Project Background:
Development of an all-in-one platform designed to simplify the process of organizing parties, events, and activities. The platform aims to foster meaningful connections by enabling friends, family, and even strangers to easily plan and participate in enjoyable gatherings, creating unforgettable experiences together.
Challenge:
Incorporate party, event or activity related functionalities including creation, sending invites, RSVP, tickets, hiring event planners or other professional, and communication all in one app.
Solution:
• Allows users to create interest driven private or public events, parties or activities, in collaboration with friends, families, or others with similar interests via polling and shared costs.
• Planning and/or professional support is also offered if desired through a professional directory within the platform allowing professionals to bid on users’ creations.
• Creators can share their events, parties, or activities directly via invites (Private) or share their creation (Public) with the platform community for input, hopefully generating enough interest to fund the event, party or activity.
Role:
UX/UI Designer (Research, Interaction design, Visual design)
Identifying Target Users:
Market and competitor research revealed that millennials form the largest demographic of inTwine users, followed by Gen X. Individuals aged 25-39 show the most interest in organizing and attending social events, making them the primary target audience for inTwine. This led to the question: Who will they create parties for? Based on age, users were categorized into five groups: Baby, Junior, Adult, Senior, and Families.
Problems:
After secondary research and competitor analysis, I confirmed that:
• There is no app in the market that provides a one stop solution for organizing parties, events or activities. Currently users have to go through different apps or contact people individually to understand their interest and organize fun filled party/event/activity that includes attendees opinion too.
• To hire a professional (event planner or party professional like chef, bartenders, activity specialist etc), users have to connect with them separately.
Personas:
After the problems were identified and I understood the needs and goals of the users, I created user personas – a benchmark that I use to check that my designs are on the right track. I chose these archetypes and characteristics based on insights from research. These exercises formed a foundation to move into feature ideation and prioritization.
Information Architecture:
After researching and understanding user needs and goals, I spent time brainstorming solutions that would address user needs and business requirements. I then worked on the information architecture and created a sitemap for inTwine. This helped me visualize how each page would connect and how users might navigate through the website.
The next step in the process was to create wireframes and organize the content and flow for the app. After designing the initial wireframes, I conducted usability testing to evaluate the flow and ensure users could navigate the app easily and achieve their goals. The testing provided valuable insights, helping me identify issues and approach solutions from a fresh perspective. Designing the party, event, or activity creation process with many options was challenging. I developed 8 different scenarios to ensure users could navigate effortlessly and utilize key features for any given situation. To confirm the updated designs were intuitive, I conducted another round of usability testing.
The Final Flow:
After multiple iterations and discussions, I finalized the designs for each screen and established the overall flow. Additional app features include a party detail screen displaying all necessary party information, where users can RSVP, add comments, create an ideabook, and purchase tickets. The party creator can contact professionals, communicate through a messaging feature, initiate contracts, and more.
Visual Design:
Once the app's content, flow, and structure were finalized, I began working on the visual design by creating a moodboard to outline the visual direction, considering the target users and the app's purpose. Next, I designed high-fidelity wireframes to present a more polished look and feel of the product. Below are a few screenshots from the final design.
