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One app to replace
the spreadsheets, emails,
and paper actors live in

One app to replace
the spreadsheets, emails, and paper actors live in

Auditional is a career-management tool for actors. A place to track auditions, callbacks, bookings, and payments that usually live scattered across spreadsheets, emails, and paper.

Product designer
Product designer

designed it end-to-end: the web app, a Chrome extension,
a marketing site, and a design system from scratch, working under a design lead who reviewed direction and handled client calls.

designed it end-to-end: the web app, a Chrome extension, a marketing site, and a design system from scratch, working under a design lead who reviewed direction and handled client calls.

Figma, Photoshop

Jan 2023 — Apr 2023

Visit website

* Outcome

I designed Auditional end-to-end: auditions dashboard, booking, analytics, financials — plus a Chrome extension
and marketing site.

Moreover, I developed a design system from scratch: components, patterns, and the visual language the product runs on. Built to keep a fast 0→1 product consistent
and give the team a base to scale on.

Measured in usability testing before launch (I had no access to production data after handoff):

~80% less admin time

Statuses, filters,
and hover actions cut the time actors spent managing auditions
each week.

Statuses, filters, and hover actions cut the time actors spent managing auditions
each week.

~38% higher form completion

Breaking the audition form into four focused steps reduced drop-offs in testing.

~40% faster information retrieval

Colour coding and clear hierarchy helped actors find key information
on data-heavy pages.

Colour coding and clear hierarchy helped actors find key information on data-heavy pages.

* Context & problem

Actors manage a career's worth of moving parts with no tool built for them. To understand how they actually work, I interviewed actors and documented their workspaces.

What I found: handwritten spreadsheets, colour-coded notebooks, and stacks of sticky notes. No single tool existed, so they built their own systems out of whatever was available.

The result was hours lost every week to admin
instead of craft. And a constant low-grade anxiety
about what was pending, what was owed, and what had been forgotten.

Actors manage a career's worth of moving parts with no tool built for them. To understand how they actually work, I interviewed actors and documented their workspaces.

What I found: handwritten spreadsheets, colour-coded notebooks, and stacks of sticky notes. No single tool existed, so they built their own systems out of whatever was available.

The result was hours lost every week to admin instead of craft. And a constant low-grade anxiety
about what was pending, what was owed, and what had been forgotten.

Our users

Joyce

A career changer who takes organisation seriously. Wants control, reliability, and to track every audition and payment without losing anything between jobs.

Jade

A lifelong actor juggling too many systems. Wants one place for everything
instead of scattered sheets from class
and self-tape sessions.

A lifelong actor juggling too many systems. Wants one place for everything
instead of scattered sheets from class and self-tape sessions.

Roxy

A driven actor who finds tracking boring. Wants to stay on top without it feeling like a second job, with visual feedback that makes progress satisfying.

What users faced with
* Business goals

Auditional was a B2C product that had to earn its place
in an actor's daily life. Four goals shaped the work:

Auditional was a B2C product that had to earn its place in an actor's daily life. Four goals shaped the work:

Acquisition

The product only wins if actors switch from tools they already trust (their own spreadsheets). Onboarding and first-run had to prove the value fast enough
to pull them over.

Retention

A tracking tool is useful if it's used every week. The product needed to make returning feel rewarding, so it became
a habit.

A tracking tool is useful if it's used every week. The product needed to make returning feel rewarding, so it became a habit.

Demonstrating value

Actors had to feel the product doing work their spreadsheet couldn't: surfacing what's urgent, tracking what's owed.

Monetisation

The product needed a revenue path
through subscriptions, surfaced
without getting in the way
of the core value.

The product needed a revenue path through subscriptions, surfaced without getting in the way of the core value.

* Challenges

A 3-month deadline for everything. The full product: web app, Chrome extension, marketing site, research
and a design system, in 3 months. That forced tight prioritisation and building the system alongside the flows rather than after them.

Designing for an emotional problem. Actors' biggest pain
was the anxiety of not knowing where they stood. The design had to reduce that anxiety.

* My role & approach

I was the product designer on Auditional, working in a small team: a design lead who reviewed direction and handled client calls, and another designer. In practice, I owned
the core product design end-to-end, from research
through the design system.

Working on a 0→1 product under a tight deadline, I ran
a repeatable loop:

I was the product designer on Auditional, working in a small team: a design lead who reviewed direction and handled client calls, and another designer. In practice, I owned the core product design end-to-end, from research
through the design system.

Working on a 0→1 product under a tight deadline, I ran a repeatable loop:

Frame
the problem
Frame the problem
Benchmark
and prioritise
Benchmark and prioritise
Build
the system
Build the system
Validate
with actors
Validate with actors
* User interviews

To understand the real context, I interviewed 12 actors
and documented what they actually use to stay organised.

The split: 68% used spreadsheets, 21% other digital tools, 19% paper journals. This grounded the design in how actors really work.

To understand the real context, I interviewed 12 actors and documented what they actually use to stay organised.

The split: 68% used spreadsheets, 21% other digital tools, 19% paper journals. This grounded the design in how actors really work.

* Insights

Three patterns shaped the direction:

Tracking feels
like control

Actors start tracking
to feel under control.

Data gives them a sense of agency in an industry where almost nothing is in their control.

Actors start tracking to feel under control.

Data gives them a sense of agency in an industry where almost nothing is in their control.

Color is how actors think

They use color
to organize information: highlighters, colored pens, coded spreadsheets. They want to see patterns
at a glance and feel
the progress they're making.

They use color to organize information: highlighters, colored pens, coded spreadsheets. They want to see patterns at a glance and feel the progress they're making.

Time and money are part
of the craft

They track hours spent on classes, self-tapes, and exercise, and watch their expenses carefully. Career management is financial management too.

* Categories

Casting director and status together account for 67% of what actors check first, so I made them the most visible elements on every audition card.

Сasting director

39,3%

Status

27,8%

Date / Time

22,3%

Type

13,7%

Project role

11,3%

Wardrobe

9,4%

Relationship

8,6%

Pay

4,8%

* Benchmarking

From competitive benchmarking, three patterns shaped the direction:

No tools for actor

Google Sheets, Notion,
and etc.

Google Sheets, Notion, and etc.

Insight

Only generic tools
because nothing purpose-built exists.

Casting Networks and Actors Access handle submissions, but not tracking, payments, or career analytics.

Only generic tools because nothing purpose-built exists.

Casting Networks and Actors Access handle submissions, but not tracking, payments, or career analytics.

Takeaway

The biggest opportunity was to build the first product designed
around how actors actually think.

Tracking / acting

Time spent on admin vs. craft

Insight

They forced to build their own systems
from scratch: custom columns, color codes, formulas.

Setup takes hours before tracking even begins.

They forced to build their own systems from scratch: custom columns, color codes, formulas.

Setup takes hours before tracking even begins.

Takeaway

A purpose-built tool should work out
with the right categories.

A purpose-built tool should work out with the right categories.

Clarity / anxiety

Status and progress
at a glance

Status and progress at a glance

Insight

Biggest pain point
is callbacks pending, payments unclear, auditions forgotten.

No existing tool surfaces this clearly.

Biggest pain point is callbacks pending, payments unclear, auditions forgotten.

No existing tool surfaces this clearly.

Takeaway

Status visibility is
the core emotional value of the product.

Status visibility is the core emotional value of the product.

* Iterations & tests

How the audition dashboard evolved

Organising auditions by production type will help actors find what they need faster.

Insight

Type existed without weight. Actors scanned every row to find what mattered. Status counts helped, but eight columns still slowed scanning.

New direction

To surface history without extra clicks, I made status counts large and colour-coded at the top, and reordered columns by what actors check first:

Deadline → Project → Casting director → Status with a "Last changes"
hover state.

To surface history without extra clicks, I made status counts large and colour-coded at the top, and reordered columns by what actors check first:

Deadline → Project → Casting director → Status with a "Last changes" hover state.

Result

Actors found urgent auditions ~80% faster in testing, and the hover history was the most-mentioned improvement in post-test feedback.

Trade-off

Leading with big status cards spent vertical space some power users would rather fill with rows.

Leading with big status cards spent vertical space some power users would rather fill with rows.

From four forms
to one flow

Tailoring the form to each production type (Film, TV, Commercial, New Media) will make each one more relevant.

Insight

Testing showed that actors needed more clarity. Four types meant four flows
to learn. Tailored felt helpful, but created hidden complexity.

Step 1 of 4 — type as tab selector, each type branching into its own unique form.

Step 1 of 4 — type as tab selector, each type branching into its own unique form.

New direction

I unified it into one four-step accordion with type selection inside step one, so actors get a clear mental model before filling anything in.

Result

Seeing all four steps upfront reduced anxiety, and form completion improved
by ~38% in usability testing.

Seeing all four steps upfront reduced anxiety, and form completion improved by ~38% in usability testing.

All steps visible upfront — actors know exactly what's ahead before they begin.

All steps visible upfront — actors know exactly what's ahead before they begin.

Trade-off

One unified flow meant a few type-specific fields sit behind a selector. A deliberate call is that a clear mental model beats maximal relevance.

One unified flow meant a few type-specific fields sit behind a selector. A deliberate call is that a clear mental model beats maximal relevance.

From data overload
to three focused views

A funnel chart will help actors instantly see their conversion rate
and where they lose opportunities.

A funnel chart will help actors instantly see their conversion rate and where they lose opportunities.

Insight

The funnel looked impressive,
but required interpretation. Actors track ratios.

The funnel looked impressive, but required interpretation. Actors track ratios.

New direction

I replaced the funnel with a simple ratio indicator and a clear numerical breakdown, readable without visual interpretation, across three focused views.

Result

The ratio was readable in under five seconds. The structure survived every iteration.

Trade-off

Simpler numbers meant giving up the visual drama of the funnel. Instant readability beats an impressive-looking chart actors have to decode.

Simpler numbers meant giving up the visual drama of the funnel. Instant readability beats an impressive-looking chart actors have to decode.

From raw numbers
to career intelligence

Showing all financial data upfront will give actors complete visibility into their income.

Insight

Everything had equal weight. Actors needed to see what kind of work paid most.

New direction

I grouped key metrics into a clear summary panel, so the most important numbers were immediately readable.

Result

Actors understood where their income came from and which work type paid most. Finance stopped feeling
like bookkeeping.

Trade-off

A curated summary shows less raw data on first view. I kept the full breakdown
one level down.

A curated summary shows less raw data on first view. I kept the full breakdown
one level down.

* One UI kit, three products

The system behind every screen: colours, components, and the status and colour-coding patterns actors read at a glance, built from scratch as the core designer. It kept a 3-product, 3-month build consistent and gave the team
a base to scale on.

* Learnings

For a product fighting an emotional problem, structure carries the value more than features. Actors switched because status, progress, and money were visible at a glance, which is what their anxiety was really about.

What I'd do differently

I'd request client feedback more often, and earlier. Working remotely
with the client in LA, I didn't get as much of their input as the work needed. I'd build in more frequent check-ins rather than relying
on the design lead's calls, so client direction shaped the work
throughout instead of arriving in batches.

I'd push for post-launch data. All my numbers come from usability testing before handoff. I never saw how the decisions performed in production.
Next time I'd agree upfront on a way to see the results, so my choices could be measured, not just tested.

I'd sequence the design system more tightly to validated flows. Building the system under a 3-month deadline was the right call, but I'd tie it more closely to patterns proven in testing, so the system followed evidence rather than getting ahead of it.

I'd request client feedback more often, and earlier. Working remotely with the client in LA, I didn't get as much of their input as the work needed. I'd build in more frequent check-ins rather than relying on the design lead's calls, so client direction shaped the work throughout instead of arriving in batches.

I'd push for post-launch data. All my numbers come from usability testing before handoff. I never saw how the decisions performed in production. Next time I'd agree upfront on a way to see the results, so my choices could be measured, not just tested.

I'd sequence the design system more tightly to validated flows. Building the system under a 3-month deadline was the right call, but I'd tie it more closely to patterns proven in testing, so the system followed evidence rather than getting ahead of it.

* Keep reading

* Outcome

* Context & problem

* Business goals

* Challenges

* My role & approach

* User interview

* Insights

* Categories

* Benchmarking

* Iterations & tests

* 1 system, 3 products

* Learnings