iOS App, Web App, Website
2012-2016
Many touring musicians rely on their merchandise sales to bring in a significant portion of their income, but still rely on paper and pencil to keep track of their sales.
We wanted to make the process of tracking sales not only quicker and easier, but also to provide valuable insights to intelligently help musicians plan how much merch to have while on tour.
I worked on UX, UI, and visual design for this project.
Filament worked with FitStar on various projects, involving web design, development, and strategy for 2 product launches, UI/UX for FitStar’s web app, and design and development for email and landing page campaigns.
I worked on UX and visual design for these projects.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.