Project Overview

The core aim of this project was to delve into the concert-going experiences of Sofar Sounds attendees. A combination of interviews and surveys provided a wealth of information about user behaviors and motivations, ticket purchasing sources, and the role of venue choice in decision-making. Our findings emphasized the significance of social media in event discovery, the quick decision-making process influenced by peer recommendations, the necessity of a fast and efficient ticket purchasing process, and the value of small venue experiences. These insights formed the foundation of our recommendations.

The Problem

Our primary focus was to streamline the user's journey in finding the perfect concert and purchasing tickets. The current system lacked user-friendly navigation and diversity in offerings.

Tools Used

To approach this task, we utilized a variety of tools to assist us in our journey: Notion, Maze, Figma, and Useberry.

Usability Review and Competitor Analysis

We started by conducting a comprehensive usability review of the Sofar Sounds website and mobile application. This was coupled with an extensive competitor analysis to identify best practices and areas needing improvement.

User Research

User research was fundamental to this project. We reached out to concert goers to understand their needs and preferences when searching for and purchasing live event tickets. This research unearthed crucial insights - users craved a streamlined and user-friendly ticket purchasing process, especially for group planning, and desired a variety of music genres and small venues filters to suit their needs.

Research Findings

We uncovered several key insights through our research that offer profound implications for Sofar Sounds' UX/UI strategy.

• 🎵 Music & Venue Preference: Participants heavily weigh specific types of music and favor intimate, small venues during their event search process. This insight indicates the importance of diversified music genres and venue filters in enhancing the search experience.
• 🎟️ Direct Ticket Purchasing: A significant majority prefer buying tickets directly from the venue's website. This finding emphasizes the need to simplify the ticket purchasing process and reduce any extra steps or costs associated with third-party platforms.
• 🚀 Quick Decision-Making: When coordinating with friends, participants lean towards quick decisions to alleviate the potential frustration and time consumption of coordination. This insight underscores the importance of a smooth and swift ticket purchasing process that caters to group preferences.
• 📱 Passive Event Search: Participants primarily discover events passively through their social media feeds, demonstrating the importance of maintaining a strong and active presence on these platforms to reach potential concert-goers.

Opportunities & Recommendations

From our research, we devised key strategies and solutions:

💡 Increase Social Media Presence: Sofar Sounds could significantly benefit from leveraging the popularity of social media in the event search process.

💡 Enhance Ticket Purchasing Process: Providing a streamlined and user-friendly ticket purchasing process would greatly improve the user experience, especially when it comes to coordinating with friends.

💡 Diversify Music Genres & Venue Filters: Catering to users' diverse tastes and preferences in music and venues would enrich the platform's offerings and enhance the user's search experience.

💡 Direct Ticket Purchasing: Exploring ways to reduce costs and simplify the ticket purchasing process by offering direct ticket purchases from the venue's website could be a game-changer.

Next Steps

🎯 Conduct Further Research: To delve deeper into the decision-making processes of concert goers, conducting more research with larger sample sizes is imperative.

🎯 Implement & Test New Strategies: Using the insights gained, Sofar Sounds can implement and test new strategies to improve the event search and ticket purchasing experiences for its users.

🎯 Regular Monitoring & Evaluations: Keeping a pulse on the progress and impact of these initiatives is essential to identify areas for further improvement and to continue enhancing the user experience.

This project was an invaluable experience in understanding the unique challenges faced by a niche platform like Sofar Sounds. The user-centric approach and careful analysis yielded practical and impactful recommendations, setting the stage for exciting improvements in the future.