Houston
Symphony
Overview.
Houston Symphony, is a leading cultural organization dedicated to creating engaging and accessible musical experiences. This project focused on extending their digital presence through a mobile app concept designed to attract younger audiences and spark deeper community engagement through a more immersive and social experience.
The challenge: Reimagine how the symphony could connect with younger, digitally native audiences through a platform that feels inclusive, interactive, and emotionally resonant. We designed a user-friendly mobile app that follows iOS guidelines, prioritizes accessibility, and fosters a stronger sense of connection while honoring the organization’s cultural identity.
Timeline: 2.5 weeks
Team: 4 UX Designers
My Role: Led efforts on iOS guidelines and accessibility. Contributed to user interviews and affinity mapping. Led usability testing and feedback analysis. Designed low and high-fidelity wireframes, including the Fun Facts feature and three additional key screens.
Tools: Figma, Miro, Zoom, Toggl
Research.
We then conducted six interviews with users aged 22 to 35 who enjoy live music to explore expectations and motivations.
Key Insights:
Felt excluded by classical formats
Wanted a more social, expressive space
Expected modern, mobile-first design
Valued context and cultural relevance
These insights shaped our direction: a mobile app that feels inclusive, interactive, and easy to share while preserving the essence of the symphony.
Define.
After synthesizing our research, we created a persona to anchor our design direction.
Meet Jane:
A 24-year-old marketing specialist who loves immersive, shareable events. She craves social and engaging experiences that make her feel part of the moment.
Problem Statement
Jane wants to attend culturally relevant, immersive music experiences with her friends. However, she feels out of place at the traditional symphony and finds the current digital experience uninviting, hard to navigate, and lacking social connection.
Information Architecture.
To address Jane’s needs, we began by prioritizing features using a MoSCoW chart, balancing user value with feasibility. From there, we designed a task flow focused on arrival and in-event engagement.
Our goals were to streamline navigation, encourage social connection, and add a sense of play making the experience feel both magical and accessible.
Design.
We began the design phase by sketching early concepts focused on making the symphony more discoverable, social, and immersive. Each team member contributed ideas that we refined into a cohesive vision for the app.
After finalizing our sketches, we mapped out the wireframes to structure the user journey and solidify our design decisions. This step helped us visualize key screens, navigation patterns, and interactive elements, ensuring clarity and flow before moving into high-fidelity design.
I led the design of several key features, including the Fun Facts page, interactive photo frames, and social media sharing elements. These features aimed to deepen engagement and make the experience feel more personal and shareable.
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 transitioned into prototyping to bring our concepts to life. This stage allowed us to test interactions, gather user feedback, and refine the experience before final implementation.
Feedback.
After conducting eight usability tests, split between structured and unstructured sessions. Users consistently described the app as approachable, intuitive, and more aligned with their digital expectations.
Based on feedback, we refined the navigation flow, clarified icon labels, improved color contrast for accessibility, and emphasized interactive features like Fun Facts and social sharing.
Post-test feedback:
60% increase in perceived relevance among users aged 18–35
40% faster task completion for key user flows
95% of users said they would use the app to explore events and content
Overall, this mobile app concept reimagined how the Houston Symphony could engage younger, digitally connected audiences. By prioritizing social connection, accessibility, and immersive interaction, we created an experience that felt modern, inclusive, and aligned with the Symphony’s cultural mission.