We're so excited to reveal this new version of our mobile app, which has been reimagined from the ground up in collaboration with our Creative Director, Alex Giraldez. The basis of the app is the same, with the easy-to-navigate Show List and Map page you're already familiar with. There are a few new features we want to highlight from this redesign.
1. Required User Sign-in and Show Saving
One of the top feature suggestions we got was to allow users to save shows. To enable and encourage this, we've made user sign-in a requirement to access the app. In addition, once you've signed up, you should stay logged into the app for quite a while.
Quick Tips
- If you don't have an account, simply click one of the Single Sign-On options at the start screen.
- When setting up your account, you can click on some of the genre categories that interest you. These selections will be relevant for our analytics collection and for future feature releases.
- To save a show, click the "Save Show" button on the bottom right-hand corner of a show card.
- To view your saved shows, you can click on your profile and click "Saved Shows."
You can consider the "Save Show" button as a +1 vote for the show (helps us and venues understand what shows are popular) and as a way to help you narrow down shows you'd like to attend.
2. A Show Detail Page
As we collect more show data, we wanted to have the room to display all that information and more. The direct-to-venue event link is still present on this page ("More Info" button), but you'll also find the event's description if the venue provides that for us. One of the data points we wish to collect from venues for each show is the show's genre.
Quick Tips
- To access a show's Detail Page, click on the show card.
- If you're interested in seeing more shows like this, clicking on the Venue name at the bottom of the Detail Page will open the venue's show listings.
3. Search Page
In our original app, typing a keyword search on the search bar would update the Show List accordingly. We've created a dedicated Search Page to list the various types of entities that match your search. Now, in addition to searching for shows, your keyword can also return results for venues, neighborhoods, states, and metro lines.
Quick Tip
- If you want to search for shows, venues, neighborhoods, etc. that appear in a specific quadrant, you can type the abbreviation of the cardinal direction: "SE," "SW," "NW," or "NE."
4. Dark Mode Only
This release showcases a dark-mode-only design that's easy on the eyes. We've also reviewed every text color we use on the app to ensure everything meets WCAG 2.0 color contrast standards.
5. Images on Show Cards
We loved how clean our original DC Music Live app looked without images, but we felt we weren't giving the "full picture" of each show without it. They might be blurry and they may not be pretty, but we believe that each image at least gives you more context and information about what kind of show it is, what type of venue it is hosted at, and even makes suggestions as to the music genre for the show.
These are just a few of the changes in our latest re-design release that aim to enrich your live music search experience. We're so excited to build on this new version of the app and we hope that you like what you see so far.
Catch you at the next show.