PalUp
Discover new perspectives, meet new people, and experience endless possibilities with us
Introduction
PalUp is a platform which not only allows users to search and book events but also encourages social interaction among event-goers. It provides a platform for people with similar interests to connect, communicate and create new relationships. Not only does this feature enhance the overall experience of attending an event, but it also adds value to the app.
UX Researcher
UI/UX Designer
My Role
Duration
3 weeks
Tools
Year
Figma
Miro
Zoom
Google forms
2023
Platform
Mobile Application
Problem
Increase the conversion of accepted invites to event attendees. As it can be quite daunting for some people to meet new people and attend events alone, particularly for those who have recently moved to a new city.
Solution overview
PalUp is not just an event listing solution; it is also an active community that believes in uplifting each other by motivating users to meet new people by providing a list of fun events/activities.
Design Process
I used a 5-stage Design Thinking model proposed by the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford (the "d. school"). The stages of this Design Thinking process are as follows:
01
Empathize
Secondary Research
For my secondary research, I studied and researched apps that solve a similar problem:
- Facebook
- Eventbrite
- Meetup
The apps each had their own pros and cons, but none of them was able to completely resolve the problem at hand.
- With MeetUp, the user can customize the calendar, offering a personalized touch.
- A 'Going' button will motivate users to click on the button, resulting in them attending the event; from Facebook.
- Through MeetUp, users can ask about the event and encourage each other to attend by providing a list of attendees.
WHAT WORKED!
- None of these apps provide efficient communication channels for users.
- Lack of community in the app.
WHAT IS MISSING?
User Interviews
After doing my competitive analysis, I focused on gathering user-based experiences, and insights to explore the problem from the user's lens. For this, I interviewed 5 people who qualify for the user demographics:
- 32 - 55 years old
- Interested in meeting new people
- Recently relocated to a new city
These took place remotely via Zoom. The session took 45 mins.
Affinity Mapping
After the interview, I grouped and categorized the data into an affinity map which enabled me to have a clear understanding of the user requirements. Click here to view the whole affinity map.
- After the interview analysis, I clustered information by the following labels:
- Motivation to attend the event
- How do people meet new people?
- Feelings before, during, and after meeting new people
- Reasons for attending the event.
- Reason to cancel the event
- Comments
- App/Website used
- Preferences before, during, and after an event
- Challenges/concerns before, during, and after attending the event
OBSERVATIONS & INSIGHTS
Persona
Condensing user Interviews and Affinity map helped me build a user persona- Meet Sarah, an IT professional who recently relocated due to a job promotion.
02
Define
How might we questions
The insights I gained from synthesizing the research led me to form the following How Might We- questions to try to answer or solve:
- How might we increase the conversion rate of accepted invites to event attendees?
- How might we motivate people to go out and attend the events?
- How might we help people who have recently relocated find and meet friends?
- How might we help people to communicate before and after the event?
- How might we minimize people feeling social anxiety?
User Stories
Next, I began writing user stories in order to better understand how Sarah would want to use the app and what her goals might be. By understanding these needs, I could determine which functions should be included as MVPs. Following is a screenshot from user stories, to see all the user stories click here.
Having condensed the user stories, here are the MVPs:
03
Ideate
User Flows
Following the condensing of the research in the discovery phase and identifying Sarah's goals, I began exploring, identifying ideas, and formulating possible solutions. The reason I chose these as my solution flows are
- They include all pain points of Sarah.
- They are exploring all possible solution routes to ease Sarah's challenges
Click here to view whole user flow
Addressing MVP: As a user, I want to see only the events I am interested in so that I can save time.
Addressing MVP: As a user, I want to easily access my events(booked and saved) so that I do not have to search for them when I need them.
Addressing MVP: As a user, I want to view the attendees list so that I can see who will be attending the event.
Addressing MVP: As a user, I want to talk to people before and after the event so that I make friends even outside the event.
04
Prototype
Wireframing
After exploring the pain points and possible solution routes for Sarah. Now was the time to bring the ideas in my head to life. I have created the wireframes such that they reflect goals and motivations of Sarah. Click here to view all the screens.
ONBOARDING
Sarah can add the genre of the events she is interested in!
Sarah can view the events of her interests on the homepage, as well as the calendar that contains details for upcoming events.
HOMEPAGE
EVENT PAGE
From the event page, Sarah can access the event details and attendee list, which will make her feel safer and more interested.
In order to meet people and establish friendships, Sarah can now contact other attendees or users via messages, thereby motivating her to attend the event.
MESSAGE
Guerilla Usability Testing
Now was the time to gauge the usability and functionality of my solution. To conclude where my proposed solution stands I performed Guerilla usability testing on my wireframes. All the usability tests were held on Zoom remotely.
Here is a list of the tasks performed by the user.
- Add interests
- Find and open a group
- Book an event
- Access event chat
- Ask a question to the host
- Follow a user
- Cancel an event
Guerilla testing TAKEAWAYS
NOTE: The feedback from the guerilla usability testing will be reflected in the high-fidelity screens of PalUp that you will review in the next section.
Design System
The design system of the app is developed after considering its attributes, such as:
- Caring
- Familiar
- Humorous
- Optimistic
PALUP VISUAL STYLE
UI INSPIRATION
High-fidelity designs
As a result of the insights from the guerilla usability test, I was able to brainstorm and generate new ideas about my proposed solutions.
Due to the knowledge and experience gained during the previous steps in the process, the transition from low-fidelity to high-fidelity design was much smoother than anticipated. Following are some of the hi-fi designs
Here are the before and after screens from Guerilla usability testing. Following the testing process, I revised the designs to address the challenges encountered.
ISSUE: Unable to find the event group. 3/5 users facing the issue.
SOLUTION: Having a group as well as interests on the home page caused confusion and complexity for the users, so I removed the groups from the homepage to minimize confusion and complexity.
AFTER
BEFORE
Removed the groups
ISSUE: Unable to ask question to the host. 4/5 users facing the issue.
SOLUTION: Make a clear distinction between messages sent to hosts and attendees. The before page only allows messages to be sent inside from the going section, even for the host. Now, host messages can be seen under the hosting and going section.
BEFORE
AFTER
moved host message under host section
Testing
05
Finally, it is time to evaluate the extent to which our proposed solutions addressed Sarah's pain points. Since I wanted to view the app from the perspective of the user, I asked five people to test the app. The following are the key tasks/features that the users will be testing.
High-fidelity usability test
Add interests.
Find and open a group.
Book an event.
Access event chat.
Contact an attendee
Follow a user
Cancel an event.
FINDINGS
The usability testing happened remotely via Zoom. The before and after images depict the screen design when I conducted the usability test and the proposed changes I made to the screen to resolve the issue.
ISSUE: Unable to find the event chat. 2/5 users were facing the issue.
SOLUTION: According to the user, this is a very new feature, so she is unsure of what to expect. She loves the concept.
The usability of the event chat was a bit confusing for some of the users, so I changed the description.
Added an arrow to the event chat to make it more action-oriented.
BEFORE
AFTER
changed the event chat view and description
Note: The tasks I tested did not present any further issues. Here are some of the other issues I identified during usability testing and their solutions.
ISSUE: The attendees list title was confusing.
SOLUTION: Some of the users suggested that the title 'Group' doesn't make much sense here.
So I changed the attendees' title name from 'group' to 'attendees'.
BEFORE
AFTER
changed the attendees title name
ISSUE: The cancel event prompt sounds negative.
SOLUTION: I have changed the prompt description to sound more positive. Also added an option to get feedback.
BEFORE
AFTER
changed the cancel message to more positive
Usability testing TAKEAWAYS
What to do next?
As many users expressed concern about safety and scammers, I would like to add a verification layer to my next iteration of the application. Moreover, users were very intrigued and interested in the community(feed) in-app, and I would like to explore more options to increase user engagement. I envision PalUp as an all-in-one event-related social app.
Lesson Learned
PalUp is a working prototype that enables users to discover events of interest and meet new people at these events. The active community and the ability to contact users before and after the event make PalUp unique among event apps. Following are some of my key learnings.
- Be calm and trust the incremental iterations.
As I refined my designs, incremental iterations helped me see the product from the user's perspective. It was exciting to learn different things with each iteration.
- Keep it simple silly!
It is my life motto. PalUp's user interface was designed with this motto in mind. The simpler the app's UI and language, the easier it is to learn and understand.
- Either you run the day, or the day runs you
Despite being a 70-hour project, I finished it in 53 hours. Time management was key to my success.