al
Fanverse
Self-Directed Project
Date
Sept.-Dec. 2023
What I Did
Concept Development, UX Research, and UX/UI
Figma
Tools
For my final capstone project at Northeastern University, I wanted to tackle a business idea that I've had for quite a while. As a frequent concert-goer, I noticed many issues with connectivity among fans going to the same concert. I sought to create a solution for this issue.
THE PROBLEM
Fan experiences leading up to concerts are scattered and disorganized across different social medias and websites.
THE START
My time as a concertgoer and a concert organizer
I've been to over 30 concerts in the past four years, and have organized 8 concerts during my time at Northeastern.
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As I attended and organized concerts, I started to see issues with the experiences. I watched people wait hours in line before a concert, struggle to find people who go to the same concert as them, try to create fan projects, and more. The core of the problem was that fans attending the same concerts lacked a space for social connectivity. All these people shared one thing in common: their love for their favorite artist. Concerts should create community and allow people to engage with each other and the artist, but why isn't that experience being fully leveraged?
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RESEARCH
Understanding the industry and the fans
How Fans Engage With Their Favorite Artists and Each Other
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Artists connect with fans through social media, mostly through Instagram and X
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Fans create groups on Discord or group chats on other social media to facilitate meetups with each other
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Artists will hold meet and greets before or after concerts and choose fans from lines at times
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Fans will create fan projects to support their favorite artists or create social experiences among each other
A Bit About the Concert Scene
70%
of respondents said that they've attended a show alone in the past 12 months in 2022
44M
people attended Live Nation concerts in their third quarter
50-50,000+
Concerts attendees can range from
*Statistics taken from Live Nation studies
Talking to fans and their likes and dislikes of their concert experiences
Interviews:
20+ interviews
Ages 18-25
Concertgoers of both small and large artists
Interview Findings
1. Waiting in line just sucks
Many fans wait 2+ hours in line to get into the venue. To pass time, they will talk to others in lines or play phone games.
2. Community is Important to them
Many fans wait 2+ hours in line to get into the venue. To pass time, they will talk to others in lines or play phone games.
3. Social Media is their main resource
This is the main channel of how they find each other, find fan projects, and interact with the artist. All updates about concerts and the artist are found through social media.
IDEATION
A Fan's Voyage
Competitors, Journeys, and User Flows
It was important for me to look at other competitors and understand what fans currently go through with these experiences. I researched more about how they use Reddit, X, Instagram, Slack, and Facebook Groups to connect with each other, and their pros, cons, and opportunities. In addition, I laid out several customer journeys for a casual fan, a typical fan, and a super fan through social media. User flows were also laid out for my evolving app and validated with users.
Customer Journey
Typical Fan: Olivia is a fan who has just bought concert tickets and wants to learn more about her concert and meet other people beforehand.
Opportunities: Create a better community environment, get live updates and meet people who are going to the same concert, have a comprehensive list of different fan engagement opportunities
Site Map
User Flow: Fan Projects
DESIGN
Creating a hub for fan interactions and engagement
Sketching It Out
Starting off, I tried to write down as many fan experiences as I could think of. As I got critique, I started to move towards the idea of a dashboard-like homepage.
I also sketched out a chat channel and what a description page would look like.
Many, many iterations and feedback cycles
The Initial Lo-Fi Ideas
After gathering my thoughts and ideas, I started designing a lo-fi version of the dashboard page, which would contain most features, in addition to the other feature pages.
Shaping Based on Feedback
After presenting my initial lo-fis, I was met with some resistance against the dashboard. Many users thought that the dashboard was hard to focus on and lacked hierarchy. I started thinking of a different navigation system.
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To create a more organized user flow, I decided on a horizontal navigation system with each feature having its own categorization and page. This allowed for easier access to each feature.
Initial Lofis
Final Lofis
THE SOLUTION
A comprehensive fanbase experience for fans going to the same concert and tailored and co-branded to the artist's needs.
An artist customizable experience
Artists choose their gradients, offered fonts, and images. If the artist’s team is interested in their own designs and assets, then a basic template will be sent over to their team. Once they are finished, those created templates will be used to customize the app. In addition, artists can choose to remove categories. For example, if they don’t want fan projects, those can be removed.
Join competitions and fan projects
Compete against fellow fans on artist-curated competitions such as best outfit or best fan art. Join fan-curated projects such as friendship bracelets or fan signs and communicate with other fans through chat.
Listen with other fans
Join another fan's listening party or create your own using Spotify or Apple Music.
Get updates from the artist
Get live updates from your favorite artist about your concert, exclusive content, and more.
Buy exclusive merch only on Fanverse
Find merch made for your concert and exclusive items only on Fanverse.
Chat with other fans
Discuss your fan projects you've joined and other artist-related topics.
A glimpse into the design system
