tapped

Bridging the gap from performing artist to venue

Time

3 weeks

Roles

Project Lead

Research Lead

Interaction Lead

Team

Shawn Berg

Aspen Ma

Zoe Ren

Problem


Solution

Users on tapped currently have issues finding venues and establishing credibility as a performing artist

Knowing that tapped is a service based app at a price tag of $50 a month means users need to feel confident that tapped will provide an efficient and pleasing experience while getting them more bookings.

A profile that contains all the necessary content to highlight the artist’s skills to potential venues

Our design let’s performing artists highlight their skills by allowing them to showcase their top work, reviews, booking history, services provided, and provide their knowledge of instruments, hardware and software.


Think of our design as a resume for performing artists

“The road to your first show starts now”

Who is tapped geared towards?

  • Artists who are looking to take their talents to the next level and begin making money from their art

  • Young adults age 18-30 (non-gender specific)

4 Words, 3 Takeaways

  1. Networking allows for connecting with like-minded individuals and creates potential career opportunities

  2. Recommendations and referrals are one of the most common ways of being booked in the music industry. Artists who get recommended are deemed trustworthy and reliable

  3. Communication can make or break a booking experience. Unclear expectations correlates to untrustworthiness

Soundcloud

  • Allows artists to upload and share their music to display their work

    • Potential bookers can use this to preview the artist’s work

Our comparators are similar in that they all are platforms where you can establish a personal brand and share it publicly with others. However, there is something to learn from each one

Instagram

  • Direct messaging feature allows for easy networking

    • This can lead to potential career opportunities

LinkedIn

  • Networking platform like Instagram, but in a professional setting

    • Bridges the gap between employers and those seeking work

Meet our users

Performer paul

Problem statement

This is Paul, a freelancer, who is an aspiring artist trying to turn his dreams into reality. He needs a way to make steady income from music, however, to do that he needs consistent and well-paying bookings.

Meet Anya, a 9-5 worker, who makes r&b music on her free time. She doesn’t want to pursue music full time, but wouldn’t mind the extra income. She needs a way to promote herself on social media, while still staying authentic to herself.

Artist Anya

What is the problem they both face?

Artists need a more professional way to showcase the depth of their talent, because they want to provide credibility to venue owners to help them get booked.

How the current experience falls short

Users currently feel:

  • Confused by too many options when navigating the app

  • Unsure and unconfident in how to initially contact the few available venues

  • Anxious while waiting for venue to accept or deny booking request

  • Overwhelmed that they will have to continuously go through this process

Ideating


3 questions to help our users

  • How might we display Paul’s capabilities to venues?

  • How might we help Paul present himself professionally?

  • How might we vouch for Paul’s music?

Design

A profile that acts a resume and portfolio

5 Main Features

  • Artist bio to familiarize and humanize the artist to potential bookers

  • Top tracks to allow the artist to highlight their top work for potential bookers to sample the artists work

  • Services section that contains enough information for artist to accurately represent that service

  • Booking history to establish credibility for artists that are new to the platform or have performance outside of the platform

  • Review page to let others vouch for the artist’s work by sharing their booking experience

We needed to know 2 different things:

  • Do users understand how features in the profile page display their capabilities to venues?

  • Do users feel that the filled profile has the type of content an artist needs to be appealing to venues?

What we found

  • Users didn’t realize the services section could be swiped through to see more

  • No way to upload new profile picture to account

  • Some text or buttons were to small to comfortably read

How we fixed it

  • Placed an arrow to indicate more content

  • Added a button to upload profile picture

  • Boosted the size of profile elements

Conclusion

Next steps for tapped

Takeaways

  • Test credibility of profiles with venue owners

  • Allow users to re-order services list on profile

  • Integration with Spotify and Soundcloud to share artist music

  • Communication with team members and stakeholders was a key in the success of this 3 week sprint

  • Testing and research are absolutely vital when working with stakeholders because the stakes are higher. This will be something important to note for all future projects

  • Sketch more wireframes and wireflows. If these are well executed, there will be less margin for error when constructing a prototype