A mobile app built on the blockchain that allows performers to reduce performance anxiety
Paper was costly and in short supply during Shakespeare’s days. So, to learn their lines, actors would be given cue cards with their lines and the lines of the actor performing before them. Inspired by this time-honored rehearsal method, CueCannon was created during ETHDenver to bring the benefits of a decentralized and transparent blockchain technology to help make the performing arts more accessible and equitable. Using a Lean UX process, I led our team in a design process starting from our first conversations about CueCannon to launching the product in 1 week.
Role: UX/UI designer, branding consultant
Tools: Figma, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe After Effects, WordPress, Gamerjibe, Veertly, Discord
Impact
Provided a design thinking framework that allowed our design team to move quickly to building and launching a successful product that placed in the ETHDenver finals.
Led a design team through a UX/UI and branding process to develop the startup’s first mobile app, marketing website, logo, colors, and written tone.
Used my knowledge of the performing arts industry, UX design, and a developing understanding of blockchain technology to dream up a more equitable and transparent production process.
Deep dive
Discover
Users’ jobs to be done
In our team’s kickoff meeting, I led us through a collaborative exercise to outline CueCannon’s purpose, users, unique approach, challenges, metrics, and scope. This exercise opened up dozens of possible uses and users of the application, from authors publishing a script to visually impaired audience members listening to an audio description of a performance.
Define
User flows
I further refined what actions each user group would take in different scenarios by creating a user flow for each of the following user goals:
- Author uploads a script and shares it with maestros and collaborators.
- Maestro selects a production, casts it, and starts a rehearsal.
- Collaborator rehearses with the cue.
- Spectator reads/listens to the cue and the notes.
Feature prioritization
To determine what we should prioritize in the limited time of a hackathon, I led the team in a feature prioritization exercise. This gave us a game plan for our collaboration and a focus to our minimum viable product. We decided to focus on developing the experience for maestros and collaborators, leaving authors and spectators’ experiences for a future version.
Sitemap
I created sitemaps for both the mobile app and the marketing website so that I could map out the screens requiring UI design.
Iterate
High-fidelity prototype & hackathon presentation
To accommodate for the short, intensive pace of the hackathon, I designed a high-fidelity prototype based on the user flows and sitemaps, with the intent of conducting usability research on the live product after the hackathon. Having led many fruitful team discussions over the week, I wrote the script for our final submission —tying our project in with the hackathon bounties and United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. I made this script into a video using Adobe After Effects.
Next steps
We will conduct usability research on our prototype in English and Spanish-speaking performing arts communities in order to validate and improve on the experience that would allow the user to select, cast, add notes to, and rehearse multiple productions.