end-to-end
Student Project
Lively
UX/UI Designer
Sept - Oct ‘24
(~5 weeks)
Figma
Lyssna
Optimal Sort
Instagram has evolved into a powerful tool for businesses to promote products and services to a wide audience, even becoming a venue for promoting and hosting events. However, despite its popularity, Instagram may not be the ideal choice for all event-related functions, especially for small local events. With its limited interaction and information, users can find it hard to gauge interest in attending events around town.
Solution
SKIP TO…
Research
Researching the power of social media in connecting people through events
To address this gap between Instagram and finding local events, I wanted to explore how integrating an event-finding application with social media platforms can enhance user engagement, facilitate personalized event discovery, and support local event organizers, ultimately creating a community around shared interests and experiences.
Research Objectives
User interviews to understand local event participators
I interviewed 5 participants who enjoy attending local events either frequently or occasionally. These discussions allowed me to find common challenges, such as difficulties in filtering relevant events or finding necessary information to plan accordingly, but also revealed deeper insights into what participants valued in an event-finding app - personalization.
What current event-finding apps have to offer
I compared three competitors, Eventbrite, Allevents, and Fever, to gauge what current event finding apps do well or lack in with user experience. In general.
(1) Eventbrite seems more popular and has the ability to host as big as a city-wide event or something small like a pop-up.
(2) Allevents caters towards much more niche events, however it can feel rather questionable from an outsider if the event is legitimate or not.
(3) Fever feels much more modernized and reliable with finding events in the city and buying tickets.
So what were my findings? 💡
Define
How-might-we questions to facilitate and focus on what users want out of an event-finding app
How can we incorporate Instagram into an event-finding app to help users discover events and receive personalized recommendations based on their current followings and interests?
How might we utilize social media and/or a community forum to facilitate community building and increase engagement?
User personas to keep in mind different types of event goers
Defined design solutions to go forth with
Due to time restraints, I focused on 3 features that would improve the experience of discovering new events and staying informed for recurring events.
Selected Solutions
User flows to go with my solutions
Design
Kicking off with lo-fi wireframes to bring ideas to life
Bringing the liveliness to Lively
I opted for a vibrant yellow and orange as my primary colors to embody the cheerful and “lively” energy that captures the emotions commonly associated with attending events. I used a complementary cobalt blue color as my accent color that will bring attention to users but also ties everything together.
High-Fidelity Wireframes
Onboarding
Besides linking their Instagram account, users answer a brief questionnaire to help the app curate tailored events, a step that's lacking in current event-finding apps.
Home feed and event details
The home feed is where users can filter between the "For you" tab that shows all app-curated events or the "Following" tab that shows events by hosts they follow. Users can further their filter by tags, popularity, etc.
The event details page holds all the information the user would need in preparation before attending. I added a section where users can see posts made by the host and a peek to their Instagram page.
Community feed
A newsfeed that allows users to share their experiences at events and connect with others, while also enabling hosts to promote their events and build excitement among their audience.
tESTING
Conducting hi-fi usability tests to evaluate user engagement and adoption
In comparison to the current event-finding apps, I wanted to test how likely users would actually adopt a new app and utilize the added features to help their discovery in new events and keep track of recurring ones.
Results
Iterations
After some consideration, I decided to restrict the posting feature to hosts only (which would need an extra application process). This approach allows users to still connect with one another while ensuring promotional content are effectively addressed.
