SXSW INTERACTIVE

Case Study: Making key improvements to the core functionality of an existing app.

The Challenge

SXSW Interactive is one of the premier interactive events in the world. Yet their app gets low reviews every year from interactive festival attendees. The objective was focus on making key improvements to the core functionality of the existing app.

Design Thinking and Approach

We used the Double Diamond method for our design approach. This method helps to understand the user, what their needs are, and gives us direction to explore creative solutions to the problem.

Research

Before digging into the redesign, it was important to understand who the primary user was and discover the root of the problem. I started by collecting data from reviews on the Apple App Store to see what users were saying about SXSW GO. There were a total of 196 reviews with an average rating of 3.1 out of 5. Through the data, we obtained a high-level understanding of how users wanted to interact with the app. It also helped us build empathy toward the user and their frustrations as we started the project.

Competitive Analysis

I reviewed 3 other competitive apps which were built for large scale festivals and also held events in multiple locations throughout the city. This gave me an insight into existing mobile patterns, how certain pain points were addressed, as well as ideas to begin brainstorming designs.

User Interviews: 

In addition to sorting through all of the App Store reviews, I also interviewed 5 people who used the app extensivelyg when attending SXSW. A few of the questions I asked were:

Affinity Mapping: 

We created an Affinity Diagram using data from both the app reviews and interviews to synthesize the results.

Some themes we discovered were:

User Persona

Since we now had a clearer picture of some of the pain points for the end-users, we created a persona to redesign for. 

User Journey Map

Tom’s Problem

Tom wants to make the best use of his time while attending SXSW Interactive. He needs a way to find, schedule, and map his route to the sessions he wants to attend.

Conceptualization and Design

Based on the insights gathered from our research, we were ready to hone in on 3 specific features to improve on the interactive portion of the SXSW GO app:

Feature Prioritization

Multiple solutions were explored to address the issues users voiced they were having. After several rounds of paper sketching, it was clear that a well organized, easy to read dashboard would be paramount to how users navigated the content. Creating multiple pathways to find events through the app was something we also challenged ourselves to design.

Sitemap

Explored Solutions

With multiple days of sketching and design sessions, we felt like we were nailing down worthwhile solutions that addressed our persona’s problem.

Usability Testing and Iteration

We had 3 users test a prototype. The task was to favorite an event at 8am on Saturday, then go to view your favorites and map those events. All 3 users were able to complete the tasks, however we discovered some areas to iterate on, which would’ve make the tasks easier to complete:

Final User Flow

High Fidelity Prototype

Final Thoughts and Further Steps

After completing the sprint, it was apparent how valuable it is to have both qualitative and quantitive data in the research phase. Had we only done user interviews or only depended solely on the App Store survey results, it’s likely our prototype would’ve turned out much different and lacked features that now exist in the prototype. After a few rounds of user testing, we were able to iterate on most things, however if continued on another sprint, I would tackle the following: