designing trust-first social discovery for concert-going

personal project

Role

UX Researcher, UX Designer

Tools

Interviews, Usability Testing, A/B Testing, React Expo/TypeScript, Business Model Canvas, Figma

Members

4

Duration

Aug 2025 - Dec 2025
In my Mobile Apps and Services class, I led the design and research for a mobile app with 3 other student developers. Inspired by dating platform swiping mechanics, we built an early prototype for a concert buddy matching app focusing on trust and safety dynamics.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Music apps support listening—but not real social connection

Music streaming platforms like Spotify are optimized for individual discovery, but fall short when users want to connect socially through music. Students and young adults often want to attend concerts with others who share their taste, yet existing tools—Spotify Blends, Reddit threads, Facebook groups—are passive, unstructured, or unsafe. As a result, music sharing remains isolated, and many users skip concerts simply because they don't have someone to go with.

OUR SOLUTION

A trust‑centered platform for finding concert companions
We designed a mobile platform that helps users connect through shared music taste, build trust through detailed profiles and reviews, and seamlessly coordinate concert plans.
Our solution

RESEARCH OVERVIEW

Investigating behaviors, motivations, and barriers to socialization in music platforms

01. domain and competitive research

existing tools enable sharing, but not connection

We analyzed music streaming services (e.g. Spotify and Last.fm) and online meetup communities.


Domain and competitive research
Key gaps identified
  • Social features are passive and rarely used
  • No built-in discussion or trust systems
  • External platforms lack safety and structure

02. semi-structured interviews

music platforms are lacking in active features for socialization

We conducted 20+ interviews with college students and young adults aged 19–29.


Key findings identified
  • Social features on music streaming platforms are limited
  • Music platforms do not effectively help them meet new people
  • Music taste is a strong connector between friends

KEY FINDING

passive social features in music apps don't enable meaningful new connections, only strengthen existing ones.

CHALLENGE

How might we help music listeners confidently find new connections through shared music interests in a safe and meaningful way?
We focused on designing a system that encourages meaningful, low-pressure connections while prioritizing safety, user control, and intentional sharing.

USER PERSONA

Representing core user needs and motivations
We focused on designing a system that encourages meaningful, low-pressure connections while prioritizing safety, user control, and intentional sharing.
User persona

IDEATION

we developed three different concepts to turn shared music tastes into real-world connections
We explored multiple solution directions, including:
Ideation concepts

After conducting concept feedback sessions, we ultimately focused on a concert buddy matching system, where profiles, verification, and reviews help users evaluate compatibility safely. Users preferred this idea because it offers tangible utility rather than just being another passive feature in already existing music platforms. There is also no current app in the market space that focuses on music-based matching.

CHOSEN CONCEPT

our chosen concept: a concert buddy matching system

Chosen concept

dating apps already tackle this problem!

Because our users expressed concerns about meeting strangers online, we looked at how successful apps—especially dating apps—handle trust and safety. These apps face similar challenges: enabling social connections while protecting users.

Dating apps

STORYBOARDING & WIREFRAMING

designing for Trust: Translating user needs into actionable design
Inspired by how dating apps successfully address trust and safety, we wanted to integrate similar mechanisms into Concert Buddy while keeping the experience music-focused. This meant designing flows that:
• Gave users control over what they share
• Ensured mutual consent before communication, via swipe-based matching
• Made verification and review features visible and intuitive

To explore how these elements would work in practice, we created storyboards and wireframes mapping the complete user journey.

01. storyboarding

Storyboarding

02. wireframing

Wireframing

DESIGN ITERATIONS

Evolving from wireframes to a refined prototype through a/b testing
After creating initial wireframes, we conducted internal reviews and early user feedback to refine layout, interactions, and trust features. Our goal was to balance detail, usability, and trust while ensuring a smooth onboarding experience.

01. profile detail view

users prioritized details about the person over music taste

Details about the person included information such as their profile picture, bio, age, location, etc. Music taste and statistics were secondary to this information. Users were more interested in getting to know the person before deciding to connect with them.

Profile Detail View

02. setting music taste profile

users equally preferred the ease of importing music from spotify and customization of their music profile

As a result, we allowed users the option to first import their music statistics from listening platforms like Spotify, then enabled them to edit those details if they feel they were not representative of their music taste.

Profile Detail View

FEATURE WALKTHROUGH

let's go through the major features
OnboardingOnboarding
MatchingMatching
Event BrowsingEvent Browsing
Trust ReviewTrust & Review

IN PROGRESS

to be continued...