BitKit

I designed an app that helps stand-up comics record, organize, and refine their material.

Challenge

Design an end-to-end IOS application that helps stand-up comics develop and refine their material. 

My Role

I served as lead designer, and was responsible for all phases of the design process, from research to implementation.

For the research phase, I conducted interviews with eight stand-up comedians in the New York City area to gain insight into their creative processes and uncover any relevant pain points. (Full disclosure: I used to perform stand-up, so some of these comics I knew personally from my time performing, while others I was put in contact with by mutual acquaintances). 

The interviews took place at different comedy venues and open mics across the city, where, prior to asking questions, I watched the comics perform. This was an invaluable experience from a research perspective for two reasons: First, I was able to observe the comics in their environment, and therefore gain a first-hand impression of the ways in which they “work through” their material. Second, seeing their performances helped contextualize and ultimately enrich the information they provided in the interviews. 

As the interviews proceeded, patterns began to emerge relating to the experiences comics had with file categorization and recording:

File categorization in voice memo apps doesn’t fit stand-up comedy’s component-based structure. 

One thing that almost all the comics agreed on was the critical role that audio recording plays in the practice of refining material. Comics generally record their sets on their phone with a voice memo app, then listen to the recordings to identify areas for improvement in their performance. But this practice gets undermined by the overly-simplistic categorization system seen in most voice memo apps, which doesn’t account for the complex, component-based structure of a comic’s material. Traditionally, a long-form stand-up performance constitutes a “set,” which is comprised of groups of jokes following a certain theme, known as “bits.” This set/bit delineation is crucial to how stand-ups structure and develop their jokes. But voice memo apps don’t support this important distinction, as they have no system for grouping recordings by type. So comics can technically only organize their material by set, while more granular components like bits need to be accessed by combing through set files for the specific section of audio making up the bit. Most of the comics I interviewed claimed that this was an imprecise and time-consuming process.

Listening to recorded sets can get tedious.

Many of the comics maintained that listening to the audio of their sets, while crucial to developing their material, can be incredibly tedious. Some cited the sheer frequency of listening to these recordings (as much as 3-4 times per day) while others blamed the incremental nature of developing material - in which bits are revised in tiny degrees - as getting dull over a period of time. 

After synthesizing the interview data, I created a primary persona representing stand-up comedians. It conveys at a high level the comic's experiences around organizing and developing material. 

Next, I produced an empathy map to create a shared understanding of the persona's frustrations and needs. It casts flexibility with audio file categorization and variability in the performance review process as chief among the comic's goals. 

In my customer journey map, I traced the comic’s joke-writing cycle from the original idea for the joke to the post-performance workshop. Presented in sequential story format, the journey helped deepen my empathy with the user as I envisioned his needs and frustrations in a realistic scenario.

With a provisional user flow established, I began putting the wireframes together. These initial designs emphasize:

• A simple and intuitive audio recording interface

• A clear hierarchy of information shown on the file elements

• An easy-to-use tab pattern allowing users to sort between recorded sets and recorded bits

Based on the insights gathered from the affinity map, I chose to iterate on two key aspects of the app:

1. Replace audio file folders with a "tagging" system, in which bits and sets can be grouped and sorted via tags . This would increase the user's flexibility in categorizing and organizing files, and enable users to access their material quicker and with greater efficiency.

2. Include a number value on each file element indicating the percentage of audience laughter registered by the app during that bit or set. This value was already showing on the dashboard page, but many testers maintained they would benefit from having it presented on the main file page as well, saying it would help them more easily distinguish file elements from each other, and prioritize which bits or sets needed work.

With BitKit’s branding, I aimed to translate some of stand-up’s notable elements into a rich, distinctive visual aesthetic. For the color palette, I paired an ultra-dark blue with an electric yellow accent; the blue is a nod to the late-night gigs and barroom venues, while the yellow echoes the fun and vibrancy of a live show. The typeface, Circular Standard, gives the app a clean, modern look without sacrificing legibility. 

I conducted a second round of usability tests using the updated high-fidelity screens. The overall results showed a marked increase in the app’s basic usability, with the new tagging functionality enhancing the user’s categorization and organization capabilities. Furthermore, users were pleased with the addition of the percentage values to the file elements, citing ease in file findability and visual appeal among its benefits.