Austin Jazz Society:
Event Website Redesign

Redesigned Austin Jazz Society’s website to make events easier to find, help performers market their shows more effectively, and create a more modern, welcoming experience

My Role

  • UX Designer

    • Wireframing/Prototyping

    • Building design system

  • UX Researcher

    • User testing

    • Competitive analysis

1

Team

  • 4 UX Designer

  • 2 UX Researcher

  • 2 Search Engineer

2

Design

Duration

  • July - October 2023

Home Page

Goals

  • Provide an engaging and accessible entry point for users to explore jazz performance

  • Foster excitement

  • Ease of navigation

Features

  • New filter system to help users narrow down events by preferences, such as date, genre, location, and price

  • Jazz events are displayed in a visually appealing card-view format with a preview of the event details

Event Details Page

Goals

  • Offers in-depth information about specific jazz performances

  • Encourage engagement

  • Inform decision-making

Features

  • Evnet detail information, such as event description, time, veneu, ticket prices

  • Interactive features, such as music samples, jazz performer's social media page

  • Like button for personalization

Tools

AJS wants to improve Austin Community Presence, simplify the event posting and marketing process, and redesign the interface for usability.

  • Figma

  • Figjam

  • Miro

  • Zoom

Overview

Austin Jazz Society (AJS) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting jazz music in Austin, Texas. They host live performances, support local musicians across all jazz genres, and work to grow community awareness of jazz.

My goal was to redesign AJS’s website to make events easier to discover, simplify how performers share and market their shows, and create a more usable, modern, and welcoming experience for the community.

The Pain

The AJS website makes it hard for users to find events and forces performers to rely on a slow, manual process to post their shows
The AJS website is designed to help Jazz performers and Jazz lovers promote and find Jazz performances. Currently, the website isn’t presenting the information in a clear and effective format for people to seek the Jazz performance they want. Many Jazz performers also could not post their events efficiently since they had to submit a performance request by emailing AJS, and once approved, the AJS directors’ team would then enter the details on the website.

Impact Glance

  • Challenge: How might we, the UX Designers, enhance the AJS website’s discovery and recognition? For both the users and the performers

  • Solution: We redesigned the site with filters to help users quickly find events and built a streamlined posting page so performers can upload shows directly, making the experience easier for both the community and AJS staff

  • Next Step: Plan to improve accessibility according to the WCAG 2.2 guidelines, explore scalable platform options, refine features based on analytics, and expand user research to better serve performers and audiences

3

Testing

4

Reflecting

Common Frustrations

To understand the challenges faced by both jazz lovers and performers, we examined user feedback, conducted interviews, and observed interactions with the existing AJS website. This research revealed several key pain points:

For Jazz attendees and other website users

  • Difficulty finding a variety of events
    Cluttered navigation and repeated events in every search made it hard to locate a variety of performances or events

  • Key information is hidden in the event listing; users hope to have direct and easy access to key information about the events

  • Links to sample music of the band or band websites to get a better idea of the type of music they play

  • Users are usually redirected to Google Events or a Facebook page, where information is scattered and unorganized

  • Desire for engaging experience
    Users hoped the website would feel more welcoming, modern, and reflective of the Austin Jazz Society’s goal

Musicians and performers

  • Cumbersome event posting process
    Performers are required to email the AJS staff to schedule posting an event; back-and-forth emailing causes delays and inefficiencies

  • Desire for visibility
    Wanted their performances showcased effectively to reach the right audience

  • Personal Marketing
    Hoped to include personal website and media links for better marketing of their personal brand

Research

User Interview and Analysis

  • Methods: User interview and competitive analysis

  • Participants: 2 Jazz attendees, 2 performers, 1 AJS web master

  • Research questions:

  • Key pain point:

  • Jazz enthusiasts and the general public:

    • Struggle to find a variety of jazz events

    • The same 5 events or jazz bars show up in every search

    • Key event details, such as ticket information, are buried or hard to find

    • Users are usually redirected to Google Events or a Facebook page, where information is scattered and unorganized

    • Outdated design and an unorganized format make it less engaging for users

  • Jazz Performers:

    • The event posting process is time-consuming and inefficient since they need to submit events manually via emailing AJS

    • Lack of control over event listings and updating

    • The website doesn’t support or showcase the performer’s social media or other personal platforms

  • AJS staff:

    • Have to approve manually and input events, increasing administrative workload and inefficiencies

Design

Ideation

Design System

We drew inspiration from the existing design system and guides on the AJS website, ensuring that our color scheme and style harmonized seamlessly with their merchandise and logo.

We chose to continue using yellow as our primary color because it evokes a bright, exciting, and happy emotion, which we believe complements the theme and atmosphere that AJS wants to achieve.

High-Fidelity Designs

Calendar Page

Goals

  • Help users find jazz events that fit their schedule and budget

  • Give users control over how events are displayed

Features

  • Search filters for users to input date, price range, and keywords to narrow event preferences

  • Sort feature for viewing the calendar by day, week, month, or all future events

  • Events are grouped by the day they occur to improve readability and navigation

Event Submitting Page

Goals

  • Simplify and shorten the time of the event submission process

  • Increase efficiency between AJS officers and jazz performers communication

Features

  • Use a form format to ensure that performers don’t miss any details about the event

  • AJS staff can manage postings through the Event Submission Portal for easy approval process

Reflection

Lessons Learned

  • Prioritizing a user-centric design that focused on comfort and ease of navigation proved crucial in building trust with the platform

  • Recognized the value of data-driven iteration, using website analytics to refine our design

  • Need to focus on mobile experience early in the process to ensure a seamless user journey across all devices

Next Steps

  • Collaborate closely with the AJS webmaster to explore platform migration options that improve accessibility and design scalability

  • Analyze new usage data alongside the old one to help us decide which previous features to reinstate and what new functionalities to introduce

  • Redesign the mobile version to enhance the experience for users accessing the site via phones

  • Expand our user research by increasing the diversity and quantity of interview participants