Houston
Symphony
Project Overview.
Houston Symphony is one of America's oldest and most celebrated orchestras, serving nearly 400,000 people annually through live concerts, educational programs, and community engagement. The organization approached us to redesign key areas of their website to better reflect their artistic excellence, deepen educational outreach, and increase community visibility.
The Challenge: The existing site made it hard for users to quickly discover upcoming concerts, understand the Symphony’s educational and community initiatives, and buy tickets for preferred seating and packages.
My Role: Led the end-to-end design of the Fun Facts Pages, Interactive Photo Frames, and Social Sharing Tools, including stakeholder interviews, user research, information architecture, wireframing, high-fidelity design, and usability testing.
Team & Tools: 4 UX Designers | 3 weeks | Figma, Miro, Google Analytics, Maze
User Research.
Conducted six interviews with individuals aged 22 to 35 who regularly attend live music events to understand their expectations regarding music, culture, and digital interaction.
Key Findings
Participants felt excluded by traditional classical formats.
They desired more social and expressive spaces.
They expected a mobile-first, modern design.
They valued context and cultural relevance.
Design Opportunity
These insights highlighted the need for a mobile-first app that is inclusive, interactive, and easy to share, while preserving the elegance and tradition of the symphony.
Persona & Problem.
After synthesizing our research, we created a primary persona to guide our design direction.
Meet Jane: A 24-year-old marketing specialist who enjoys immersive, shareable cultural events. She wants her experiences to feel social and expressive, not stiff or overly formal. Jane seeks meaningful moments that make her feel connected to both the music and the people she shares it with.
Problem Statement
Information Architecture.
To meet Jane’s needs, we started by prioritizing features with a MoSCoW chart, weighing user value against technical feasibility.
We then mapped out a task flow centered on two key moments:
First-time arrival
In-event engagement
Our design goals:
Simplify navigation
Encourage social interaction
Introduce playful, immersive elements to make the experience feel magical and accessible
This set the foundation for an intuitive, emotionally engaging app structure that supports both discovery and delight.
Design Process
We kicked off the design phase by sketching early concepts centered around discovery, interactivity, and shareability. Each team member contributed ideas, which we collaboratively refined into a cohesive vision for the mobile app.
Once aligned, we moved into wireframing to structure the user journey. This step helped us map out key screens, define navigation patterns, and visualize interactive elements before applying visual styling.
I led the design of several standout features, including:
A Fun Facts page to provide light, engaging content
Interactive photo frames for in-event participation
Social sharing tools to make the experience more personal and connected
To bring the experience to life, the visual design aimed to balance elegance with approachability. A rich purple palette replaced the original yellow and gray to evoke creativity, emotion, and a more immersive atmosphere. This was paired with a clean sans-serif typeface for clarity and modern readability.
With the wireframes and visual design in place, we built a clickable prototype to test interactions and validate the experience. This allowed us to gather feedback and fine-tune the design before final implementation.
Usability Testing & Feedback.
We conducted eight usability tests, combining structured and unstructured sessions. Users consistently described the app as approachable, intuitive, and aligned with their digital habits and expectations.
Based on this feedback, we:
Refined the navigation flow
Clarified icon labels
Improved color contrast for accessibility
Highlighted interactive features like Fun Facts and social sharing
Post-test results:
60% increase in perceived relevance among users aged 18 to 35
40% faster task completion for key user flows
95% of users said they would use the app to explore events and content
The redesigned mobile app reimagined how the Houston Symphony could connect with younger, digitally fluent audiences. By emphasizing social connection, accessibility, and immersive interaction, we created a modern, inclusive experience aligned with the Symphony’s cultural mission.