Festival app · Offline‑first · 2024
A festival of 20,000 people stopped navigating on paper
When I joined, InSight didn't exist yet. No product, no user data — just a festival of ~20k people who'd been navigating with paper maps for years, and a two‑month window to ship something better.
For years they found their way on printed schedules and a paper map.
No product, no user data, no research when I joined. The festival date could not move.
Downloaded once at the info center, then used for the whole festival with no internet and no GPS.
Designing offline‑first for 20k festival attendees
On‑site internet was unreliable and there was no GPS coverage. So I couldn't design for live anything — not real‑time location, not server‑pushed updates. The app had to assume the user opened it once at the info center, then went offline for three days. That single constraint decided most of what followed.
- Contribution
- UX Design, User Research
- Duration
- 2 months before the festival
Everything that was failing ran on paper.
- Paper schedules
- Got lost or rained on.
- Last‑minute changes
- A change to the line‑up never reached the people it affected.
- Physical sticker board
- Only worked if you happened to walk past it.
- Reception overwhelmed
- Reception spent the weekend answering the same questions.
- Print costs
- Real money, every year, on paper runs.
Every feature had to work with the phone in airplane mode.
Personalized schedule
A browseable list of every event with a 'like' that saved it to a personal, day-by-day view. No accounts, no sync — stored locally on the device. The schedule was the thing people genuinely needed to keep track of.
Interactive festival map
Static map with marked stages, food spots, amenities, and walking paths. No live position. Instead of fighting the no-GPS problem, I made the map confident on its own — clear icons, distinct zones, walkable paths.
Digital sticker board
The physical board was the soul of the festival. I designed a digital twin: post a sticker, read others' stickers, no account required. Anonymous on purpose. Privacy and speed in the same decision.
Articles and FAQ
A plain section answering the questions reception kept getting all weekend: safety, timings, where-is-what. Less glamorous than the rest, but the highest-leverage feature for people working the info desk.
There were no product metrics to collect, so I went to the festival incognito and talked to attendees myself.
“And the very concept that ‘downloaded at the info center once, you use the entire festival without the Internet’ is hard to imagine — but here you are!”
A BIG thank you to the development team who launched the schedule, information and map portal this year. It was just extremely convenient — I used it dozens of times every day, so as not to miss the lectures I want to attend, and to understand where the right tent or the right gazebo is. I asked people at the festival, and met quite a lot who were genuinely happy. You guys are real magic — the app was incredibly cool!
There was a list of all shops, restaurants, venues, a search for shows and events (!) — without the Internet. It was super convenient.
Low bow for the application, glory to the developers! I ran into the information center just to read a stand with pieces of paper, to take a map and, well, for water. Information about the app should be hung on a large stand near the info center and at each stage — not on a small piece of paper somewhere behind the backs of the ever-busy workers.
+100500 points to the creators' karma. I hope at the next festivals the app will be more stable and more widespread — this is a super idea and implementation. It's a pity I only found out about it on Monday evening!
Overall, users enjoyed the app — especially the personalized schedule and digital sticker board. My team and I are very proud of our first launch.
We undersold the offline model
Communicating constraints is part of the design — if your map doesn't track you, the app should say so before the user assumes it's broken. That lesson stuck with me. I logged the rest of the usability findings for the 2025 redesign.
It was a real pleasure working with Anna on this project. Without her, we wouldn't have achieved what we have today. She brings the qualities any designer needs: responsibility and initiative. When I was overwhelmed and tempted to postpone things, Anna would step in, remind me, suggest solutions, and go the extra mile. She isn't afraid to sketch by hand when Figma isn't around. She asks the thoughtful questions early — the kind that prevent rework. Working with Anna was a genuine boost for the team and the project.
Anna is a team player and proactive — not afraid to flag potential issues, which is rare and important. Her soft skills make collaboration easy. Communicating with her about tasks is comfortable and productive, and her thought process inspires others on the team.
Happy to walk through the parts that did not fit here. Let's get on a call.