Spark
An app that helps people meet new friends and find events to attend after moving to a new place
Overview
Role
User experience
User interface
User research
Team
Solo designer with mentorship from senior designer
Timeline
2.5 months
Tools
Figma
Dovetail
Background
Friendships are an important part of our lives; they provide us with companionship, support and joy. However, it can be challenging and intimidating to have to make new friends again after moving to a new place.
A startup wants to launch a product to help people meet new friends by helping them go out to do activities in person. They provided context that the product’s target audience are people that have recently relocated to a new city.
The problem
The startup has identified that there is a discrepancy between the amount of event sign ups and amount of attendees. The number of people registering for events is significantly higher than the number of people actually attending.
The goal
Create a fun, enjoyable experience for users to find events and meet people so that they are encouraged to show up to the events they sign up for.
Research
To gain a better understanding of people’s experiences, motivations, and challenges with attending in-person events, I conducted user interviews. I interviewed 5 participants that have experience attending in-person events and using apps/sites such as Meetup, Eventbrite, and Facebook.
I discovered 3 main aspects that play a role in my interviewees' decisions to attend events:
All 5 of my interviewees seek out and prioritize events that have topics or activities that match their interests.
To decide whether or not to attend an event, all 5 of my interviewees have to consider the logistics involved, including location, transportation, and safety.
4 out of 5 of my interviewees enjoy attending events for the opportunity to make new connections and to feel part of a community.
Therefore, how might we help users find events that align with their interests and allow them to connect with others?
Ideation
I’d learned from user interviews that people’s interests were important in their decisions to attend and prioritize events. I first started brainstorming ways to allow users to easily find relevant and interesting events, including detailed onboarding and personalized feed.
Then I thought about how else I could utilize these interests to help users make new connections. I landed on the concept of pre-event connections based on mutual interests. Allowing users to connect with like-minded people before the actual event could foster a sense of commitment, belonging, and excitement – encouraging them to show up to the events they sign up for.
I explored 3 different ideas for pre-event connections:
- Suggested connections – show users suggested people to connect with for each event that they register for.
- Event buddies – allow users to find a buddy to attend events with.
- User matches – give users the ability discover and match with other people.
I decided to move forward with user matches as it offers a more interactive form of connection and discovery.
Design
Low-fidelity designs
During wireframing, I started to flesh out how user matches and connections would work. I also considered how to show recommended events that are directly informed by users’ interests.
My goal for low-fidelity testing was to begin testing the initial assumption I made that users would be interested in pre-event connections. I tested my wireframes with 5 participants that have moved to a new city within the last 2 years or plan to move soon. These participants also have experience looking for and/or attending in-person events.
From my testing, I learned:
4 out of 5 participants were familiar with the swiping interaction associated with dating apps. However, 2 participants felt that discovering friends should feel distinct from discovering dates.
3 out of 5 participants found the current process of discovering people limiting, and would like the ability to browse more people at once.
3 out of 5 participants were interested in having the option to connect with other people through a group chat before considering connecting 1:1.
High-fidelity designs
While creating my high-fidelity designs, I implemented the findings from my low-fidelity testing, as well as feedback from my mentor.
No more restrictions on the number of people users can browse a day. Suggested connections are not limited to only people attending the same events and are instead based on shared goals and interests.
I wanted it to feel fun for users to browse, view, and learn about other people. I thought about what information could be included in profiles that could spark interest and conversations, as well as how to format them in an eye-catching yet skimmable way.
Final solution
Easily find events that are directly related to your interests
After signing up for an event, view and participate in a group chat with other people going to the event
Browse, match and chat with other users that share goals, interests, and events in common with you
Learnings
This project taught me the importance of asking the right questions and digging deeper into topics during user interview sessions.
I learned how to be aware of assumptions early in order to address, test, and validate them throughout the project – this ensured that I was designing effective and user-centric solutions.