Bezzle
Streamlining Entertainment Booking with One Comprehensive App
About The Product
Bezzle is the brainchild of industry professionals aiming to lift the weight of paperwork off the shoulders of creatives. It reduces the complexity of handling quotes, contracts, emails, invoices, and risk assessments. This innovative platform automates and streamlines the booking process, making it more efficient and less time-consuming.
TOOLS
Adobe XD
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Illustrator
Photoshop
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After Effects
DURATION
16 Months
ROLE
UX/UI Designer
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Solo Project
The Problem
The complexity of managing contracts, bookings, and communications often overshadows the creative aspects of the entertainment industry. For many, this can be a significant hurdle to career growth, demanding an inordinate amount of time and energy.
The Goal
Our goal is to transform Bezzle into the industry's digital cornerstone, where administrative tasks become effortless and professionals can channel their energies into their craft, not their admin.
Success
Bezzle's success will be measured by the rising number of industry professionals who register and actively participate on the platform. This success is further defined by enhancing user productivity and markedly raising the quality of their professional work.
First Things First
User Research
My comprehensive user research for Bezzle included a variety of methods:
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In-Depth Interviews: Spanning the entertainment industry's spectrum, these involved both performers and agents.
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Beyond Surface-Level Assumptions: A focused effort was made to understand the actual needs, goals, and pain points defining the administrative landscape of our users.
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Analysing Administrative Tasks: An examination of how these tasks were being managed and identifying the shortcomings of existing tools.
Affinity Mapping
The insights gleaned were eye-opening. We constructed an affinity diagram to decode the patterns and preferences that emerged, revealing invaluable user insights:
Task Analysis
My in-depth research revealed a landscape of diverse and dynamic tasks, each shifting with the nuances of bookings, clients, and events. To distill this complexity into actionable insights, we employed a thorough task analysis to decode the patterns within the data
Insights
WHAT USER FLOW
The industry's workflows constantly change from booking to booking to meet their clients requirements.
I AM NOT A ROBOT
Most time spent on admin is knowingly or unknowingly spent entering data that has already been entered somewhere else.
SCARY BUISNESS SOFTWARE
The industry's workflows constantly change from booking to booking to meet their clients requirements.
WE'RE ON THE MOVE
People want to do their admin on the move but the mobile products they use make this either limited or impossible.
PLAY NICELY TOGETHER
Collaboration is often challenging as current systems don’t integrate team to-do’s meaning that important tasks are missed.
MARKETING VS ADMIN
Many of the entertainers know that looking professional through their admin is a part of marketing which is not currently prioritised.
Building Empathy
Defining The Personas
In response to the research, I sculpted three distinct user personas, each embodying unique characteristics yet unified by the shared goal of administrative agility. By fostering a symbiotic exchange of information, we aim to unlock a newfound velocity in admin tasks, empowering our users to reclaim their time and expand their professional horizons.
Ideation
How Might We
Navigating the
User Flow
Designing for the intricate and variable workflows of the entertainment industry was no mean feat. The user flow had to be as dynamic and adaptable as the industry it serves. Each user interaction is a journey through a landscape of decision points and actions that had to be both intuitive and flexible.
How Might We
To tackle this, we employed a 'How might we' approach, which allowed us to frame our design challenges as opportunities:
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How might we present the most relevant tasks to each user at the correct time?
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How might we enable users to easily reorder tasks to suit the fluid nature of their bookings?
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How might we ensure that our system supports last-minute changes without disrupting the user's flow?
This approach led to the creation of a user flow that is both smart and flexible, ensuring that each task is presented at the right time.
User Flow
Solution
The solution was to create a system that not only knew the tasks each user needed to accomplish but also could present these tasks in the most logical order. The workflow had to be smart—capable of adapting in real-time as the details of a booking or client needs evolved.
Crazy 8’s
Fast Ideation
Faced with the challenge of presenting a wealth of data in a user-friendly manner, I needed a solution that allowed for instant clarity. As the sole designer juggling numerous features, speed was of the essence. I harnessed the rapid-fire energy of design sprints, employing 'how might we' prompts and Crazy 8's to swiftly generate a diverse array of ideas, each one focused on delivering intuitive, at-a-glance understanding for the user.
Prototyping
Wireframes
Streamlining Email Automation
In designing Bezzle, my iteration process honed in on simplifying data-heavy administrative tasks. A primary goal was to automate the creation of documents and emails, allowing for efficiency that outpaces traditional methods. With Bezzle's smart tools, users enter data just once, and it becomes a reusable asset, transforming the way quotes, contracts, invoices, and emails are generated.
Focused on the email feature, we sought to eliminate the redundant drafting that plagues users. Bezzle's intelligent templates draw upon event-specific information to auto-populate fields, ensuring that personalised communication is only a few clicks away. These templates evolve with the user's needs, learning and adapting to streamline future tasks.
Testing The Solutions
Iterations
How I Tested
Given the constraints imposed by coronavirus, we conducted remote testing sessions via Zoom, engaging with nine individuals who embodied our target demographics—solo performers, group leaders, and agency staff/owners.
Each session was an in-depth exploration, lasting between two and three and a half hours. This timeframe, while extensive, did not allow for every design element to be tested exhaustively. Nonetheless, these sessions were invaluable, providing us with rich, qualitative insights that shaped the subsequent iterations.
Key Feedback & Changes
The iteration was informed by user behaviour. We observed hesitation in sending out emails – a mix of procrastination and the fear of appearing overly assertive. By embedding smart information within Bezzle, users now have the power to swiftly create and dispatch emails that support their business without stepping out of the app.
In response to feedback, the redesign of Bezzle now offers enhanced customisation options such as headers, footers, watermarks, and a variety of fonts, enabling users to infuse their documents with distinctive branding.
Branding Is Everything
In the industry, the traditional process of checking an 'event overview' before tasks is cumbersome. I realised that providing users with immediate task-specific cards, containing just what they need at the moment they need it, would streamline their workflow.
Tasks Not
Events
Trimmed event details to titles after tests indicated extraneous information was distracting.
Refined button layout and text for responsive design across devices.
Added an eye icon to cue interactivity, ensuring users recognised clickable elements.
Standardised the design language for cards of varying sizes to maintain visual consistency throughout Bezzle.
The result? A series of tailored cards, each designed for clarity and consistency, no matter the task size. Users initially missed the full event view but soon found satisfaction in the simplified, task-oriented approach.
In the redesign, we addressed issues of users losing track of tasks by anchoring titles in a fixed position, breaking down complex tasks into smaller, manageable steps, and implementing breadcrumb navigation for clear progress visibility.
Where Am I?
Overall, Bezzle was met with enthusiasm during user testing, with the majority eager to incorporate it into their workflow. Initial interactions, particularly with quotes and contracts, presented a learning curve, but users quickly recognised Bezzle's efficiency—completing a day's worth of administration in about an hour.
The Positive
One of the testers, who owns two large events companies, sent me the following email:


“...If you're looking for any investors - Let [us] know ;-)... You don't get if you don't ask!”
Introducing Bezzle
Powerful Event Management Software
Bezzle is powerful event management software. It streamlines and automates the booking processes across the entertainment industry, taking the heavy lifting out of quotes, contracts, emails, invoices, risk assessments, and more.
Intelligent to-do list
Pain Point:
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Users in the entertainment industry often face the cumbersome process of managing and prioritising a plethora of tasks, leading to inefficiencies and increased stress.
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Solution:
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Developed an intelligent to-do list within Bezzle that not only informs users of their upcoming tasks but also allows them to execute complex admin functions effortlessly with a few clicks, significantly streamlining their workflow.
Connecting agencies and entertainers
Create Quotes
Pain Point:
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Generating personalised and professional quotes is often a time-consuming task, requiring manual data entry and formatting, which can be prone to errors and inconsistencies.
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Solution:
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Bezzle's feature allows users to quickly create customisable PDF quotes with a few clicks. It pulls information from client inquiry forms and user profiles, ensuring accuracy and brand consistency. The process is streamlined so that once quotes are sent, clients can easily review and accept them with a single click, enhancing efficiency and client experience.
Pain Point:
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Agencies and entertainers struggle with maintaining up-to-date information and documentation, which hinders efficient collaboration and booking processes.
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Solution:
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Bezzle facilitates a central hub for real-time information sharing, ensuring all parties have access to the latest promotional materials, acts details, and paperwork, keeping everyone informed and synchronised.
Pain Point:
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Compiling contracts and invoices typically involves juggling multiple data sources and documents, which can lead to a disorganised process and a higher risk of overlooking important details.
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Solution:
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With Bezzle, users can effortlessly generate editable contracts and invoices that automatically incorporate data from quotes and user forms. The ability to attach additional documents and personalise each contract and invoice for different recipients simplifies what was once a complex task, saving time and reducing errors.
Create contracts & invoices
All Event Information In one place
Pain Point:
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Event professionals often struggle with scattered information, leading to inefficiencies in tracking and managing the various aspects of event planning.
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Solution:
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Bezzle centralises all event details on a single page, offering a holistic view of information, paperwork, and correspondence. The interactive timeline enhances workflow visibility, showing what's been done and what's next. Each action is logged with a timestamp and responsible party, ensuring accountability and clarity. Users can directly act on tasks from the timeline, streamlining event management into a cohesive and manageable process.
Conclusion
What Did I Learn?
Information Architecture
Joining Bezzle early in my UX career, I experienced a steep on-the-job learning curve. One crucial lesson was the importance of information architecture—a misstep I made by not prioritising it initially, leading to a time-consuming redesign later on.
Feature Creep
The project's scope was broader than anticipated, causing a rush in testing and allowing feature creep to set in. In hindsight, a phased approach with a focus on core functionalities would have expedited the launch. The desire to solve every potential issue resulted in a product that was ambitious yet still unreleased due to its complexity.
Walk Before I Try & Run
Despite this, the project was a profound learning experience. If I were to start over, I'd streamline the feature set, revamp the UI, and place a greater emphasis on usability and the presentation of information. Some features I developed still stand out to me as innovative solutions, but their execution would be different with the knowledge I have now.
Working on Bezzle has taught me the value of restraint, focus, and user-centric design above all else.
Lets work together. If you have any questions please get in touch.