs may need more description and others didn't think it would be necessary since clicking on them would make them self-explanatory. Two participants thought that video media should be placed in another area and that community board should be enlarged. Those ideas were taken into account but not put into motion.
Conclusion
Future Development
Due to Covid the festival is still on halt. Client mentioned waiting through the fall in order to see if the festival could still happen. If so, we will utilize the features and ideas presented during the course of this project in order to make this app a reality and provide users with the ability to create a local community and a revenue generating program for our client as well.
Brand Development
In an attempt to create a better vision of the future application of this app, my skills as an app creator and a clearer vision for the future of this project we also developed a high-fidelity prototype and have produced all its deliverables.
After developing the high fidelity prototype we decide to present the lo-fi prototype lo-fi to client as to not avoid confusion with the other high-res and high fidelity components of the prototype
During the crazy 8's design several creative and well-liked iterations of the homepage were created but discarded for a look that is much more similar to the competitor and sister apps.
High Fidelity Prototype
Although high-fidelity prototypes were not required for this assignment, these were produced with the theme color of the logo. The shapes of the buttons and tabs used in the lo-fi prototype appeared to be liked by the users so they have been kept.
Final Thoughts
Although this product is far from finished I believe we have created a solid base for the development of this app. There were a lot of setbacks though the course of this project such as not being able to communicate and establish a digital connection with client at some points and weather related issues that delayed the usability tests. But ultimately we were able to communicate with everyone that we asked to work with
I believe that this app is the best of both worlds and has capabilities to grow into a powerful social media force. Through a combination of working design systems used by competitor apps, a charming locally-oriented community board, a one-stop page shop for all things conveniently related to the community and a seamless digital experience, I believe that this app has the potential to create a self-sustainable community in which users have the ability to shop for many things as well as sell as a sponsor or as an artist through the artist page (page could be expanded for merchandise unique to each artist)
