I investigated how festival-goers navigate, plan, coordinate, and recover when the Insomniac app meets the time pressure and connectivity constraints of a live event.
At a festival, finding a restroom, comparing overlapping sets, or reconnecting with friends can become an urgent decision—not a leisurely browse.
The study examined how information density, navigation structure, group coordination, and unreliable connectivity shaped participants’ ability to use the app. Interviews were conducted remotely, so the research speaks to recalled festival behavior and task responses—not direct in-context observation.
How might the Insomniac app support clearer, more confident decisions across navigation, set-time planning, and group coordination?
Understand how festival-goers find and interpret set times, maps, and artist information.
Locate moments of confusion and cognitive friction across core planning tasks.
Understand why people leave the app for screenshots, notes, Instagram, or EDMTrain.
Translate observed pain points into clearer, more reliable planning experiences.
The completed study combined 30-minute semi-structured interviews with task-based evaluation of lineup, set-time, map, and artist-recognition stimuli.
Personal networks; experienced EDM festival attendees
Festival habits, planning, navigation, reliability
Lineup, grid, map, and DJ-recognition tasks
Patterns grouped into four research themes
Evidence translated into product directions
The study plan proposed 10 sessions. The completed presentation verifies 8 participants, ages 18–32. The 75% and 87.5% figures come from a separate eight-response screener export and are not presented as completed-sample characteristics.
Interview responses and task feedback were synthesized into 20 insights across four themes. The final presentation paired recurring comments and reported behaviors with product recommendations.
Selected from the final presentation’s highest-frequency and highest-impact findings.
All 8 participants preferred a vertical time axis. Participants described losing earlier information, taking too many screenshots, and wanting time to flow from top to bottom.
The grid’s orientation increased memory demands precisely when users needed to compare stages and spot conflicts quickly.
All 8 participants described screenshot-based coordination as confusing or painful. Different crops and formats made group decisions difficult to reconcile.
A personal schedule became a fragmented group artifact instead of a shared source of truth.
7 of 8 participants reported on-site loading failures or crashes; a separate 7 of 8 expressed demand for offline mode. Participants prepared screenshots, notes, or memorized schedules before arriving.
When connectivity dropped, the product could not reliably support the moments when its information was most valuable.
In separate findings, 6 of 8 participants described the map as overcrowded and 6 of 8 wanted search or filter tools for toilets, exits, water, first aid, and stages.
Decorative density and low contrast competed with urgent wayfinding needs.
Each direction follows the logic in the final presentation: observed friction, synthesized insight, then recommended product response.
Horizontal scrolling broke set-time planning.
The grid’s orientation increased memory demands precisely when users needed to compare stages and spot conflicts quickly.
Reorient the schedule to Time = Y and Stage = X, add a sticky time column, and offer a denser view.
Group planning happened through inconsistent screenshots.
A personal schedule became a fragmented group artifact instead of a shared source of truth.
Introduce collaborative planning with invitations, co-editing, and one unified group timeline.
On-site reliability had eroded trust in the app.
When connectivity dropped, the product could not reliably support the moments when its information was most valuable.
Pre-cache maps and set times, add a low-connectivity mode, and make offline status explicit.
The map made essential resources hard to find quickly.
Decorative density and low contrast competed with urgent wayfinding needs.
Simplify the visual system, strengthen contrast, and add searchable, filterable priority maps.
Time runs top to bottom, stages run across, conflicts are highlighted, and orientation remains visible while scrolling.
Friends can invite, co-edit, and view one group plan instead of reconciling inconsistent screenshots.
Essential maps and set times are cached before entry, with clear offline status and filtering that still works.
Proposed experience directions—not shipped or post-design validated. The supplied materials contain recommendations but no final redesign mockups.
The research produced 20 documented insights across navigation, planning, coordination, and reliability, plus a set of evidence-linked product recommendations.
This project reinforced the value of looking beyond stated preference to the workarounds people build when a product fails them. It also showed where stronger field research is needed: future work should observe behavior inside a live festival and validate proposed solutions with a broader sample.