Merchmate
Project Overview
Merchmate is a conceptual app that shows users what concert merch will be available before arriving at the concert venue. Users will be able to decide if they want to arrive early to concerts to wait in merch lines and will be able to add available items to a wishlist through the app. Merchmate gained visibility and was selected to be featured in The Best Event and Entertainment App Designs by DesignRush, a platform known for promoting apps designs.
Project Duration
August 2022 - November 2022
My Role
UX and UI designer from conception to delivery.
Tools
Figma, Canva
The Problem
Concert goers rarely have the opportunity to view what concert merch will be available before arriving at the concert venue. This makes it difficult for users to decide whether or not they want to arrive early to venues to wait in long merch sale lines. If they were able to view merch options beforehand, users would be able to make better informed decisions on how to spend their time.
The Goal
Design an app that allows users to view concert merch before arriving at the venue.
My Responsibilities
Conducting interviews, paper and digital wireframing, low and high-fidelity prototyping, conducting usability studies, accounting for accessibility and iterating on designs.
Understanding the User
User Research
I conducted interviews and created empathy maps to better understand my users and their unique needs. The user group confirmed initial assumptions that merch sale options were of concern for customers, but further research revealed that time and money were also factors.
User Pain Points
Personas
Using information from interviews I created two personas to get a better idea of who Merchmate’s users are. Meet Sadie and Peter!
User Journey Mapping
Mapping Peter’s user journey revealed how helpful it would be for users to have access to a concert merch app.
Starting the Design
Paper Wireframes
To get started, I created paper wireframes based on the user research I had conducted so far. I wanted to show the user flow of adding a merch item to the users wishlist.
Low-fidelity Wireframes and Prototypes
Now that I had sketched out initial ideas with paper wireframes, it was time to test out my designs using mid-fidelity wireframes.
Check out the low-fidelity prototype here
Usability study: Findings
I conducted two rounds of usability studies. Findings from the first study helped guide the designs from wireframes to mockups. The second study used a high-fidelity prototype and revealed what aspects of the mockups needed refining.
Refining the Design
Mockups
Early designs allowed for some customization, but after the usability studies, I added the option to search right from the homepage and added a carousel of events near the user.
The second usability study revealed frustration with saving concerts. To make this a bit easier for users I added the option to save a concert from the band’s information page
Other mockups including profile page, concert list, product page and product list.
High-fidelity Prototype
The final high-fidelity prototype presented cleaner user flows for adding items to user wishlists.
View high-fidelity prototype here
Going Foward
Next Steps
