Project Overview
Immy, an event app that allows users to find events happening in their location while making it simple for everyone to launch their own events of all kinds, whether it’s a grand opening or a casual badminton match.
Timeline:
June 2021 - July 2021
Role:
Product Design
User Research
UX Design
UI Design
Tool:
Figma
Photoshop
Illustrator
Team
Co-founder of Immux.Inc
Context
I was approached by the co-founder of Immux.Inc to develop an innovative in-person event sharing and hosting product, which aligns with my interest greatly. As a former urban designer, I've been motivated by the possibility of how apps could redefine the way people get engaged with each other physically. Accessibility to events and venues is made easier with apps. However, the experience of hosting and finding instant 'casual social events' in the current market is still lacking and not good enough for individual users.
Problem
Currently, it's not easy for people to find, locate, host and manage 'instant informal events' anytime, anyplace, with people that share the same interests or groups, as a way to connect to the community.
Solution
Immy is designed to help people join the events they love easily and instantly based on locations and topics, as well as launch events effortlessly and safely.
Research + Development
Market Overview
What's lacking in current event / social apps for us to better connect?
I researched 10 popular event-based social apps that are popular in the App Store and analyze their goals and functionality to get a thorough understanding of what people need and what might be missing for connection currently, which provides design opportunities for my app.
Use Case Goal Function
By mapping out the targets, goals, and functions of these typical apps, I can see there is a tendency that apps are focusing more and more on instant connections. Also, the demands for Communities are becoming more significant than ever. For example, a typical event on Discord could be ' a group of people who are interested in one specific video game spontaneously joined one channel on Discord, celebrating and discussing the launch of the game'.
The word 'Event' is re-defined in each app as anything that can trigger a connection between people who have something in common.
Tackle the Problems
I had user interviews with 20 people who are tagged as active event hosts or participants, public or private, as well as people who are looking to connect with people and the community. I designed the survey with questions framed in 2 aspects below.
Competitive Product Feedback
1. Which event app do you like to use most?
2. Why do you choose this app?
3. What do you feel frustrated about this app?
4. What do you think that's missing in this app?
...
User Narratives
1. Describe times when you want to join/host an event instantly
2. Describe the obstacles that prevent you from joining/hosting an event
3. Describe your likes/concerns about attending an event with strangers
4. Describe how your want to connect with people near your location
...
Research Insights
I had an analysis with all the feedback and distilled them into insights that could impact the design in the future.
People want to be trouble-free.
Users love to be informed in time.
Hosts want to get exposed easily.
Most people are always curious about what's happening around them, whether it's a formal event or a small gathering. It's crucial for users to have timely push on nearby event info including time, location, topics and event host, etc. for them to easily select and join the event.
A lot of users have sparkling informal event ideas including presenting a personal project, holding a small discussion on topics or having a small game with other badminton lovers, etc. However, existing event tools are not tailored for small instant events - it's time and energy-consuming to launch an event with little chance to attract the right attendee.
A major concern that's stopping people from hosting/attending small informal events with strangers is that they are unsure about the safety problems and trust issues - they worry about the potential dispute on money, time and truthful purpose. They also worry about the validation of vaccination during Covid.
User Storyboards
We often stand in a fun corner of the city, not knowing there is a concert, a dance class, or a casual badminton match happening within a block. The event host is simultaneously hoping to find participants and connect to the community. Why not clicking？
Based on the insights and feedback from previous user research, I sketched out several user storyboards to better describe the problems in scenarios where people can use the app to connect instantly, whether they're participants or hosts.
Design
[“How Might We create a smooth, instant and safe event experience that allows for easy participation and hosting for people who seek to connect？”]
Ideation
By re-defining an event as "an instant (or spontaneous) experience that one enjoys while meeting people of the same community", I translate the research insights into 3 goals for the app: Creating Community, Easy Recognition, and Immediacy. I went through the ideation process by brainstorming and testing functions / contents through wireframes.
Information Architecture
To develop the initial design into a technically feasible and user-friendly state, I created lo-fi wireframes and conduct usability tests to find out if the user flow and IA can achieve the goals. Functions and level of information (eg. toggle bar) are iterated to remain consistent while maintaining easy navigation.
Browse + Search event
The browsing function - Main Page can be viewed in List or Map mode, which allows users to find events based on their location or contents. The Search Page allows users to filter events by topics, event types, time & dates, distance, etc. The app focuses on 'instancy experience' that gives the user an immediate concept of the 'What, Where and When' of an event.
Find A Better Route
At first 'Search' and 'Mailbox' button is on the top at the same level as other functions such as 'Location'. At the bottom menu bar, there's only a button of a 'plus' sign representing 'Add New Event', enhancing the feature of hosting an event with immediacy.
When I test with myself and some of my friends, it came out that the top menu bar is too crowded for users that they get lost easily. Among all features, the users are most frequently looking to 'Search for event type/topics/users' as well as 'interact with other users by messaging and commenting' to find or share the events they love. As a result, I re-arranged 'Search' and 'Mailbox' to the button menu bar and make them distinguished to find.
Also some of the people find the 'Plus' button a bit confusing when they first encounter the concept of the app without fully realizing they could just add events freely. So I use a text button for 'Add New Event' and enhancing it with color to make it super clear and more guiding. Same concept is considered and applied throughout the app in pages such as event page.
Present the Essentials
An event card is what users first encounter within the app which gives people a setup of the app's concept. I asked users to focus on the preview cards to mark out which info is essential for them to understand an event and which is not helping/causing a mess. Most users think the amount of information is a little bit excessive with images, tags, and icons, e.g. profile images for participants, which makes them spend more time scanning through.
Base on the test I re-evaluate the image, icons, and text to select essential Infos that users are most interested in while keeping the contents minimal.
Some of the users wish to have more 'Categories' describing events for them to make a quick decision. Also, the 'Join' button is not obvious enough to catch the eye.
I did a small session of Card Sorting and refining the event category into 2 levels - Topics and Type. Take 'Art' and 'Sport' as an example (see below). The Topic // Form would help users quickly identify the type of event they're looking at.
I also simplify the tags describing Host / Admission Type to show tags only when it's 'Free', 'Official' or 'Private' event based on user feedback. This will set the default recognition of an event as 'Personal' and 'will need fees/ticket' and make it easier for users to identify.
Create + Share event
Creating New Event are made faster, easier, and more practical by categorizing Host Type and Admission Policy.
Notification + Calendar + Conversation
Users will be notified in the Notification Page when the status of events is updated - this could be the event they are joining, hosting, or events nearby. They could also find, edit or cancel their events on Your Upcoming Events Page. In case of sharing or communicating with friends, event participants, or hosts, they could use the Mailbox Page.
Toggle Control
The users have some difficulty when they have to find the information about events they joined or host in the notification/calendar page in the original design. I use a set of Toggle control to separate events users 'Join' and 'Host', as well as 'Message' and 'Comment' for users to quickly switch in between sessions. For example, when a regular event series host wants to edit his/her next event, he/she can toggle to 'Host' to quickly locate the card at top of the page instead of searching among all events.
Also, most of the users feel the need to quickly search for an event they're going to join to check for event details. It's easy to forget the name of the event so that they may need to search by keywords. I add a search bar on the calendar page to achieve this goal.
Onboarding Page
3 Onboarding Pages are presented with descriptions and guides to the Immy App as well as illustrations of active urban space and the 'IM' logo. This will give the user an initial idea of what's Immy for and how it is distinguished from others.
App Logo Design
The design concept of the logo is to transform the letter 'IM' (Immy) to the mimicking of the aerial view of the urban space, representing active urban space in Map View (the main page of Immy) where various events happen every day. The green indicates the building footprint and the red indicates the building shadow.
Sign In + Sign Up for App
Sign in/up Pages are simple with app logo 'IM' and main color scheme as background.
Me + Operate event
Users can edit profiles and settings on their Me Page. More importantly, they could access and operate ongoing events by editing events, scanning admission tickets, or broadcasting important messages in Comments. Users could also find their admission e-tickets.
Immediacy Means...
The concept of 'Immediacy' in Immy is not that familiar yet to users, especially as a host - Based on the feedback most of the users don't have a clear idea about what's next after they create an event. The Route 'Upcoming Events - Next Host Events - Manage Event' is a bit tricky for a new Immy user to host his/her event effortlessly. I add a 'Live' tab in the Me (Profile) page which guide host with the necessary steps they would need to prepare for the event and monitor the process.
Thoughts...
It's important to focus on the goals when making innovation
A good product is not meant to include everything useful or creative in one container. Sometimes it's about giving users the one thing they need from the product and doing it well without disruptions. During the user test and design iteration process, I realize it's easy to diverge from the original goals when you start brainstorming and come up with inspiring solutions. Excessive information or functions sometimes could also lead to ambiguous and chaotic experiences. It helps when I constantly come back to the How Might We statement to check and see if my design falls within the goals. It also helps to do user tests to find out whether users are on the right track.
Users need to be 'trained' intuitively to adapt to the concept
Before Airbnb first came out, users won't necessarily know why they need to 'talk to an accommodation host' before they book their room for travel. Same for Immy. Most users I test with spend a little more time figuring out what they should do with all the icons and where they should go for a certain function. I focus on iterating UI design, information selections and user flows to best 'teach' users how they can host or join an event as simple as having a coffee downstairs with neighbors.