SoundCloud Concert Feature
*This is concept work. I am not affiliated with SoundCloud.
Role
UX/UI Designer
Tools
Figma
About
Founded in 2007, SoundCloud is a platform powered by a global community of artists and listeners focused on what’s new and emerging in music culture. SoundCloud empowers independent artists with the tools, services, and resources they need to help them build and grow their careers.
Define
Problem
It's hard for people to keep track and find their favorite artists' concerts, especially if they're in a very specific niche like deep house. Currently, people need to download various applications, check websites, and search Facebook groups to find music events and a place to purchase tickets for those events. It takes a lot of time, and people often miss the concerts of their favorite artists.
Solution
A great way for artists to let fans know about their next performance is to promote it on SoundCloud. Artists can add their entire tour schedule to the platform, and fans can check dates and cities where an artist is performing, and then purchase tickets to those performances. Fans can check the artist's touring schedule, buy tickets, and listen to the music of their favorite artists all on the same platform.
Target audience
35% of SoundCloud’s audience is between the ages of 18 and 35.
Competitor Analysis
To get started, I did a competitive analysis of five different companies and the features they offer.
I found that one of SoundCloud's fiercest competitors is Spotify, which already has a concert feature. However, users cannot easily keep track of their favorite artists' concerts on Spotify. The current concert feature requires users to actively search for artists and performances. There is also no way to save interesting concerts found. The ability to save a concert will allow users to act quickly when they are interested but indecisive or busy at that moment.
$26.64 Bn
global concert revenue projected by 2022
Business opportunities
In the post-COVID world, people happily participate live concerts. But it's still a problem for people to track the concerts of their favorite artists and to ensure that they don't miss the concerts they purchase. This opens up significant opportunities for music streaming services. One of the largest streaming services, Spotify, already has this feature, but it is difficult to search for concerts on the user interface, users are brought to another website to purchase tickets, and users are not reminded about the concerts they've purchased — there is no way for users to add it to their calendar or save it to a wish list.
User interviews
To help me understand how people find gigs of their favorite bands and what problems they have in the process, I conducted five interviews with people who use any music streaming platform. I decided to target not only SoundCloud users, but also people who use competitor music streaming platforms like Spotify and YouTube Music.
of participants find it difficult to keep track of their favorite artists' concerts
of participants go to concerts with their friends or partners
of participants use Google calendar to remind themselves of an upcoming concert
Key Insights
1. People want to be notified about upcoming concerts of their favorite artists.
2. There is no single way for people to find tickets. People still learn about new concerts from their friends, Instagram posts, local venues, email subscriptions, or various concert applications.
3. People need time before deciding to buy tickets, especially expensive ones. They want to share ticket information with their friends and partners first.
4. People want to be reminded of future music events they've saved.
5. People don't have much space on their phones, so they don't want to download and store too many different applications.
6. After buying a ticket, it is important to remind people about the concert so they do not miss it.
Let's get to know a user persona
Using what I learned from interviews and competitor analysis, I created a persona that helped me remain objective throughout all of my design decisions. Outlining life habits, goals, needs, and frustrations acted as the basis for all future processes and designs.
Ideate
User journey map
After conducting interviews and creating a user persona, I compiled the primary needs and pain points. In this user journey map, you can see the top four challenges that Luke has when he wants to find a concert and purchase a ticket.
Opportunities
1. Notify people of upcoming concerts based on the artists they are following.
2. Enable people to save future concerts. Since people like to go to concerts with their friends a share button should also be added.
3. People can buy tickets through SoundCloud. There is no need to download many different applications.
4. Remind people of upcoming concerts after purchasing tickets. Offer the ability to add to Google Calendar.
Sitemap
The feature was starting to take shape, but where would it fit within the existing app so that it exists seamlessly with the rest of the product? I created an updated sitemap of the SoundCloud app, adding the different screens that would be involved in this feature.
Task flow
After creating the sitemap, I developed three task flows based on Luke's needs — these would be fairly common flows people would move through in regard to this feature.
Design
Mid-fidelity wireframes
Before I started designing these mid-fidelity wireframes, it was important to make sure that any design I made was consistent with existing SoundCloud branding and interface design.
From there, I referred to the sitemap and UI requirements document I had created, and continually reviewed direct and indirect competitors' design systems, keeping in mind SoundCloud's existing app design. These constraints were helpful in developing the design of these new screens.
First prototype
Recommended concerts & Save concert feature
SoundCloud will show users a list of recommended concerts based on the artists they follow and their current location. The 'save concert' feature is useful if users don't want to buy tickets right away. Users can save concerts in their library and can find them there at any time.
Upcoming concerts
When users purchase tickets through SoundCloud, they are always stored in their library. If tickets were bought a long time ago, they may get lost in a user's email inbox. To prevent tickets from becoming lost in a sea of other emails, upcoming concerts will always be easily viewable in the application.
Concert notification & Ticket purchase
Users can receive notifications every time their favorite artist comes to their city. On the homepage, the platform can also recommend to users, artists who are coming to their city in the near future.
Once users find or are notified of a concert, they can easily purchase a ticket directly on SoundCloud.
Testing the design
Conducting usability tests
After prototyping the new concert feature, I wanted to test it with existing SoundCloud users and users of competing platforms like Spotify. For this, I found five participants among my friends and the Design Lab community. I wanted to make sure that I could observe the decision-making process of the participants as they completed the tasks. I asked them to verbalize each step they took as I met with them virtually or in person.
Usability test objectives
1. Test how the user finds a recommended concert and buys tickets.
2. Test where the user clicks when searching for concert dates of their favorite artist.
3. Test how the user finds upcoming concert tickets they purchased.
4. Watch where the user hesitates, gets confused, or struggles to complete a task.
of participants were able to find a concert and purchase a ticket plus check all concert dates
of participants were able to find tickets to upcoming concerts they purchased
of participants would not add a concert to the calendar before buying a ticket
Iterations
Navigation bar
During the usability test, I noticed that some users, especially those who are not familiar with SoundCloud, found it difficult to navigate the menu on the existing app. Some icons were not very clear (familiar) and needed a text label for more clarity.
Text labels enhance usability and readability, and create a meaningful connection between icons and ideas expressed in the content. Therefore, I added text labels to the navigation icons.
Add to calendar & Concert dates
Three participants were confused when they saw an “Add to Calendar” button before purchasing a ticket. Because participants stated that they would only add events to their calendars if they had a ticket, I moved the "Add to Calendar" button to the end of the ticket purchase process.
Two participants expressed that they were not interested in seeing the artist's latest tracks on their concert page. Instead, they'd like to learn more about this artist's upcoming concerts.
What do people like?
Reflection
Through completing this case study, I have learned to identify meaningful problems as well as listen carefully and observe people when they conduct usability tests. Even though I focused on the concert feature, I noticed people struggling to navigate the existing menu. SoundCloud menu icons are not familiar to many people and there are no text labels next to the icons to help clarify their meaning. This little detail significantly hindered people's experience with the application. Therefore I added a text label to each of the icons on the navigation menu. These usability tests taught me to observe any user feedback, even if it's not directly related to the specific feature you're testing.
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