Kandi
Empowering newcomers to navigate festivals.
Overview
Peace, love, unity, respect. At music festivals, those words are used when trading Kandi, which are bracelets exchanged between attendees. But I didn’t know that, and you probably didn’t either. New attendees often feel isolated, surrounded by music they love but a culture they don’t know. Kandi alleviates this tension by rewarding users for capturing festive moments and participating in traditions with friends, bridging the gap between all attendees.
MY ROLE
Product Designer
THE TEAM
Sheng Moua — SWE
Jennifer Quach — PM
TIMELINE
10 weeks
TOOLS
Figma, Miro, Photoshop, Zoom, Notion
Problem
The festival environment can be overwhelming and isolating to new attendees, making it difficult to enter the scene.
Solution
A platform that gamifies festivals, bridging the experience gap and allowing all attendees to share in the vibrant energy of festival bonds.
Earn, learn, and bond
Users can earn beads by completing individual and group tasks, while learning about festival traditions.
Connect with friends
Users can earn beads by completing individual and group tasks, while learning about festival traditions.
Design Process
I led this end-to-end design project using the Stanford d.school's design process for effective problem-solving and a human-centered approach.
EMPATHIZE
Conducted 5 need-finding interviews to identify challenges; developed empathy maps and POVs to synthesize insights and clarify pain points.
DEFINE
Collaborated with team to create HMWs, market analysis, define problem, identify design values and stakeholders, and establish brand identity.
IDEATE
Performed idea prioritization and concept tests for divergent thinking; Created concept sketches, storyboard, and concept video to depict solutions.
PROTOTYPE
Led rapid prototyping, developing low-fi paper prototypes and a med-fi Figma prototype; Created design system and components for hi-fi prototype.
TEST
Iteratively gathered user feedback through usability testing and heuristic evaluation with 9 participants to optimize usability metrics and satisfaction.
EMPATHIZE
User Research
I conducted 5 need-finding interviews to explore how participants of varying experiences and ages perceive festival communities, what fosters connection, and the challenges newcomers face integrating into these communities.
In order to unpack our need finding insights I visualized our observations and user pain points in the form of empathy maps of three interviewees with highly contrasting characteristics.
"I'm scared to do things on my own… The people you go with do make or break the experience."
Juliet
New attendee
"There really isn't a centralized festival community at my school, only certain individuals…That's why I go alone."
Alex
Solo attendee
"…even concerts like Taylor Swift are adopting festival community traditions like kandi."
Edward
Expert attendee
Our need finding interviews revealed the following insights:
KEY INSIGHT 1
Socializing > music
Some attendees are drawn to festivals primarily for the social experience rather than the music.
KEY INSIGHT 2
Attendees need company
Individuals are less likely to attend festivals without companions.
KEY INSIGHT 3
Traditions build bonds
Community traditions within festivals may deepen connections between participants.
DEFINE
How Might We…?
Having gathered our interview insights, I invited the rest of my team to set upon a direction for our solution. We created 10 HMWs which we narrowed into 3 main HMWs using heat map voting to prepare for ideation.
HMW facilitate connections and social interaction at festivals?
HMW make festivals feel less overwhelming and isolating for newcomers?
HMW promote the festival scene through its embedded community traditions?
Concept Testing
With divergent thinking, our goal is to explore as many solutions as possible from our 3 HMW’s, ranging from pragmatic answers to dark horse ideas. To ensure that our solutions are user-centric, we came together to create 3 experience prototypes, which we tested with 5 participants to test our assumptions.
IDEATE
Sketches
In order to explore the various mediums through which we could provide our solution, we created concept sketches for three different mediums: augmented reality, wearables, and visual notifications.
We chose to go with the visual notifications medium because it offers user familiarity, increased features, and an in-depth display of information structures.
Storyboarding
In order to visualize our MVP, and validate our main solution I created a storyboard to show a use case for a new user.
Concept Video
We then translated our storyboard into a concept video. Check it out below!
PROTOTYPE
Low-Fidelity Design
To efficiently test functionality and key features, I created low-fi paper prototypes. I consistently referred back to research data to make informed decisions on the most effective design.
TEST
Initial Usability Testing
We put our low-fi prototype to the test prioritizing 3 tasks for our MVP:
Simple task: View and complete individual tasks.
Moderate task: Add and connect with other members of the community.
Complex task: Join or create a group to complete community tasks.
Testing Methodology
To ensure consistency, I developed testing procedures, and assigned team roles.
Testing Procedure
Setup (5 mins): Provided participant context about kandi and hypothetical scenario—you just downloaded the app for an upcoming event at EDC Orlando.
Completion of tasks (10 mins): Participants were given 3 tasks to complete with limited auditory direction to gauge intuitiveness of app.
Debrief (10 mins): Asked participants about usability goals and additional features to implement.
Team Roles
Sofia: computer
Jen: facilitator
Sheng: notetaker
Participants
We scouted 3 participants of ages between 18-30 who have all gone to at least one festival and expressed interest in going to more at a shopping mall in Cupertino.
Usability Goals
Our usability goals for each prototype were user satisfaction, intuitive navigation, and functionality.
User satisfaction
Users rated each feature as low, med, or high potential usage.
Intuitive navigation
Measured by the number of mis-clicks, noting task completion difficulties
Functionality
Measured through task completion, noting non mediated successes
Bottom-line Data
Our usability testing revealed success in terms of our usability goals.
2 users
highly satisfied with the app
2 mis-clicks
during group selection process
100% success
with all tasks
Key Findings & Applied Changes
Despite general user satisfaction, users pointed out aspects of our app concept that required fleshing out as well as small usability issues when it came to user flow.
KEY FINDING 1
Users expressed need for increased social connection features before and at the event
Desire for real-time updates on friends' presence at events and more features to connect and plan before events. MVP currently seems to only be concerned with individual achievements.
APPLIED CHANGES
Renamed "friends" tab to "community" with a friends list embedded and a main calendar showing events friends will attend.
KEY FINDING 2
Usability challenges in task management organization and completion
Users faced difficulties with the group selection and task completion process due to redundant steps. UI concerns brought up over task management, especially as list fills up.
APPLIED CHANGES
Simplified group selection with a "group" tag for group tasks, completed tasks now move to the bottom of the list, removed event names to prevent task completion confusion.
KEY FINDING 3
Lack of incentives for completing tasks — concerns with customer churn
MVP only focuses on achievements and lacks logistical features that users can rotate through. Kandi beads lack reasoning and incentive as achievements.
APPLIED CHANGES
Clicking earned beads now shows media from completed tasks, making the app a memory-storing tool.
ITERATE
Mid-Fidelity Design
Using Figma, I created a medium-fidelity prototype prioritizing full functionality of our 3 main tasks. Our team decided upon Wizard of Oz features and hard-coded items that we aren't prioritizing for our MVP.
View interactive Figma prototype
Heuristic Evaluation
We put our med-fi prototype to the test by conducting a heuristic evaluation. Our prototype was evaluated by 6 Stanford undergraduate and graduate students. We reviewed and implemented changes for our high-fidelity prototype, with the revisions seen below.
REVISION 1
Additional ways to create group
Users had to remember that groups can only be created by starting a task which is inconvenient and hard to do while at a music festival.
REVISION 2
Can’t directly add friend's events
Users expressed wanting a shortcut to add the events their friends are going to to their own calendars, which users are more likely to do.
REVISION 3
Restrictive group sizes
Could only complete tasks in groups of 2+ which can make users feel excluded.
View full HE report
Design System
We chose “kandi” as the name of our project because in festival culture kandi refers to the brightly colored beaded bracelets used to memorialize a special moment shared with someone or a connection at music festivals. Thus, for the design, I chose a rounder font to evoke a sense of friendliness, playfulness, and inclusivity. The bright neon colors capture the vibrant, energetic atmosphere of music festivals, making the interface feel lively and engaging.
Hi-Fidelity Prototype
This final version of kandi is a hi-fi prototype built on React Native that includes onboarding screens to guide new users, as well as our 3 main task flows. A demo and a click-through version of the app can be experienced through the QR code below. For more information regarding our high-fidelity prototype view our README file here.
CONCLUSION
Moving Forward
Based on user research prioritizing the community aspect of the app is crucial. Although the initial focus was on gamification for user acclimation, users indicated community features to be essential. I recommend the following additions:
NFT Contact Cards: Personalized NFT contact cards that can be traded when there is no service within a festival.
Collaborative Festival Planning: Plan and coordinate festival schedules and lineups collaboratively.
Connections-Based Ticket Telling: Buy and sell tickets between mutual connections, promoting trust and community.
More Incentives to Collect Beads: Clicking on beads to revisit old memories, collaborations with indirect stakeholders for perks such as transportation discounts, backstage access, and exclusive private events.
Learnings
The main challenge throughout this app was designing a product for a scene that is often perceived with bias and stigmatization due to its dynamic, overwhelming, and crowded nature.
Incorporating Diverse Perspectives: One interviewee, who typically didn't listen to music, shared valuable insights about the community aspect of festivals, emphasizing that the social connections often outweigh the music itself. This showed me that incorporating diverse viewpoints—including edge cases—can significantly enrich the design process.
Know Thy User: As a festival-goer myself, I realized it was easy to let my biases influence the design process. However, putting my ideas to the test revealed that making assumptions about users can lead to missed opportunities for creating a more inclusive and effective experience.
Testing Limitations: While our tests provided valuable insights, there are key aspects of the app's user experience that we were unable to thoroughly assess. For instance, will the app be used more during the festival or afterward? Additionally, how frequently do users anticipate engaging with the app?
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