Eventures - Gamifying the Online Event Experience
Overview
Eventures is a mobile app created to build community online and offline by providing events for like minded individuals to share experiences and meet new friends.
Timeline: December 2022 - January 2023
Responsibilities: UX, UI, Product Design, Brand Design
Tools: Figma, POP (Prototyping sketches app)
“Eventures” is a play on words combining Events and Adventures. This app is dedicated to create a fun, friendly, and inviting space for all individuals to feel included and be an active member in the community. Eventures strives to unite like minded individuals so that when they enter new spaces in person, they can always feel like they have a friend.
The Solution
My goal to increase attendance of events is to implement the following features in the Eventures mobile app:
Provide incentives for individuals that attend events by providing discounts to items at events, collaborations with local businesses, and mystery benefits.
Create an online community that gamifies the event experience and calls active members "Socialites," allows members to level up, and accumulate points and badges.
Organize event tickets and provide reminders for upcoming events
Allow for like minded individuals to connect by being able to see who is attending events you are interested in and viewing other profiles to see common interests.
Link to the Eventures prototype below:
01. Research on how Industry Leaders tackle the Event space
In order to get a sense of how other Industry Leaders manage and share events, I researched the user flows in Meetup, Eventbrite, and Facebook. I documented each screen of how a user might find events they are interested in and sign up for them and selected elements I liked and didn't like.
Elements that stood out to me:
Purchasing a ticket for an event like Eventbrite versus Facebook's single click "Going" button
Eventbrites clear organization of similar information in event pages compared to Meetup and Facebook
Meetup incentivizing users with coupons and promotions after signing up for an event
02. Secondary research on what drives people to attend events found online
To get a better understanding of my problem space, I did secondary research to find studies and data analysis on what influences people to attend events they find online.
A population study was done base on the Theory of Planned Behavior that assumes that individuals act according to their attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. The study used followers of events pages on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram using quantitative research methods and online surveys. Findings included:
Perceived behavioral control: “...Perceived enjoyment was effective in forming positive attitudes towards events’ social media pages. This highlights the need to provide information and contents in an enjoyable and user-friendly way.”
Subjective norms: Other people’s opinions on events affect behavior so event spaces need to find a way to involve familiar or other social-unit elements to events.
Attitudes: Event fan’s attitudes towards events had no statistical significance on their intentions on going to events
Link to the paper: "Social media as a marketing tool for events"
Another paper on the data analysis on dataset from Meetup.com from the Research Center for Information Technology Innovation found that:
Participants of events had more common tags to the organization’s events they attended compared to non-participants
Participants of events statistically have a closer relationship to the event organization
Participants of events generally have more co-friends on the social networks of all datasets
Link to the paper: "Analyzing Social Event Participants for a Single Organizer"
03. Designing to increase motivation and set better reminders
I then created user flows that include searching for events, providing rewards for users that attend events, and personalizing of they're event suggestions and profile so that like minded people can find each other. My decisions to include incentives and personalization in my user flows was based on pain points that could indicate why people are not attending events listed on Eventures.
Users' pain points include:
They are not getting notified about their events
They don't know anybody attending
They have no obligation or incentive to attend
Event information is unorganized
04. Creating as many solutions as possible
To brainstorm possible design solutions to follow my user flows, I first created all possible solutions from the following How Might We Questions:
How might we let users know when an event is coming up?
How might we display information in an enjoyable and organized way?
How might we motivate and create incentive for people to attend events?
How might we create better networking for people on the app?
I then answered each question with possible solutions and did the following diverging idea generating process by referring back to attributes I enjoyed in Industry Leaders like Meetup and Facebook, analyzing how Yelp is able to get people to visit and review restaurants, and based on my own experience using social media as a way to connect with others.
05. Sketching the best solutions that will personalize, organize, and motivate
For my first low fidelity design of Eventures, I selected my design decisions by prioritizing the ability for the user to personalize their event suggestions and this also personalizes their profile to show their main interests. I also selected design decisions that would create collaboration amongst users like creating a chat section in each event page and being able to view attendees' profiles to possible connections or if you have anything similarities in attendee's profiles. Lastly, I really wanted to find a way to motivate and create incentive for users to be active participants in the app so I followed Yelp’s “Elite Squad” and Google Map’s “Local Guides” program and create Eventures' own program called a “Socialite.” As a Socialite, users can collect points and rewards.
06. Testing confirmation of my first solutions
I uploaded my Eventures screens onto the POP prototyping app on my iPhone and testers were able to go through the sketch version of my app. I did five guerilla tests where I gave tasks that included creating an account, viewing your profile, searching for an event, buying a ticket for an event, and writing a review for events they attended.
07. Adding a dark display, neon lights inspiration to encourage adventure
I then started creating my High Fidelity Mockups in Figma. I first took a lot of design element inspiration from the Meetup event website because I thought their design was friendly, simple, and inviting. However, while creating my HiFi screens, my bright blue primary color and earthy secondary colors were troubling me. I asked my mentor for his opinion and he noticed a neon lights “Trivia Night” picture I put for one of my events and suggested a dark display and a neon lights theme. I found that the blue primary color I selected worked perfectly for this and I took some secondary colors from the Trivia Night picture to tie the look together. I also looked at some neon inspiration in Figma community and found a script font that would copy that neon lights look. I also looked to dark display apps that I enjoy like HBO max. I thought this change really made the Eventures app look unique and fit better with its adventurous and exciting brand.
08. Adding more specific language, creating a Socialite Program flow, and making reviewing more appealing
After establishing my neon inspiration, I made sure to address my user's pain points from the Guerilla Test. I added more specific and familiar language like having an "Allow your location" page. I also created a new flow for the Socialite program where users are notified to sign up after their first event. At this page they have the option to learn more about the program and the next step is a simple checklist about agreeing to community policy and getting notified about updates. I also added the suggestion to have auto prompts to ease the review process.
09. Testing new solutions to motivate people to attend events and connect with others
After I finalized my second design, I did five user interviews in-person with a Figma prototype of my Eventures app. Users were given tasks to create an account, view their profile, search for a game related event, purchase a ticket for the event, write a review, and sign up for the app's “Socialite Program.”
For this final user testing, I was able to identify confusion with the group information section in the event page. I was also able to hear about missing information that users find valuable like if the Socialite program is free to sign up and what exactly are the rewards.
After these clarifications, the following suggestions were also made by users to improve the Socialite and event reviewing process:
Turning the auto-prompts in the review page into hashtags for more concise language and for the ability to filter reviews and events.
A higher level in the Socialite program where one receives monthly mystery prizes so that there is incentive to continue leveling up.
A review button on the event page so that users start writing their review at the event instead of waiting until they get notified after the event.
10. Refining and redesigning successful systems that drew positivity
The final step to solving Eventures' attendance problem is implementing the redesigns from my user testing findings.
Conclusion
Testing, has proven that the Socialite Program in the Eventures mobile app creates excitement and incentive to attend events and be an active member in the app by writing reviews and connecting with others online. Event information organization has also been refined to create and intuitive and easy experience. Moving forward, I would like to create a desktop version of this app, look into adding more features into the Socialite Program, and create a fun Eventures logo.
In conclusion, this was my first time creating a dark display on a mobile app and with the help of my mentor providing me neon inspiration on Dribbble and Figma. This challenge helped me to step outside of my comfort zone and I am proud of the way I executed the final designs of the Eventures mobile app.