Sundance — ANNA ROSS

Selected Works from Sundance Institute

Festival Mobile App

An intuitive digital solution to replace paper balloting and streamline voting

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Hybrid Festival Scheduling

Empowering users to tailor their journey through the first-of-its kind hybrid Fest

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Festival Village

A radical reimagining of the presentation of during-Fest partner content

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Festival Mobile App: High-Fidelity Wireframes

Due to COVID safety and compliance, the process for Festival attendees to vote for Audience Awards in-person required a ***digital solution to replace the historical paper ballots***. In addition to drafting the entire user experience of the Festival Mobile app, I was additionally required to incorporate this new voting mechanism. The voting needed to be *as simple as previous years*: snag a paper ballot upon arrival at the theatre and hand it back on the way out after voting.
I devised a solution wherein users receive a unique 5-digit code in the theatre that they enter on the mobile app to register their vote. Navigation to the voting section of the app is persistent across the entire app, allowing for quick access. A straightforward tap on the stars allows the user to cast their vote, with a clear indicator that their vote was recorded successfully.
Not only did this provide a ***simple solution for audience members to vote*** while keeping them safe and healthy, it also ***simplified the vote calculation process post-fest*** — no more counting each vote by hand!
See additional Festival Mobile App high-fidelity wireframes below.

Hybrid Festival Scheduling: Low-Fidelity Wireframes

As SFF22 transitioned to a first-of-its-kind hybrid Festival, we faced a challenge: how do we represent in-person screenings and other Festival events happening in cities across the U.S. and online screenings and events folks can access from their homes in the same program schedule view — in both browser and mobile?

My solution: a schedule view with a clear differentiation between in-person access (in Park City, the fest hub, and outside Park City with our Satellite Screens) and online access. The schedule includes a clear toggle indicating the in-person and online view allowing users to move seamlessly between the two. Users have the ability to switch the timezone on the schedule, increasing clarity for users who attend the Festival online-only, but allowing for scheduling flexibility for those who will engage in a hybrid Festival.

The schedule view minimizes user confusion about the brand new hybrid experience — implying ease of transition between their online and in-person attendance to the Festival, and allowing users to tailor their journey through the schedule to their unique Festival experience.

Click the image to see the Festival schedule final product in action!

Festival Village: Prototyping and Proof of Concept

Festival Village was introduced to Festival partners and sponsors as a part of Sundance Film Festival 2021 (SFF21) to serve as the online expression of all partner activations. Based on learnings from SFF21, I was tasked with prototyping and developing a proof of concept for ***a more welcoming and interactive*** Festival Village, clearly highlighting high-level donors and sponsors, while maintaining the values of the Institute and its community organization partners. My proof of concept was a ***feed-view model*** for Festival Village, a ***radical reimagining of the static presentation of partner content from SFF21***.

This concept allows partners to highlight their activations through individual posts presented in a real-time feed through a “Latest” view, with an accompanying “Featured“ view where internal Sundance employees promote particular posts from high-level partners. This presentation increases the energy and excitement around Festival Village with the feeling of continuous novelty. The feed view leverages user’s existing familiarity with social media navigation, and applies it in a new and interesting concept.

As an additional mode of participation, the right sidebar features bite-size engagement opportunities for individuals browsing the Village — with sponsored “Daily Challenges” to get users immediately involved in the Village, and a “Recent Activity” feed, where users would see how other audience members are also interacting in the Village, thusly encouraging the user to participate through a sense of community. All-in-all, we invite you into our Village!