Upped Events—Attendee Event App
Tailoring and customizing the users’ needs, helping the users to find and enjoy a great event experience.
Expertise
Definition, research & testing, UX/UI/prototyping, design system
People
Me (Product Designer) + product manager + Engineering
Tool
Figma, Illustrator
Role
Research, UX designer
Time
Sep.-Dec. 2021
Overview
Upped events is a small startup in Boston. they focus on e-commerce products. There’re a few digital products under development. for example, the attendee event app(front end), the attendee shopping app(front end), and the event planner app(back end). The attendee event app is a new mobile application in our SaaS(Software as a service) product suite that digitizes in-person events to upgrade attendees’ experience while unlocking engagement and analytics for event planners.
Constraint
Business Goal
1. limited time: it’s 4 months project, it’s limited time to start the user research and competitor analysis before i start to dive in the design.
2. usability test and success metric: i don’t have enough sources to conduct the usability test and success metric.
Design an attendee’s event app to increase revenue.
Possible solutions
encourage more event planners to pay more money to advertise.
engage more attendees to join the events.
Better UI design.
I tried to apply all the possible solutions to my design to see which one would be a more effective way to achieve the business goal. and list out the success metrics to test the final design. my success metrics are more than 65% can achieve or complete the flows successfully.
Research
There is 2 ways to purchase tickets in the existing market. one is selling the tickets in on-site stores, the other way is selling the tickets online(web or mobile apps).
On-site stores:
After the pandemic, people would be very excited to get back to normal life. There would be tons of music festivals, conferences, and comic cons eventually making their way back. However, we all know that the experience of the existing event is not really good. I did a user interview with a couple of people and found out that they always have some pain points and frustrations when they join the events. For example, long lines to buy tickets and get into the events, underestimating bathroom waste times, slow transactions, etc. But now let’s modernize the event experience.
Web and mobile apps:
I analyzed the competitors’ websites and apps with different colors to find out the main focus and solutions. From a business perspective, adding a mobile app for event-goers to our product suite means that we’ll be able to help event planners connect with their attendees better. at this moment, I would like to further discuss how can I make the event more noticeable and get into the event more time-saving.
Problem Definition
1. how can i make the attendee’s event app stands out among the other event apps?
too many events going on the screens in the existing app, don’t know where the users should focus on.
2. For the existing wireframe, the UI design is out of date and the user flows are very confusing.
too many CTA and don’t know where should start.
it doesn’t save time for users.
no personalized events.
Ideation
- From a business perspective, how can I design an effective promotion way?
In the beginning, i noticed that many competitors had the same problem are how to highlight their events, especially for those that paid more money for advertising. so how can I make the event to be more noticeable?
i think the best way is to come up with a good advertising solution for the event planner. i created a billboard area to display the advertisement. this would help the event planner to have a better chance to display their brands.
2. The second thing I would like to solve is how I can design a great joining event experience than the other competitor.
After talking to multiple people about their past experiences at events, I learned that people usually feel very frustrated when they’re lining up, because it wastes their time. so when I design the app feature, the prior idea in my mind is how can I make it solve this problem easily. I create a feature called “ get in the line” when the event is going to start.
Feature: Get in the line
Before the users arrive the event, they can click into their upcoming event and get in the line, then the users could be automatically lining up even they’re still on the road. After the users get in the line, the app will show them how to be there, so “ take me there” will help the users get into the exact entrance and avoid many unnecessary mistakes happened.
Usability Testing
i divided 4 group of target users(15 attendees) to conduct the usability test. Ask users for some feedback when they complete the viewing and purchasing experience. I found out that there’s something that should be improved, here are 2 main problems which the users found:
I felt a little bit annoyed scanning the QR code one by one. if I would like to share one of the tickets with my friends, how can you achieve it?
Sarah Goodwin
The filter in the calendar page seems confusing to me, I don’t know how can I sort the specific events I would like to go to. BTW, I’m not sure about the calendar feature on the calendar page, because there are no dates on it, how do I know what the event is going to hold?
James Jackson
What I learned
after working on this project, I deeply realized that as a UX designer, I should put my feet into someone’s shoes. especially I would like to thank Louis, my product lead manager at Upped Events. he toughs me a lot about how to design an app, he’s very open-minded, he always inspired me to think out of the box. In the meantime, I have better chances to work with CEO engineering team, marketing team, and so on.
how to manage the constraints.
it’s very limited time to conduct all the phases. i need to decide which one is the most important part in my process.
You are not the user.
Do not take it for granted that others think or interact the same way you do. You are not the user, the only way to validate your assumptions is to do the test with real users iteratively.
Choose the correct way to measure the impact.
I found it’s hard to measure the success metric accurately on a prototype because there were limited users joining the test. and my target range is wide and hard to find different ages to join the test.