Discovery

Due to the nature of how this problem arose (during a pandemic) and the resulting tight deadline, I was limited to desk research. I spent time analysing competitors to understand what users expected from a streaming service and what best practice was.

I also lead journey mapping sessions involving experts from all across the Barbican, so we could create the most seamless possible pathway into this new service and so I could design something that was technically feasible within our timescales.

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Ideation and wireframing

I facilitated a remote team ideation workshop, including everyone from marketing experts to engineers. This co-design session enabled us to shortlist ideas that we assumed were both user-friendly and quick to develop.

I used Balsamiq to create wireframes collating all of our favourite components into designs which we then voted on and took forward to development.

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Shipping, learning, iterating

Due to the circumstances we conducted technical checks like load testing but limited user research prior to go-live. Instead we observed how people used our shipped product and iterated from there.

For example, I ran a series of A/B tests such as changing the copy on a primary CTA. One of these involving splitting traffic three ways, giving users A) the original button, or the choice to select either B) “Watch online” or C) “Online tickets”. The clear preference was “Watch online”, which generated twice as much income as either the original design or “Online tickets”.

We also added:

• Captions (to improve accessibility)
• A countdown to event start times (to encourage action per Parkinson’s Law)
• Live Chat (so that users could get instant help if they needed it)

As the Centre slowly reopened, we launched live-streaming with Live from the Barbican. This allowed users to watch our music events using a mobile, desktop, tablet, or smart TV. Performances were also available for purchase after the event, from a library of content.