Overview

Solution

I researched this problem space and designed a mobile networking app concept where dancers can upload new opportunities and general news in the community to one spot and then share those same posts across multiple other platforms to drive a cohesive message.

Problem

Dancers gain traction within the dance community through leveraging their network. However, there are few resources that support the promotion or communication of this art form’s careers.

  • Methods

    scoping

    user interviews

    competitive analysis

    affinity mapping

    personas

    journey mapping

    wireframing

    kano survey

    prototyping

    slide deck presentation

  • Tools

    Figma

    Zoom

    Keynote

    Google Suite

  • Deliverables

    personas

    user journey map

    low fidelity wireframes

    kano analysis synthesis

    interactive prototype of mobile responsive app

    annotated findings report

    presentation

“There’s never one place to just look so now I just see what I’m going to see based on who I follow”

 The research

The dance community is a very close-knit community but extremely cliquey. A career in dance is challenging to form and even harder to promote. They struggle with reaching beyond their bubble to find new opportunities that aren’t sourced from people they already know. I approached this problem space from a perspective of curiosity. I wanted to gather as much information about what resources were currently being offered and how each of those platforms has supported the dance community from a networking perspective.

 

I conducted a competitive analysis on five digital platforms to understand where the resource gaps were and what features were truly being harnessed by the community.

  • 3 out of 5 platforms allowed dancers to promote events

  • 1 out of 5 platforms categorized incoming information in a scannable format

  • 2 out of 5 platforms offered job boards relating to the arts industry

  • 5 out of 5 platforms allowed cross-platform sharing

  • 2 out of 5 platforms  offered interactions between members such as direct messaging, post commenting, or emoji interactions

comparative analysis

Zoom interview

Using this information I crafted questions for directed user interviews that would shed some light on how these platforms are used from different sides of the community and how gaps are overcome. I conducted five user interviews both in person and over Zoom. I then gathered my thoughts and poured all of the information gleaned from these interviews into an affinity diagram. My main takeaways were:

  • Dancers felt that exposure to new opportunities online was algorithm based. They were only seeing or hearing about new things through who they followed on social media platforms.

  • Dancers were seeing the same companies being promoted and the same dancers being used across multiple projects.

  • Word of mouth is the most relied upon form of communication because of convenience and the inconsistency of other platforms

The design

 Overcoming bias

If you have checked out my about me page you know that I am a participant within the dance community. I knew that with unchecked bias comes faulty designs and service. I created three personas to combat my bias and inform my decisions on all future designs.

Ashley persona card

Ronnie persona card

Dom persona card

 

From my research I knew that there were multiple touchpoints at play when dancers networked. To gain more perspective I created a journey map that followed my personas as they found a new dance opportunity, all the way through the performance of this new show, and the frustrations they had along the way. I found that the biggest pain points were:

  • During the research phase it was difficult to find information on the new opportunity

  • While trying to plan for their new dances, Ronnie and Ashley had a hard time finding new dancers to work with

User journey map

 

Wireframe journey

I knew that with the amount of time I had I could not build out an entire mobile app concept so I selected four screens that would best help my personas on their journey to discovering a new dance opportunity.

  • Landing page: an all category thread, that is color-coded, to create an even playing field for all new posts to be seen

  • Audition page: members can filter by category to find specific information

  • Profile page: a limited profile that allows other members to view more about an artist

  • New post page: how a member can upload a post to the app

Home page low-fi wireframe

Home page mid-fi wireframe

Home page high-fi wireframe

 

After sketching out some low fidelity wireframes I sent out a kano survey to establish that the features I was suggesting would benefit the community in the way I intended. The results from this survey confirmed that I was on the right track. I then felt confident in designing mid and high fidelity wireframes. I added animations and created a clickable prototype in Figma.

The presentation

 Introducing Dance Connect

I presented my research findings and introduced Dance Connect in a presentation that was live streamed over Facebook. View the full presentation below at time stamp 1:25:19.

 If you enjoyed learning about my work on Dance Connect, I would love to hear about it! Feel free to shoot me an email. If you are looking for your next User Experience hire, I would especially love to hear from you!