Carly Buxton, PhD

In an earlier post, I alluded to my blossoming acting career, so while we’re on the subject, let me give a little TUXxie Award (that’s a Terrible UX designation I’ve invented, kind of like a Razzie) to Actors Access.

Is this TRULY the go-to site casting directors use when considering talent to hire?

If I hadn’t been told by a casting director to go home ASAP and set up my account on Actors Access, I would NEVER have given my name, much less email and credit card to this piece of junk site.

In fact, I almost emailed the casting director just to double-check like: is THIS the site you mentioned? And not a scam? Did I write it down wrong? Is this, like, actorsaccess.net when I should have found .com?

Where to begin on what is wrong here… Here’s where they scored the most points toward their TUXxie:

1. Banner advertising on the landing page (top and side)–eww. This is SO scammy and fishy-looking, especially in 2024. 
2. 1997 called. It wants its geocity aesthetic back.
3. Cookies anyone? Every time I return to the site, I have to log back in. 
4. I filled out a miles-long profile, but because I took a break mid-way to handle something for my daughter, the site timed out. I didn’t realize it until I clicked “save” upon completion, and I was booted to the homepage and asked to log in again. And I had to fill the whole thing out again. You know this feeling. 
5. Lack of filters. I have to sift through hundreds of postings for, like, 8-10 year old boys and such, EVEN when I filter for “Breakdowns Fit for Me” after filling out a complete profile. Smart, AI-powered matching would be brilliant, but judging from this site’s UI, that’s WAY too big of an ask. Can they at least take a cue from Backstage and add filters for things like age and gender of the character, location of filming, and production type? My co-founder Michelle did this for our platform’s filters in like 10 minutes.
6. Lack of explainers, despite the fact that people just setting up profiles on a site like this are likely new to the business and unaware of insider jargon like what constitutes a “theatrical” vs. “commercial” headshot, what a size card is, what it means to “get sides,” etc. Let’s add some hover-over question-marks please, for us newbies.
7. To upload a headshot, you have to add it to your cart like you are “buying” it.
8. Your “resume” must be done credit by credit, without any categorization for type of performance, etc. Goal-state here would be to upload a resume, LinkedIn style, and have the system format it for you into an editable first-pass. But AT LEAST can we get some category breaks? Like TV & Film vs. Theatre? 
9. Nickel and dime-ing tactics galore. Apparently a lawsuit is a’brewing. Nice.
10. Our casting director workshop leader showed us a glimpse of what it looks like on the “inside” (to casting directors), and he had many-a-grievance with the UX. I think chiefly he hated the way that you have to expand a submission video every time a new one comes on. But this only scratches the surface and, I guess, is technically related to the TUXxie scorecard for Breakdown Services… which leads me to my zoom-out point here:

How does this site keep functioning? The answer is simple: it’s an entrenched system.

Actors Access is the performer’s version of “Breakdown Services,” a limited-access service that distributes casting notices (called “breakdowns”) to talent agents and managers. These breakdowns contain information about upcoming projects, roles available, and submission requirements. Breakdowns are “released” to talent via Actors Access, the online platform that “talks to” Breakdown Services and makes it easier for casting directors to find and consider actors for these available roles.

For YEARS, Breakdown Services has been THE method through which casting directors distribute information about the roles they’re casting. The company was founded in 1971, must have coded this site around 1995 and never looked back. Why? Because they’re coasting with $24 million on annual revenue, with hundreds of thousands of users and just 69 employees. And that’s not even counting the revenue or (supposedly) million+ users on Actors Access.

I am 3 weeks into a coding bootcamp and could already code a better site than this thing. And yet here it stays, reigning as ever. And I just attended a workshop with 39 people yesterday, all of whom were told to go join the paid version of this site if we want to have any kind of hope as aspiring actors. 

The truth is: this company has no need to iterate beyond their MVP. They’re making bank, filling a need, and getting their customers’ job-to-be-done done, albeit in the jankiest way imaginable.

Experiencing this first-hand as a user has given me a bit of an existential crisis here. I often kick myself for not paring down my company’s original MVP to the bitterly bare bones. Nessle 1.0 was much more user-friendly and aesthetically pleasing than current Actors Access, even before Michelle came on as CTO and Ethan came on to craft our brand. But maybe a Google Sheet and Google Doc describing what we were up to would have been the smarter play. We could have learned valuable lessons about what people were (or were not) willing to open their wallet for in our industry. We would have saved tons of time and a great deal of hard-earned grant money.

It was my assumption that once you validate your MVP, you pour resources into improving the customer experience. But if you’re way more than solvent, growing, and entrenched enough that competitors cannot (ever?) hope to dethrone you, what’s the point? It’s like the IRS: they could do SO MUCH to make our lives easier as taxpayers… but why should they?

I’m curious to know my audience’s thoughts here. 

ACTORS and PRODUCTION TEAM people: what do you hate most about using Actors Access and/or Breakdown Services? Why, in your opinion, do we keep crawling back?

FOUNDERS and PRODUCT MANAGERS: when product-market fit is more than clear, it’s a given that we should work to enhance UX–or is it? Should we be cheering for this company that has been in MVP mode for decades? Are they actually getting this profitable-business-thing right while the rest of us chase the mirages of seamless user experiences?

And because this has been fun in a trolly, catty sort of way (sorry, this is not my MO typically, but bad UX really burns me up), what product or site should get my once-over for the next TUXxie?