UX Design / Feature Design / Mobile / Figma / User Research
StubHub Connect
Personalizing the experience — adding preference-driven event discovery and community reviews to the StubHub platform.
THE PROBLEM.
StubHub is one of the world's largest ticket marketplaces — but in 2022 its mobile app was almost entirely transactional. You could search for events, browse by category, and buy tickets. What you couldn't do was get personalized recommendations based on your actual interests or read honest reviews from people who had attended an event before committing to a purchase.
The result was a platform that treated every user the same regardless of whether they were a die-hard hockey fan, a concert-goer who follows specific artists, or a casual buyer looking for something to do on a Saturday. And once you bought a ticket and attended an event, there was nowhere to share your experience — no feedback loop, no community, no way for future buyers to benefit from your firsthand knowledge.
The gap was clear: personalization and community were both missing, and both were features that competing platforms and adjacent apps had already normalized.
MY ROLE.
This project was completed through the IxDF UX Portfolio & Career Bootcamp, overseen by a UX professional mentor. I worked directly within the existing StubHub app — building new interfaces and modifying existing screens to integrate the new features seamlessly into the platform's established design language. I handled research, ideation, wireframing, high-fidelity design, and validation.
THE RESEARCH.
I started with secondary research to understand the competitive landscape. Spotify had already proven that importing listening preferences could power discovery. ESPN and Bleacher Report had built loyal sports audiences around personalized team and player tracking. Neither of those behaviors was available inside StubHub — users who wanted event recommendations had to rely on browsing categories manually or stumbling across events by chance.
User interviews with StubHub users surfaced two consistent themes. First, discovery was friction-heavy — finding events relevant to your specific interests required too much manual effort. Second, there was no way to make an informed decision about attending an unfamiliar event or venue before buying. Users wanted to know what the seating experience was like, how the sound was at a particular venue, whether parking was a nightmare — the kinds of details that only come from people who've actually been there.
Both problems had the same root: StubHub knew what you bought, but didn't use that knowledge to serve you better, and didn't give the community a voice.
THE DESIGN CHALLENGE.
How might StubHub enhance its mobile platform to make event discovery feel personal and give buyers the contextual information they need to purchase with confidence — without disrupting the existing purchase flow?
Two design principles guided the solution:
Meet users where their preferences already live. Rather than asking users to rebuild their interests inside StubHub from scratch, import them from platforms they already use — Spotify for music, ESPN and Bleacher Report for sports.
Keep the community layer integrated, not bolted on. Reviews should live inside the event and venue pages where buying decisions are made — not in a separate tab that users have to seek out.
THE WIREFRAMES.
I wireframed the two new feature sets — the personalized discovery system and the review infrastructure — alongside modifications to existing screens including the home feed, event/venue pages, and the My Tickets section. The wireframes established the structural placement of each feature within the existing StubHub architecture before moving to high-fidelity design.
THE SOLUTION.
StubHub Connect adds two complementary features to the existing StubHub mobile experience — both designed to feel like they were always part of the app.
Personalized Discovery — For You The home feed gains a "For You" section that surfaces events tailored to the user's actual interests. Users can import sports preferences from ESPN or Bleacher Report — connecting their favorite teams and getting notified when those teams have upcoming events with available tickets. Music preferences can be imported from Spotify, Apple Music, or Pandora — surfacing concerts and shows featuring artists in their listening history. The result is a home screen that feels relevant from the moment you open the app, without any manual configuration beyond connecting the platforms you already use.
Event & Venue Reviews Every event and venue listing gains a Reviews tab where users can read and leave detailed reviews after attending. Reviews include an overall star rating, category-specific ratings for factors like seating, sound, parking, and staff, and optional photos. Users can link their specific section to their review, giving future buyers precise, seat-level context before purchasing. The review system creates a community feedback loop that benefits every buyer who comes after — turning StubHub from a transaction platform into a knowledge platform.
VALIDATION.
After completing the high-fidelity prototype I brought it back to the users I had interviewed. The response validated both features.
On personalization — users responded strongly to the third-party import system. The idea of connecting Spotify or ESPN rather than manually entering preferences felt natural and low-friction. Several users noted they would be significantly more likely to open the app regularly if the home screen surfaced events relevant to their interests.
On reviews — users appreciated that reviews were tied to specific seating sections rather than just the event overall. The ability to know what section 231, row 12 actually feels like before buying was flagged as genuinely useful information that no current platform provided.
CONTEXT.
Completed as part of the IxDF UX Portfolio & Career Bootcamp in 2022, overseen by a UX professional mentor. Solo project — all research, design, and production handled independently.
Tools: Figma, Photoshop, Illustrator