Every year, hundreds of people come from all over the US to attend the High Desert Dance Classic (HDDC for short). Together, they celebrate the swing and ballroom dance communities with social dancing, competitions, and professional showcases.
I had the opportunity to volunteer for this event from March 6-8, 2026 working at the welcome/registration desk. This was the first year that the event replaced print schedules with a QR code to access the digital one, and after talking to some of the attendees I noticed a common trend.
Problem
People participating in the High Desert Dance Classic are having trouble navigating through the schedule on the HDDC website when they try to look for specific event information.
How Might We . . .
Restructure the schedule so that users can quickly identify key information needed to participate in their activities?
*Current version of the HDDC schedule (before re-design)
Multiple perspectives are important to reinforce direction, but with this being a solo project I chose to utilize Claude.ai (see my AI statement here) as an assumption mapping tool that helped me organize the primary research that I gathered. I did so by identifying potential project stakeholders and creating a prompt for the AI to simulate a mock kick-off meeting (click here to see full transcript).
From this, I identified some details that I agreed with:
- The project goal should be further defined by the USER, and we currently assume the solution before the research.
- The schedule should be fast and predictable over something that is highly customizable.
- User needs conflict. We need to identify primary users (who we optimize for) and secondary users (who we consider).
After reading through the transcript, I realized my initial goal might have been too specific and limited my scope. I needed to shift the goal to something more open-ended.
v2.0 How Might We . . .
Improve the findability, scannability, and navigation of the schedule so that users can quickly identify key information needed to participate in their activities?
By rephrasing the goal, I opened the scope of potential solutions beyond a restructure of information for the end-user.
Solution
Design with a mobile-first approach and use progressive disclosure!
Most users access the schedule during the live event where they do not have immediate access to a computer screen. A mobile-first approach is most suitable for this situation.
With progressive disclosure, the schedule is organized into tabs by day, and the user has the choice to simplify the information further by using a filter system that hides activities they are not interested in.
I started my process in a FigJam organizing the information architecture of the current schedule.
And then I gathered the information from my user interviews to restructure the information architecture in a way that was most intuitive for the users.
Research
Initial Research
In my initial research, I watched people interact with staff and noted down questions they had during my time volunteering.
Here are some key details I took note of:
- The most common complaint was that it was hard to follow/read the schedule on the HDDC mobile website (primary touchpoint).
- HDDC used a QR code for schedule access this year, different from previous years where they primarily used print-outs.
- Most older people preferred print-outs and often complained about not having them when first coming in.
The HDDC schedule was causing frustration for users, so after the event ended I went through the website to look for areas of improvement.
- Users need to side-scroll to reveal more information on this schedule.
- Saturday is the only day that is separated by morning and evening, inconsistent with Friday and Sunday’s schedule.
- Some elements on the schedule are hard to discern when the title information is similar (ex. All American Prelims vs. All American Finals).
From this observational research, I was able identify a problem that could be defined and solved in a UX project.
Market Research
While I could not find exact demographics for users that attend the actual event, I conducted online research and compiled general data for demographics of users that attend similar events to HDDC. I also looked into the potential stakeholders that might be variables in a real project. Then, I made a business model to further understand the market.
Primary Users:
Ages 40+, “competitors seeking awards” and “social dancers attending workshops”
Secondary Users:
Ages 16+, busy bees who expect things to be fast and efficient on the first try, may have a better understanding of technology compared to primary users
User Interviews
I conducted several user interviews to get a qualitative understanding of where the problem lies and establish what information is most valuable to users when looking at the schedule.
I was able to conduct two of these interviews in person, while the other was conducted via Google Meets, where I utilized tl;dv, an AI transcription service, to record the meeting.
Here are some key takeaways from those meetings:
- Users primarily access the schedule during the live event via mobile.
- There are two primary segmentations for users: competitors and casuals.
- For competitions, users look for Time>Location>Competition Type/Level. Everything else is secondary as long as users know they have somewhere to be at a certain time.
- For workshops, users look for Time>Level>Instructor Name>Activity Name>Location.
User Personas and Journey Mapping
I created six user personas on FigJam (request access to whole file here) that represented the users from my interviews. They served as my beacon for design solutions, allowing me to further empathize with my users to come up with the best possible outcome for the final product.
Further along in the design process, I created a summative user journey to validate my proposed solution.
Accessibility
Accessible design is especially important for HDDC users because of the primary demographic. Users typically are over the age of 40 and may have low vision or limited motor skills. They may also have a limited understanding of technology and QR-code usage. Providing intuitive, easy access to crucial information for the event was the primary goal in mind when designing the solution.
Color and Contrast
I made sure to design within WCAG AAA standards, using a contrast tool to make sure the information was readable for persons with low vision.
Font and Size
I chose the font to be predictable, easy to follow, and legible even in a small size. The most important information is at least 16px, within WCAG standards for mobile websites.
Reflection
I am quite satisfied with the direction I took with this project. I believe the information architecture and progressive disclosure was a suitable solution to the problem.
The only gripe I had with the final design was purely aesthetic, but that was not the goal for the project, so I tried to steer away from “fixing” things. I wanted to stay relatively similar to the style of the original website, and the changes I made were to promote an accessible environment for all users.
*As of August 2026, this product is not in development. However, I have been in touch with one of the organizers and plan to work with them to redesign their website on a larger scale beyond just the schedule. See current website here.
Final Product
