Heartland Festival
Designing a digital communication concept with the goal to increase Heartland’s target audience for the 2021 edition.
Type of project: University UX design project
My roles: UX Designer, Market Researcher & Project Manager
Tools used: Figma, Miro, Google Drive, Zoom, pen &
paper
Duration: 4 weeks (2 weeks of user research, 1 week of UX design, 1 week testing and delivery) – September 2021.
Project Overview
The Client
Heartland is a Danish cultural festival which takes place every year in May, at Egeskov Castle, on Funen – Denmark.
Project Goal
20% increase in the Aarhus audience for the 2021 edition of Heartland Festival.
To achieve this, it was vital to design a concept that resonates with the
Aarhus audience. The digital communication had to be directed to this specific target group.
The Problem
“How can Heartland increase its Aarhus target audience for the 2021 edition with 20%, using digital communication?”
Heartland’s target group is comprised of cultivated people between 30 – 45 years old, interested to experience high-quality events.
Solution – Outcome
The solution was to digitally communicate the festival’s value proposition using Facebook Instant Experience.
The advantage of using Instant Experience is that the user receives all the necessary information about the festival in the Facebook app, including the option to buy the tickets. This approach increases the chance that the users will purchase the ticket right away.
The proposed concept included creating a video that captures the festival’s essence, whose purpose was to attract users’ attention on Facebook.
Once they clicked on the video to
find out more about Heartland, the Instant Experience would begin.
The Design Process
The project was completed following a design thinking approach, the Double Diamond model: Discover, Define, Develop, Test, Deliver.
From discovering the users’ needs, to defining the problem statement, and developing and testing the concept, this model represented the process “of exploring an issue more widely or deeply (divergent thinking) and then taking focused action (convergent thinking).” (Design Council, 2019).
Discover
Nano-Usability Testing
Nano-usability testing was performed to understand the obstacles encountered by potential customers.The hotspots and the pain point of the Heartland’s website were identified.
The tasks were simple: the users had to find the festival program and buy a ticket. Using this user research method, a number of issues were discovered.
The most important findings are that the intro video must clearly express to whom the festival is addressed to, and the values of the festivals must be highlighted in it. The menu categories should be renamed according to users’ lingo.
Benchmarking
To gain insights into the festival industry and seize new opportunities for Heartland, benchmarking was necessary.
The main findings resulted from analyzing competitors’ websites and this became sources of inspiration for improving the Heartland website.
Qualitative Research
The insights gained through qualitative research were valuable when designing the digital communication solution.
Truly understanding the users’ needs and pain points contributed to designing the right digital communication strategy.
Define
Brainstorming
The winning idea throught which Heartland could attract the Aarhus audience was to intensively promote the festival on the social media platforms that are relevant for the target audience.
User Journey Map
An intuitive user experience was created using the user journey map. The scenario shows that the user is engaging with the ad on her Facebook feed, sees the Heartland video, and feels excited to find out more.
Develop
Mockup for the Facebook Ad
Facebook Ad: choosing the target audience
Test
Usability Testing
The prototype was tested and iterations were made based on the findings from the usability testing.
Heartland’s website menu was reorganised based on the results of the usability
testing. Also, the price page of the Instant Experience was changed to include the 3 types of tickets available, so the users can easily decide which option works best for them.
Deliver
The new digital concept
The proposed concept included creating a video that captures the festival’s essence, whose purpose was to attract users’ attention on Facebook. Once they clicked on the video to find out more about Heartland, the Instant Experience would begin.
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