Locate Drum and Bass festivals, artists, and book concert tickets instantly.
UI Designer
2 weeks
Overview
Music event discovery in Cape Town is highly fragmented, especially within niche genres like Drum & Bass. Fans rely on scattered sources such as Instagram, word-of-mouth, and radio mentions, making it difficult to consistently find and plan for events.
This project explores a centralised platform designed to simplify discovery — connecting fans to both large festivals and smaller, recurring events through a single, location-aware experience.
02: Challenge
Balancing Discovery, Scale & Simplicity
The challenge was to design a discovery platform that could serve both fans and promoters without overcomplicating the experience.
This required:
Centralising event information into a single, searchable system
Enabling fast, location-based discovery with minimal friction
Supporting both large-scale festivals and smaller local events
Creating a scalable structure across genres and cities
Presenting rich event data without overwhelming users
The goal was to make discovery feel effortless, while still supporting the complexity of a growing music ecosystem.
03: User Research
Understanding User Needs & Friction
Initial exploration of the local scene revealed clear gaps in how users discover events.
Key insights:
Event discovery is fragmented across informal channels
Fans often miss events due to lack of visibility
There is no reliable way to browse upcoming events in one place
Promoters struggle to consistently reach their audience
As a result:
Planning ahead is difficult
Event attendance becomes inconsistent
Community momentum is harder to sustain
Users expressed a need for a single source of truth — a platform that brings structure, visibility, and reliability to event discovery.
04: UX Audit
Where the experience breaks down
Discovery Audit
A review of the current discovery landscape revealed several key breakdowns:
Fragmented Information Sources
Events are distributed across multiple platforms, making it difficult to get a complete view of what’s happening.
Low Visibility of Smaller Events
Underground and recurring events are often overshadowed or missed entirely.
Lack of Searchability
Users cannot easily filter or browse events by date, location, or type.
Inconsistent Event Data
Details such as lineups, venues, and ticket information vary in quality and completeness.
No Scalable Structure
Existing discovery methods don’t support growth across genres or cities.
05: Proposed Solution
App Experience Redesign
To address these challenges, I designed a location-aware discovery platform that centralises event information into a single, scalable experience.
At the core of the platform is a genre and location-based search engine, allowing users to instantly see upcoming events based on where they are — or where they plan to be.
Events are presented through curated listings, surfacing key details such as dates, venues, lineups, ticket pricing, and booking links. This creates a consistent and reliable way for users to explore both major festivals and smaller local events.
To support deeper discovery, filters and rich metadata allow users to refine results by date range, venue type, event format, and more — helping them quickly find events that match their preferences.
The platform also integrates community-driven updates, pulling in content from promoters to ensure listings remain timely and relevant.
Finally, the system was designed with scalability in mind, allowing for expansion into additional genres (techno, house, psytrance) and new cities without reworking the core experience.
06: Conclusion
Outcomes, Impact & Key Learnings
This project demonstrates how a structured, centralised approach can significantly improve event discovery within fragmented ecosystems.
Key outcomes:
Simplified access to event information
Improved visibility for both large and small events
Created a scalable foundation for multi-genre, multi-city expansion
Strengthened the connection between promoters and audiences
The platform establishes a single source of truth for music discovery, reducing friction for users while supporting long-term growth of the local and global scene.