Where Can We Dance
Role
Product Designer
Deliverables
Desktop & mobile web responsive wires, UI, design system, visual identity
Team
Charles Ogar, Developer
Mel Chua, Developer
Overview
The site was originally developed as a building ground for the founding developer to learn HTML / CSS / Javascript. I joined the team to bridge the gap between product and market improving usability, visual redesign, and site optimization.
Problem
1
Current codebase limited the ability to modernize the site.
The website was built on HTML / CSS / Javascript, limiting the ability to build smoother interactions and faster loading times.
2
Undefined KPI's on feature releases made it difficult to tell how well the website was performing.
Without defined data endpoints, it was not clear if shipped features increased conversion & engagement metrics.
3
The site's monetization strategy faced challenges due to unclear value perception by different user groups.
Existing user feedback focused on debugging and ideal features for power users.
Bridging the user journey and basic needs of the user, I shifted our team’s focus to improve the site’s current problem areas resulting in a soft roadmap prioritizing the redesign of the top 3 highest user-engaged pages: Landing, Event Search, and Event Creation.
Analysis
The site's biggest competitor was social media marketing and event ticketing, dominated by Eventbrite, Facebook, and Instagram. To ship & redesign quickly, we determined these features required significant effort. Although they were high-impact, we chose to pivot and revisit them once the platform was ready to scale.
Challenges
New entrepreneurship meant learning, failing, and pivoting while navigating a competitive landscape.
Resource Constraints
Different timezones—PST / CST / UTC—and day jobs led to delays in communication & priorities
Limited business knowledge
Developers with different backgrounds and skill sets
Technical Constraints
Updating legacy codebase to Remix-React, Rails framework
Lack of conversion data endpoints created in the back-end
No existing design files
Current Key Performance Indicators
Mobile usage: 64%
Overall site bounce rate: 75%
Monthly unique visitors: 1.6k
Users
Primary user groups in a 2-sided marketplace
Event Organizers
Uses multiple platforms to coordinate ticketing, communication, and artist scheduling. Often spends dedicated efforts in marketing, ticket sales and direct customer outreach.
General Dancers
Someone who travels often and includes dancing as a source of destination. Interested in taking classes and going to festivals. Often asks their network on social media "Where can I dance in [insert city]?"
Discovery
Evaluating Search
Paired with known responsive layout issues, the 2nd most visited site on the page reported 62% of users on mobile with a 60% bounce rate.
1
Complicated side panel filter. Not responsive. Too many manual steps.
2
Cluttered information overwhelms important event info and engagement.
3
Button styles and repetitive CTA descrease emphasis and importance.
Visual Direction
Initial feedback revealed consumer trust issues caused by outdated visuals and inconsistent messaging. The redesign included creating a custom logo that embodied dance, movement, and community. I rolled out reusable components (header, footer, buttons, input fields, and event cards) for developers as they continued with site updates.
Design
Prioritizing Search
In addition to updating the visual library, the Search Page required much TLC in simplifying filter usage and creating a smoother transition between from mobile to web.
Turning Search into separated tabs
This included matching keyword results using visually defined primary and secondary filters, and expanding the location radius to include “nearby” events, covering neighboring, smaller cities.
Legacy
Final UI
Halfway through the project, the lead developer left for a full-time job, and the founding developer adopted a different layout due to technical limitations.
Final UI
Track engagement metric with Saved Events
Added a side panel for quick event overviews with a prominent “Save” option under Registration. This serves as a baseline KPI metric to track user engagement and signed-in user retention.
Streamlining the Search experience to mobile devices.
84% of our user base use Where Can We Dance on their mobile device. I designed a responsive layout that ensured filters took up less than 50% of the screen real estate.
Impact
53% increase in monthly visitors in overall site visits within the first 30 days. 10% decrease in bounce rates in the Search page.
Present
Developing Data Endpoints, QA & User Acceptance Testing
Back-end and Design are working on this.
Future
Build Event Ticketing
Prioritize the pain points for Event Organizers in custom ticketing and incentivize them to create their own events.
Future
Optimize & Growth
Synthesize user feedback to improve the sites core functions in a 2-sided marketplace. Track data to learn if our target users are using the site as intended.