Necole Cayanan
Three smartphone screens showing Coachella app features: favorites and merchandise, event food map, and build your order screen with menu items.
Driving app-adoption by designing a utility-first Coachella app.
It started with a 'schedule only' app
Coachella draws hundreds of thousands of attendees each year, and most download the official app before the festival begins. However, adoption drops sharply once attendees arrive on site. The app primarily supports a single use case viewing set times. While useful for planning, it offers limited value during the festival itself when heat, crowds, and time pressure shape real decisions. As a result, many users stop opening the app after the first few hours.
This project explores how shifting the app from a planning tool to a utility first experience could increase on site adoption, encourage repeat usage throughout the day, and position the app as something attendees rely on rather than forget.
PROJECT TYPE
DesignLab Capstone Project
DELIVERABLES
User Research
User Journey
Usability Testing
UX/UI Design
Prototyping
USER RESEARCH
Reframing adoption as a utility problem
To understand what drives continued app usage, I conducted mixed methods research.
I surveyed 37 past Coachella attendees
My key findings emerged quickly. Many attendees downloaded the app but rarely opened it on site. Usage peaked around checking set times and dropped afterward. First time attendees struggled the most and had the highest drop off in usage.
User values revealed opportunities for adoption
To understand why usage dropped, I conducted four in depth interviews with festivalgoers with different levels of experience. Rather than focusing on features, these conversations revealed what users valued most during the festival.
User values revealed opportunities for adoption
To understand where app usage drops off, I conducted four in depth interviews with festivalgoers with different levels of experience. Rather than focusing on features, these conversations revealed what users valued most during the festival.
Users value...
  • Establishing navigation clarity when navigating large crowds
  • Avoiding unnecessary stress and missed experiences
  • Making fast decisions without overthinking
Person with light purple hair wearing reflective round sunglasses and a black scarf.
Mya, 28
"I'm someone who never skips meals and all my basic needs come first, but Coachella forces you into impossible choices between eating and the music."
Man wearing a leopard print shirt and hat enjoying an outdoor festival with raised arms.
Elliot, 27
“A neighbor needed medical help during a set - it was scary and we knew what to do, but most people wouldn't know where to find the med tent.”
DEFINE
Reframing adoption as a utility problem
To increase adoption, the app needed to provide value during the festival, not just before it. The design goal became clear.
Increase app adoption by helping attendees make faster, more confident decisions in real time.
How might we design utility driven features that encourage attendees to repeatedly open the app throughout the day?
User Personas
I then developed personas to represent the spectrum of attendees I'd heard from in my research, with special attention to first-time festivalgoers who lacked the knowledge to navigate emergencies. These personas ensured my design decisions would prioritize clarity and accessibility for users at every experience level.
Reina, 28, RN with $80-120K AI, pictured at a music festival wearing sunglasses and a crop top; text describes her Coachella history, goals, pain points, and quote about ticket prices.
Profile of Trey, a 27-year-old sales professional with AI salary range $80-110K, excited for his first Coachella experience, shown smiling in a crowd with raised arms.
Profile of Allison, age 30, EA occupation, $73-95K income, with Coachella history, goals, pain points, and a smiling woman at a festival holding a drink.
IDEATE
Reframing adoption as a utility problem
Priority Feature List
After synthesizing my research, I created a priority feature list focused on two goals: increasing app adoption and directly supporting attendee safety. I identified features that would help users quickly locate essential services, surface nearby resources without extra effort, and reduce time spent in potentially dangerous conditions. This list ensured my design solutions addressed both the adoption barrier and the underlying health concerns.
Testing methodologies showing 5 participants, 2 test flows, and ease-of-use score rated 1 to 5, with test details: Interactive Map for finding amenities and Mobile Order Completion for completing orders.
Low Fidelity Wireframes
Using low-fidelity sketches, I explored how to integrate navigation tools, proximity highlights, and mobile ordering into the app in a way that would guide users to safety resources efficiently. These wireframes let me quickly iterate on how to present information clearly when attendees need food, water, shade, or medical assistance most.
Hand-drawn wireframe sketch for a Coachella app feature showing a home screen layout with greeting banner, text blocks, navigation bar icons at the bottom, and map button icons for wait time, food stand, and mobile order ahead, with handwritten notes on screen flow and features.Hand-drawn wireframe sketches outlining a mobile app interface for a Disney app, showing maps with wait times, pop-up details, filters, and navigation icons at the bottom.Hand-drawn wireframe sketches of a mobile app with lists, buttons, and form elements for ordering and payment features.Hand-drawn wireframe sketches outlining a mobile app interface for a Disney app, showing maps with wait times, pop-up details, filters, and navigation icons at the bottom.
Build
Reframing adoption as a utility problem
Building on the wireframed concepts, I developed high-fidelity designs and interactive prototypes that prioritized clarity and speed. This phase focused on creating a visual system optimized for festival conditions, ensuring users could quickly access essential services even in chaotic, high-stress environments.
White map icon with three panels on an orange circular background.
Smart Navigation Map
So that users can easily identify essential amenities near key locations like stages and attractions, I incorporated proximity highlights. By surfacing nearby resources, users can better manage their time and access necessities without unnecessary detours.
Coachella festival map on a smartphone screen showing stage locations with countdown timers and set start times for performances.Mobile phone screen showing Coachella app with a dropdown menu for selecting categories like Venue, Attractions, Food and Beverage, Medical, Water Refill, Mobile Order Food, Shaded Area, and Accessible Viewing Area over a partial festival map.Mobile screen showing a colorful Coachella festival map with stages labeled Coachella Stage, Sonora, Gobi, Mojave, Quasar, and Do LaB, including set times and countdowns for next performances.Mobile screen displaying a Coachella festival map highlighting water refill stations marked with blue icons at various locations including Coachella Stage, Sonora, Mojave, and other areas.
White diagonal arrows pointing top-right and bottom-left inside an orange circle.
Proximity Highlights
To help users access essential amenities like food, water, and restrooms, I designed two integrated features. The first highlights nearby amenities at each stage, allowing users to quickly locate resources without missing performances. The second feature uses an interactive map with pop-up windows that display mobile ordering options for nearby vendors, streamlining the purchasing experience.
Smartphone screen showing Coachella venue map with Do LaB stage highlighted and artist Salute's set time at 3:20 PM displayed.Mobile app screen showing event details for 'salute' at Do LaB, scheduled Fri 4/12 from 3:20 to 4:30 PM, with next act Barry Can't Swim at 5 PM and nearby amenities including water refill station, restrooms, and mobile order food.Coachella mobile app screen showing map with food locations near Beer Barn and Do Lab Food area, with options to order from Acai Bowl Girl and others.
White smartphone icon centered on an orange circular background.
Mobile Order Capabilities
Skip the lines and get back to the music. Users can pre-order food and drinks from participating vendors directly through the app, with real-time wait estimates that sync to their schedule. Pickup notifications alert them when their order is ready, transforming idle queue time into moments spent at the stage. The result: less waiting, more experiencing.
Smartphone screen showing Coachella mobile order food map with a popup for Sumo Dog at Do LaB Food and an Order Food button.Mobile app screen for building an order from Sumo Dog Do LaB, Food, showing selectable arrival windows from now to 4:00 PM.Mobile app screen showing a food order menu from Sumo Dog with four items listed including Sumo Dog, Do LaB DAWG!, Miso Katsu, and Sumo Tots with descriptions, prices, and photos, and a pickup time of 2:45 to 3:00 PM.Mobile screen showing menu item detail for Miso Katsu, a breaded and fried hot dog with mayo, miso mustard, cole slaw, tonkatsu sauce, furikake, and scallions priced at $12, with quantity selector set to 2 and Add button.Mobile order summary for Sumo Dog food with two bottles of water and two Miso Katsu ordered, total payment due is $30.50, with a delivery time between 2:45 and 3:00 PM.
USABILITY TESTING
Reframing adoption as a utility problem
After developing high-fidelity prototypes, I tested them with five previous festival attendees, focusing on two key flows: finding essential resources through the interactive map and securing them through mobile ordering. The results validated my approach: users felt more confident navigating the festival, with the smart navigation map reducing search time through need-specific filtering and mobile ordering enabling seamless advance purchases.
Priority Feature List showing three features: Smart Navigation Map with an interactive filtered search system, Proximity Highlights displaying nearby amenities on destination detail pages, and Mobile Order Capabilities for pre-ordering food and drinks with real-time wait estimates and pickup notifications.
Text card titled 'Key Finding' stating users felt more empowered to navigate the festival efficiently from the redesign, on an orange rounded rectangle background.
Section titled 'Iteration Opportunities' detailing two items: Live Set Indicator highlighting real-time sets for navigation, and Order Confirmation suggesting clearer visual cues for order pickup and notification integration.
Overhead view of various foods including pizza, salad, tacos, sandwich, and a drink on a red tablecloth with text about mobile order completion and a 5-star ease of use score.
Outdoor scene with people walking on grass near a colorful glass building and a Ferris wheel, overlaid with text rating 'Ease of Use Score Interactive Map 4/5 stars' and a description of user-friendly flow.
Iterate
Reframing adoption as a utility problem
Users appreciated the features but pointed out gaps that would impact usability. They struggled to identify which stages had live performances happening at that moment, making it harder to navigate efficiently. The mobile ordering flow also felt unfinished; users weren't sure if their order actually went through. I refined the design by adding real-time indicators to show active performances on the map and including a confirmation screen that reassured users their order was successfully placed.
White lightning bolt icon centered on an orange circular background.
Live Set Indicator
For the Live Set Indicator, I chose to add a pulsating neon dot that helps indicate to users that a set is happening at a particular stage on the map. This provides the user with an understanding of anticipated traffic, congested areas, and of course a nice reminder that an artist they are anticipating is performing.
Golf Card - Before product details
Before
My original design featured time flags for each stage, informing users of upcoming sets or time left until a set would begin.
Product Card - after adding essential details
After
Users felt that the time flags were informative but needed differentiation between upcoming and Live Sets.To remedy this, I added a flashing yellow light for sets that were Live Now.
White checkmark inside a circular border on an orange background.
Order Confirmation Page
Users mentioned that the mobile ordering flow was smooth and intuitive throughout the process, but the experience felt incomplete at pickup. I recognized that the transition from order confirmation to physically receiving the order lacked clarity. To address this, I added visual cues and instructions to help users locate their orders at vendor locations, and improved the integration between pickup notifications and the handoff process to create a seamless end-to-end experience.
Golf Card - Before product details
Order Confirmation Drawer
Attendees see arrival windows instantly on the map, eliminating the need to track orders through menus and emails in a chaotic festival environment.
Product Card - after adding essential details
Order Confirmation Screen
A dedicated confirmation screen ensures users know exactly which vendor to visit and where to find them, eliminating the confusion of "wait, where was I supposed to pick this up?" in a crowded festival with dozens of food stations.
Prototype
Reframing adoption as a utility problem
With my iterations complete, I developed final prototypes that demonstrate how the app could drive adoption while addressing critical safety needs. These prototypes show how attendees can now efficiently find water, shade, food, and medical help through intuitive map filtering, and secure what they need through streamlined mobile ordering. By giving users compelling reasons to download and actively use the app, these features transform it from a passive schedule viewer into an essential festival tool that keeps them safe
Conclusion
Reframing adoption as a utility problem
This project taught me that solving for safety can simultaneously solve for business goals. By designing features that prevented medical emergencies, I naturally increased app adoption because users saw tangible value in downloading it. I also learned the importance of designing for extremes: by focusing on first-time attendees and emergency scenarios, I created an experience that made the festival easier for everyone, regardless of their experience level. Finally, iterating on details like live performance indicators and order confirmations showed me how finishing touches can be the difference between users trusting or abandoning a feature. In high-pressure environments like festivals, clarity and intentionality aren't just nice to have; they're essential.
Next Steps
Designing new solutions for the Coachella festival app revealed an opportunity to revolutionize event safety through integrated technology. Future iterations could leverage embedded wristband sensors to provide accurate crowd intelligence, creating a replicable model that protects millions of attendees across festivals, sporting events, and large-scale events worldwide.
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