Unsolicited Redesign

Sundance Film Festival

The Sundance Film Festival is a major event in the film industry, drawing thousands of attendees every year. But, the festival’s mobile app was frustrating to use. I redesigned the app from the ground up, focusing on making it more user-friendly, efficient, and seamless for festival-goers.

Services

Research
Prototyping
Design system
Interface Design
Wireframing
Information architecture
User Testing

Branding: Porto Rocha
Images: Sundance Film Festival
Type Foundry: Pangram Pangram

*This project is an unsolicited redesign, meaning I was not commissioned or employed by the Sundance Film Festival or any other agency to complete this work. The visuals provided are representative examples of my work and showcase my design approach and capabilities.

Overview

The 2024 Sundance Film Festival welcomed 72,840 unique in-person attendees, all of whom were required to register for and use the official Sundance Film Festival App to attend screenings.

The app is intended to enhance the in-person festival experience by providing access to tickets, venue information, and film voting. However, I noticed that many users have expressed frustration on forums and review sites.

Research & Discovery

I dug into app store reviews to understand where people were struggling. The biggest issues were:

  • Seeing film availability: Users couldn’t easily tell which films still had tickets.

  • Group waitlisting: There was no way to link accounts, making it hard for groups to join a waitlist together.

  • Filtering films: Key filters like length, location, and ticket availability were missing.

I also looked at other major film festival and event apps to see how they handled these challenges and identify best practices.

Visual Identity

A major issue with the old app was that it didn’t align with Sundance’s 2023 rebrand by Porto Rocha, which affected the overall visual consistency and user experience. The app felt disconnected from the festival's updated identity, creating a mismatch between the brand’s current aesthetic and the way users interacted with the app.

View the existing app here

Porto Rocha’s Rebrand

Porto Rocha’s Rebrand

Design System

To align the design with the new branding, I updated the typography to ABC Monument Grotesk, giving the app a more modern, cohesive look that matched Sundance’s refreshed identity. I also developed a dark color palette that not only improved accessibility but also stayed true to the new brand aesthetic.

To ensure consistency and scalability across the app, I created a full design system and component library, making it easier to maintain and expand the app in the future.

Hi Fidelity Prototypes

I created a clickable prototype to test interactions and refine the user journey before development. I measured how quickly users could:

  • Purchase tickets for a specific date.

  • Search and filter for specific film labels (e.g., documentary, closed captioning).

  • Join a waitlist and add a colleague.

Final Mockups

  • Home

  • Categories

  • Film

  • View All Screenings

  • Ticket Purchase

  • Tickets

  • Categories

  • Search

  • Search Results

  • Search Filter

  • Search Filter Results

  • My Schedule

  • Log In

  • Sign Up

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