I spent the first project I did In my incubation studio class designing a chair. Well, Several chairs. The idea of the project was to make us thing about design researching. This is the idea of breaking down an idea into a more simple problem to solve. Which is how my partner Dave and I handled it.

Our challenge was to design a chair for ralph (whose photo for the description was that of martin prince of the Simpsons, which angered me) who was a high school student who needed to carry a heavy backpack between classes with him, and he also needed somewhere to put his backpack in class.

We broke this down for the simple design by narrowing it to the most important things, heavy backpack probably means back pain, so some form of a cushion to help the lower back recover and somewhere to hang the back where its got a sturdy enough base so it does not flip over when he stands up. That's happened to me enough times that its the first thing people say about me in flower city wrestling.

Which while I thought the idea of design research is a bit dumb, but that's just me, I did learn a fair amount about the benefits of breaking what seems like a much larger task down into smaller easier to take chunks makes it a lot less stressful.

The link below to our groups mural which was created by Dave Pickett shows how we were able to use simple objects(and maya) to make some simple mock ups of the chair. Along with some new design questions, all in the Mario universe

https://app.mural.co/t/mattersatplay1795/m/mattersatplay1795/1610581156192/b336a79d22ac7e47c134f721ab1a293e43a5e7b8

Purpose

The purpose of this project started out to see what life is like for touring band members who have been out of work all the pandemic, but after my interviews fell apart. The project turned into figuring out what regular venue goers are looking for in their venues and what venues can do to put trust into the concert goers so they are willing to return to their venues.

Objective

To create some website with a venue ranking and review system based on things that the venue is in control of. For example, a venue cannot control the mosh, but we can tell you if the venue allows crowd surfing or if its a no fly zone. We can also factor things in like cleanliness of the venue, free water, and various things to do around the area for food and drinks

Main Goals

create a simple layout idea

Figure out how many things people can review venue on

determine the ranking system

design water cup design to use instead of stars

The following are the interviews I conducted about venues, the Names of the people are shortened to one letter

T: 24 male, chicago IL, Personal trainer, Hardcore Kid, averages 10 shows a year, Favorite band: Five Finger Death Punch, last show before COVID: We Came as Romans "To Plant a Seed 10 Year tour"

D: 26 Female, Rochester NY, Welder, Punk Chick, averages 5 shows a year, Favorite band: Badflower, last show before covid, Breaking Benjamin

(italicized words are the questions)

Tell me about a time when you feel you were cheated buying concert tickets, can be for a VIP ticket, where you felt either the system you were buying the tickets from had issues or you weren’t given correct info about your location in the venue/items you received.

T: first gaelic storm show, bought 2 day ticket and 2 day pass the line pass to learn none of the security or box office people knew about the cut the line pass, ended up having to go get refunded and made it a struggle to enjoy the showing knowing he was cheated out of something he paid for

D: feels more cheated by service fees rather than venues, however remarks about who had vip seating that she bought and realized there was seats in front of the vip, however, no one took them but she was upset about the venue not informing her about that.

Tell me about things you look for in a venue? Are there anything that will make you want to pass on a show because of something the venue either does or is missing? For example, no place to sit or no free water and you don’t want to pay 75 dollars for a bottle of water?

T: location to public transit or secure parking, will tend to avoid venues near higher crime rate. Also considers how well venue security is, bottom lounge vs house of blues for example.

D: somewhere to sit, working on average a 10 hour day before a show means sitting is nice. She prefers more ampithere shows or arena shows, but if she goes to a small venue she seeks out short set list bands. Example new years day then headliner godsmack. She does have 2 venues blacklisted cause their bathrooms are disgusting, including one before the show started. It looked like no one cleaned it from the night before. She also looks for secure parking or lower crime areas if she has to park nearby. Living in upstate NY if someone happens to her car it slows the entirely of her life.

Tell about the biggest change you want to see from venues post covid, is it free ear plugs at the door for those who want them? Is it more free water? Is it cheaper parking rates? Cleaner bathroom? What would be a factor to make you want to go back to shows, since those first shows post covid will be a bit nerve racking.

T: free water, even in cups, especially at hardcore shows. If masks are still required for shows, then they should be provided and people kicked out if they don’t wear them, no second chances.

D: “Venues don’t have free fucking water and that pisses me off” echoing T’s opinion on some form of free water. Even in cups and tap water, something. She says if shows opened during covid with better ventilation and social distancing she would go. She also says better ventilation should be something major in all indoor venues. Along with cleaner bathrooms and free earplugs.

I had first started out with this project, I had all these grand ideas for my website design. I had plans to have these large ideas, full venue goer reviews, having a full social aspect, maps, all these grand plans. However, even though I do not have to make this site, having all these grand plans means I have to plan how they will look and how to make it easy to navigate. But much like my problems I have ran into making video games, my downfall of over scoping things in games means I am really good at pulling back. However I do need for help. When I first got to sit down with my professor She helped me figure out what would be important for the website, and said that when I do my empathy mapping and personas, I can find exactly what I would need for my project.

So after using all the feedback, I made together a rough idea of what the site would end up being a simple design similar to a view from my seats website. You can find a screenshot of it in the google slides on the right hand side of the bottom panel. The panel on the left contains some designed personas of people I have come across at shows before. Along with a scenario of a teenager using the site to convince their mom to let them go to the show. I ended up using Ice nine Kills for the band since they have their own social media app to allow fans to connect. And with the stakeholder mapping (along with talking to From Ashes to News Vocalist Danny Case, thanks Danny) about how much a band has a stake in fans being able to go the show. Since they can use those ticket numbers to get booked on tours again. You can also find a breakdown of all the peoples stakeholder mappings on the slides on the left hand side. Along with the empathy mapping of the project. Where I took a few different ideas of the people I build for the personas to see what might be going on in their heads for the project. I also had some ideas to talk about the idea of adding some form of a social aspect to the project. However it seemed less important to devote large amounts of time to. The slides on the right are the final for the class, I used mainly photos because I tend to make my slides super wordy, and for this being closer to a business pitch, less words better. I have also learned that not only do gifs play nicely with google slides, but gifs make it more appeal to have people watch, meaning they will pay more attention(on my site, hit or miss, not sure the one is playing now). Overall this project was fun, it made me think more about who I was designing for, and not just design the thing I wanted to do.