Merch

iOS App, Web App, Website

2012-2016

Merch is the beloved brainchild of design director at Filament and formerly touring singer-songwriter, Matt Hryhorsky (aka Matt York!), who knew firsthand the cumbersome experience of counting sales and tracking his merch inventory manually. Inspired by the notion that “the best way to complain is to make something”, Merch had been in the very early planning stages when I started at Filament as an intern.

Goals

Help musicians track costs and make inventory decisions intelligently with sales analytics and reports.

Spread the word about the app with social media and marketing efforts.

Provide a web app synced with data from the iOS app for reports archiving.

An alternative to manual count-outs

The main function of the app surrounds adding gigs, adding merch, selling that merch during scheduled gigs, and viewing reports afterward.

Artists are able to track sales in real time, and analyze a complete breakdown of sales in their report to help identify trends and provide insights into what’s selling and what’s not.

Reports are generated automatically after each gig, and can be viewed on the iOS app or web app by the artist, band manager, or anyone else.

Starting on the MVP

I started out assisting with identifying user outcomes and their respective flows based on audience interviews. We tried to come up with as many assumed edge-cases as possible, then pare down enough attainable goals that were realistic for an MVP.

I then helped to re-work flows that seemed solid as static comps, but needed a little more re-thinking as we tested our internal prototypes.

For instance, while selling at a gig, we had neglected to add a way for the seller to comp an item– for instance, if the performer wanted to give a product to their friend for free, or provide a one-off discount. In a following sprint, we added a button that would comp everything currently in the cart.

In another example, the clothing category of merch required the most detail, with stock counts relating to gender, size, and colour to be accounted for. We had come up with a way to update stock for each size and colour, but had neglected to add a unisex / one-size option. This is still a work in progress.

Design and development

Referencing the established visual style, I worked on the user interface of the iOS app, helping to rework and improve on UX flows along the way. When the app had begun the development process, there was an extensive QA process that I spearheaded.

I use my dog for all product photos– for good reason, amirite?

Let's just say my memories of QA aren't the fondest.

Preparing for private beta

The iOS app was now being tested in the hands of a select few and we’d started getting valuable user feedback. Getting ready for private beta, we designed a marketing landing page (and found incredible interest from prospective users which was nice!), providing visibility into what the app looked like and how it worked.

Our team even had background roles in the promo video. I’m pretty sure I was going for "hurry up with this guy so I can buy my shirt!"

The dashboard

On the web app side, we continued working on ironing out the design of the dashboard. We’d been making countless tweaks to flows within the app that were initially based on assumptions but proved to be unnecessary or lacking, with the valuable user feedback we’d received thus far.

Dashboard– Zero State

Dashboard– Gig Reports Archive

The beat goes on

Merch launched on the App Store in March 2016, but it remains to be a work in progress that is actively improving. Since then, the team has continued to gather feedback from users and has been working on the full web app, while endlessly rethinking and refining user experience.

It’s been a unique challenge and an immensely valuable experience to work on.