Symphony orchestras across the world are dropping in attendance and subscription numbers due to shifting demographics. The average age of attendees was 36 in 1981 compared to average age being 61 in 2014. As a result, many orchestras are losing revenue in their ongoing challenge of attracting younger audiences to attend their concerts. This has resulted in an industry-wide problem.
LA Philharmonic
Located in the vibrant city of Los Angeles, the LA Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra most recognized for their contemporary and innovative approach to classical music.
ROLE
Visual Design, Content Strategy, Copy editing, User Testing, Research
TEAM
Jessica Hui, Rob Koch, Venus Lau
DURATION
4 weeks
TOOLS
Adobe Illustrator, Keynote
Industry Problem
Opportunity
Compared to other orchestras, LA Phil has the largest budget of about $115 million which has kept them from feeling the full force of this industry-wide problem. Their financial stability opened up an opportunity for us to understand and target some of the difficulties in attracting younger audiences. In addition, their strong influence in innovative thinking makes them an ideal client to address this problem and has the opportunity to provide a sector-wide solution.
Design Solution
An interactive tool for LA Philharmonic’s website that simplifies the concert-selection process so new attendees can feel more comfortable purchasing tickets.
"How might we support new audiences in feeling confident in their ticket purchase by ensuring an enjoyable experience?"
Persona
Through user testing, surveys we created, and information we gathered from asking questions on both Quora and Reddit, we were able to define our persona as the “hesitant newcomer.” Their goal is to attend a classical concert that aligns with their musical tastes. However, they have difficulty deciding which concert to go to, because they’re not sure if they’ll like what is being performed, and are uncomfortable with the concert experience because they’re not quite sure what to expect.
Journey Framework
In the current and proposed journey frameworks, awareness begins with the hesitant newcomer thinking “I want to attend a classical concert.” They’ll search through Google and easily find LA Phil’s website, but once there, they soon discover that it can be a tedious and lengthy process to find a suitable concert. We found that that first-timers will based concert selection often on name-recognition, often preventing them from picking the best experience for them.
The Rebrand
We observed that LA Phil currently doesn’t have a visual identity that communicates their tone of voice. We did some research to better understand how attendees and residents (using online forums) perceived LA Phil, and created a brand concept based on the results.
Original Homepage
Rebranded Homepage
Fill in the Blank
Song List
Concert Recommendations
Email Reminder
Value Proposition
Reflection
As my team and I decided to take upon an industry-wide problem, we faced many challenges in struggling to create an experience that wouldn't cater solely to a younger audience. Through user testing, I learned that this was the best approach towards pinpointing pain areas within our design decisions. Had we not done user-testing, we would have been lacking the perspective of the user-group that we were designing for.