TourPro builds a bridge directly between the artist and the road.
Duration: 4 Weeks
Type: Concept Project
Role: UX/UI Design, Research
Tools: Figma, Optimal Workshop, Miro, Pen & Paper
The Problem
Organizing a live music tour is a complicated process with many challenges, often requiring multiple platforms and forms of communication. Opportunities for artists to showcase their work to new markets and earn income can be easily missed. TourPro aims to simplify the process and support independent performers in navigating the ups and downs of tour planning.
I want to create a product that’s easy to use and supports DIY artists.
Through user interviews and competitive analysis, I identified significant opportunities to optimize the tour planning process for independent musicians and DJs with little to no agent representation.
Process & Methods
Empathize
“Established websites aren’t really trusted sources, there might be a fee, and I can just do it myself.”
Research revealed how independent musicians typically organize their tours. I wanted to understand the challenges faced in the booking and planning process; to determine what tools are already being used and what pain-points exist; and to understand the challenges faced on the road during a live tour.
After a competitive analysis, I held in-person interviews with seven participants representing a wide variety of industry experience and who have established backgrounds in music.
Three key insights from the interviews stood out:
Overall, research uncovered a gap in the market as current tools and methods are lacking in efficiency, reliability, and cohesiveness.
Hear directly from participants:
Define
Refinement
With a better understanding of artists’ needs in mind, I found myriad directions in which to go. I narrowed the scope by developing personas, and brainstorming HMW questions and features.
I ultimately decided to focus on flows for sharing information as my MVP for this project. Through weighing user and business goals, technology considerations, and feedback from my mentor and peers, TourPro came together.
Personas
I created three personas based on distinct dispositions towards live music that emerged during interviews. While all participants generally had the same pain-points, I found that mindset and approach to problems differed. I kept all three groups in mind while developing my product.
Brainstorming Ideas
I came up with four HMW questions and used exercises in creative constraints & playing with opposites to generate feature ideas and solutions. After touching base with my mentor and reflecting on the highest priority flows for an initial rollout, I settled on solving the problem of sharing information between users.
How might we…
Information Architecture
Card sorting in Optimal Workshop was used to develop a sitemap. This helped to keep both myself and TourPro organized and guided the creation of task flows.
Task Flows & User Flows
Task flows and user flows for account creation, tour creation, and adding a user to a tour helped in determining the key screens in my design.
Ideation
Wireframes
General layout and flow was explored through sketches and wireframes; I experimented with different layouts and looked at how the flows might come together. Feedback and iterations on the digital wireframes allowed me to understand the design patterns more clearly, and helped me to visualize myself as a user in the process.
Permissions
Onboarding
User Homescreen
Tour Dashboard
Profile Setup
Band Page Setup
Test
User Insights:
With screen recording, I conducted user testing with five people in person. Testers were asked to complete three tasks:
Onboarding & setting up a band page.
Creating a tour.
Managing access to a tour by adding and removing users.
Overall, users responded positively to TourPro stating that it would be very useful to them.
“I think this is something that I have not used or seen, to be able to have all of this in one place, I think it combines a number of different services into one place which is a novel idea.”
Feedback for TourPro indicated some confusion in the navigation and patterns, and other suggestions for improvements:
Add a calendar to the band page for booking.
Improve the “save changes” pattern.
Rearrange the tour access screens.
Remove superfluous navigation.
Availability transformed into…
… a button!
Accessible Booking, Turning an Indicator into a Button
Iterations based on usability learnings:
I added a calendar to the band page for easy access to musician’s availability.
The interactive calendar button is an intuitive way for users to discover a band's availability to book and collaborate with.
Before
After
Visual Assurance of Input Saved
Iterations based on usability learnings:
Changed course on the save pattern, using a full screen.
This change provides a more immersive and visually prominent acknowledgement of changes, fostering a sense of confidence and clarity in the user's actions. By minimizing ambiguity, the user's cognitive load is reduced.
Design
Visual Identity
Inspired by stage lighting and music blogs, I used a mood board to explore TourPro’s brand identity. I chose to prioritize a dark color scheme so that uploaded fliers, photos, and videos will pop. Since TourPro is primarily an app for touring artists, I explored several logo designs evocative of music and travel. I narrowed down my sketches with a poll, and the location icon won.
A simple typography was used that is legible on a mobile screen and bolsters a clean UI.
Prototype
Tour Ready in Minutes: Onboarding, Simplified
Start managing your tour with TourPro's user-friendly three-step onboarding. Swiftly set up an account and follow the CTA to create a band page to start jamming with other musicians locally or on the road.
D.I.Y. Made Easy
Organize and access show details for each stop on the tour route. Build it yourself, keep it all in one place.
Collaborate Efficiently by Managing Tour Access
To help with collaboration needs, TourPro includes the ability for the owner (creator) of a tour to give access to other users who are involved in the planning or simply need to view the details.
Reflection
Next steps for TourPro are to refine some of the micro-interactions in the existing design, and explore the process of requesting a booking, connecting with other artists, and to design a simple budgeting feature.
This project provided a lot of insight into product development and allowed some initial groundwork to be laid for a project that has amazing potential. Between research and user testing it’s clear that TourPro is a market fit, and can become a staple tool for independent artists.
Beyond that, this is my first full project in Figma and I learned so much in a short period of time. I’m excited to continue building the skills I learned here. I enjoyed this process and find it energizing to make connections between ideas, and to create something that makes a positive impact.
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Mora Flora
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