Sceneo
A mobile app concept designed to make attending live performances easier, clearer, and more social.
ROLE
UX Researcher & Designer
TIMELINE
Aug – Oct 2025
TEAM
Solo Project
TOOLS
Figma, Personas, Journey Mapping
Hana wants to see a musical with her friends this weekend. She checks one site for listings, another for reviews, a third to compare seat prices. Half an hour later, the group chat has gone quiet and nobody's made a decision. She's not even sure which section has a decent view. It should be fun — but planning it feels like a part-time job. They end up going to the movies instead. It's easier.
How might we make discovering and planning a live show as effortless as deciding to watch a movie?
TL;DR — AT A GLANCE
Situation
Students who want to attend live theater have to check multiple sites for listings, reviews, and seat prices — information is scattered, decisions stall, and plans fall through.
Task
Design a solo mobile app from research through hi-fi — unifying show discovery, seat selection, friend coordination, and cost splitting in one place.
Actions
3 semi-structured interviews with student theatergoers. Synthesized findings into personas and a user journey map. Iterated lo-fi to hi-fi through three feedback rounds on card hierarchy, age filters, and visual consistency.
Results
Hi-fi prototype with unified listings, visual seat previews, friend recommendations, and Venmo-style cost splitting — the features interviews directly called out as missing.
✦ SITUATION
Too much friction between "I want to go" and "I have tickets"
Students who enjoy live theater face a surprisingly fragmented planning experience. Listings are on one site, seat previews on another, friend recommendations in a group chat, and ticket splitting requires switching to a payment app. The result: decision fatigue, dropped conversations, and plans that never materialise.
Key pain points from interviews
- • Hard to compare shows across platforms
- • Seat quality is unclear before buying
- • Friends' opinions are scattered across chats
- • Splitting ticket costs requires a separate app
What students actually need
- • All shows in one place with clear info
- • Visual seat previews before committing
- • Friend activity and recommendations
- • Effortless cost sharing built in
✦ TASK
Make going to a show feel as easy as going to a movie
I conducted 3 semi-structured interviews with student theatergoers — asking about their process for finding shows, choosing seats, and coordinating with friends. I also drew on my own experience as a regular musical attendee to pressure-test findings. Themes were synthesized into two personas and a user journey map that tracked emotions from discovery through post-show.
✦ ACTIONS
Lo-fi to hi-fi through three rounds of feedback
Round 1 — Card clarity and visual style
Card layouts felt outdated and cluttered. Redesigned the grid with cleaner images, tighter hierarchy, and more breathing room — making show browsing feel closer to a streaming app than a ticketing site.
Round 2 — Age and PG rating filters
Feedback flagged that students with families or non-traditional schedules needed content filters. Added PG/age rating to the filter bar — a small addition that meaningfully expanded who the app works for.
Round 3 — Spacing and visual consistency
Inconsistent text sizes and a sharp-edged seat preview box broke the visual rhythm. Standardised type scale, adjusted spacing throughout, and rounded the seat preview to match the rest of the system.
✦ RESULTS
Outcome & Reflection
Try the Interactive Prototype
Experience the full user flow and interactions in Figma
View PrototypeAfter revisiting the PRD, I simplified the "friends reaction" feature, improved Venmo-style cost sharing, and made the seat preview load faster. These changes made the app feel smoother and more realistic for student use.
I learned that even entertainment apps rely heavily on trust and clarity. Simple visual fixes—like better spacing and seat previews—can remove a lot of user stress. Feedback helped me see the gaps in hierarchy and consistency, and user research showed me how social planning plays a big role in students' decisions.