research,
UX/UI
4 months
How might we increase access to arts & cultural events for underrepresented audiences? Particulary for BIPOC people interested in sharing community with people who share identities or values? Our goal was to identify the access-related challenges experienced by people in this user group who organize and attend these events.
My work in arts administration was primarily in audience development and programming roles. In those roles, I observed a systemic issue with access—art programming is often inaccessible to the publics it hopes to serve. I wanted to understand the access-related challenges that both people who organize and people who attend these events were experiencing. To explore this, I interviewed representatives from both groups and completed a competitor analysis of event discovery tools. Using insights from research, I designed an advanced prototype for a virtual directory and resource for art, cultural, and community events.
My users were people under 40 years old who attend or organize art, cultural & community events, and are interested in communities with shared identities or values. I planned and conducted a series of qualitative interviews and created an affinity diagram to categorize the results.
“Getting messaging to reach outside of that bubble is challenging. It can be hard to get over that hump with limited funds to put behind marketing.”
“It’s frustrating because I know that other people are looking for these kinds of things.”
How might we explore ways to help people find and share cultural events, because information about these events is often limited to immediate networks and direct connections? How might we explore ways to help people who organize and attend these events connect with new and value-aligned audiences, because there is an overwhelming desire to be connected with new people?
Users need a simple and intuitive way to find, filter, and create events. Users desire to connect with other attendees and event organizers. Making Friends is our solution, a digital respository for art, cultural & community events.
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