Communify
Helping people meet new friends in new places
July–August 2021
Research and Design
I researched, designed, and tested a new social media and events app that motivates people to show up.
The Problem
Low conversion in a social media app from users who say they will attend an event to those who actually attend the events.
The Work
Detailed and focused competitor research
Primary user research
User flows
Low-fidelity sketches
High-fidelity screens and prototype
The Solution
A high-fidelity prototype of a solution designed around a novel concept that users found compelling and interesting and that matches the brand’s attributes.
My experiences as an event organizer and community builder drew me to work on the problem of low attendee conversion in a product that connects recently new residents to events in their area.
A company’s existing product helps people meet new friends in a new place, but there is a problem: only 20% of people who say they’re going actually end up attending events.
I was given some basic company context, business goals, information and constraints from a product manager, target users, and the company brand personality and attributes.
Deliverables included:
Detailed and focused competitor research
Primary user research
User flows
Low-fidelity sketches
High-fidelity screens and prototype
Users and audience
32–55 year old men and women, middle class, recently relocated.
Roles and responsibilities (Solo project)
UX Research
UX Testing
UX Design
UI Design
Tools
Figma, Zoom, Pen and paper
Scope and constraints
The project was constrained by the lack of input from a software developer. Since this was only a concept, the project was also not able to gather data on actual event attendance.
Problem Statement
How might we increase the conversion of accepted invites to event attendees?
Secondary Research
My secondary research helped define the problem space as an area best approached through the lens of users’ motivations and aspirations.
In order to learn about this problem area and begin learning best practices, I completed a brief survey of recent articles and blog posts about event organizing, event attendance, and the process through which friendships develop. Sources included BuzzFeed, Bustle, The Atlantic, and the Meetup blog.
My initial questions were:
Why do people go to events where they won’t know anyone?
What helps build community?
Key takeaways from this secondary research helped define the problem space as an area best approached through the lens of users’ motivations and aspirations.
People are more likely to attend an event in which they feel they have invested something.
Sometimes people don’t show up because they have simply forgotten about the event.
Feeling welcomed is very important for new people.
It can take up to 50 hours of socializing for people to move from “acquaintances” to “casual friends,” another 40 hours to become “real friends,” and a total of 200 hours to become “close friends.”
The best way to meet new people in a new place is to meet people who have a preexisting connection to a person’s existing network.
Primary Research: User Interviews
I discovered that users want to know what to expect at events and they need motivation to consistently show up.
I completed six interviews with a range of people who all moved to new places within the last five years. My guiding research questions were informed by the preliminary secondary research.
What are the reasons that people look for new friends?
What do people need socially when they have just moved to a new place?
What do people want socially when they have just moved to a new place?
Why or why not do people attend events where they might not know anyone?
What helps people feel confident it will be worth it to attend such an event?
With clear research questions in mind, the interviews were wide-ranging and driven by the individuals’ experiences.
Affinity Mapping
Comments, questions, and observations from interview subjects revealed five affinity areas of experience to guide the project.
Synthesizing the research data revealed attendee goals and frustrations, along with key insights into the problem of low conversion from accepted invites to event attendees.
Key insights into users’ experiences that came out of affinity mapping included:
If someone feels like an event is expecting them to attend, and preparing something especially for them, they are more likely to go.
A connection to an existing acquaintance or friend makes attendance more likely.
Some people value “serendipity,” while others value control and predictability.
Some people value social activities where they don’t have to be interacting 100% of the time.
If people have tangible dreams of what they want from an event, or a new place, they will be more optimistic about trying new things.
The faster people share “real” things about themselves, the sooner they feel like “friends.
User Persona
I used my synthesized research to create a persona, Lauren, who wants to meet new people and values control and predictability.
Competitor Analysis
Considering the competition.
I analyzed three competitors in this problem space—Meetup, Facebook Events, and Eventbrite. Each product had areas of success and failure, and all three contained features and design elements that would inform the Communify design.
Solution Ideation
I sketched a series of possible strategies for making event attendees more likely to attend events.
Ideas included:
Asking users to enter concrete plans for how they will get to an event.
Connecting users to second-degree connections (a la Linkedin).
Featuring invitation videos from event hosts.
Encouraging hosts to offer “complimentary gifts” to attendees.
Clear control over how and when users receive event updates and reminders.
Designing the user profile to define and highlight users’ “dreams and aspirations” for what they want to get out of their new friends and communities.
An event attendance system where, if someone does not attend an event, they lose a nominal amount of money ($10), but if they do attend, they receive a small bonus garnered from the money lost by no-shows.
User Flow Design
Getting users from discovering to attending events.
I sketched out the user flow in order to design an effective low-fidelity prototype. The user flow evolved during the testing and design process.
Low Fidelity Screens & Prototype
I sketched and tested three concepts for getting people to follow through on attending.
Easy and clear customization of notification and communication settings
Featured video invitations from event hosts
The monetary win/lose incentivization model
I sketched all of the necessary screens by hand and built a low-fidelity prototype using Figma. I tried, as much as possible, to incorporate design principles garnered from the competitor analysis.
Splash screen
Home screen
“Explore” screen
“Invest in yourself” incentive explanation modal
Event screen
Registration screen
“Than you for registering” screen
Low Fidelity Usability Testing
Users were fascinated by the idea of financial motivation.
I tested the low-fidelity designs on five different users. The research questions focused both on the user flow—“Could a user successfully register for an event?”—and users’ reactions to the various design ideas for motivating users to attend events.
The test subjects had similar reactions and questions to many elements of the design flow, UI concepts, and motivation ideas. Some of what came out of the low-fidelity usability testing were concrete improvements of the UI design. The two ideas that received the most attention were the “leveraging social connections” idea and the financial incentive idea. The tests clearly revealed productive priorities for both possible design directions.
Due to the level of fascination users had with the financial motivation concept, I decided to focus on that.
Users’ comments and ideas were vital for further design:
“I can’t tell if it’s genius or if it would backfire.”
The structure of “dividing out payments of those who don’t attend among those who do might feel desperate and mean-spirited.”
This is a nice step in the direction of being a “ticket platform.”
One user thought that if the “event deposit” idea was pursued, the entire app should have a theme that matches that concept.
Company Design
“Motivate yourself—meet your people.”
I developed a company name, color palette, basic typography, basic logo, and UI design principles. The design of this simple style guide was informed by the company’s brand personality and attributes.
Company logo and logotype
Company’s brand personality and attributes
Typography
Color palette
UI Elements
High Fidelity Mockups
Focusing on clarity of process and conveying the incentive model.
The high-fidelity designs built on the ideas and principles developed in the low-fidelity sketches. They incorporated ideas and feedback from the first round of usability testing, and focused on clarity of process and conveying the incentive model. I revised the incentive model slightly—in the high-fidelity prototype, if a user registers for an event but then does not attend, the Communify application automatically donates a small amount of the user’s money to a charity of their choice.
Key design choices included:
Including a home screen that prominently features a user’s next event, their next series of events, and an “Explore” section.
Easy access to a simple and compelling explanation for the “donation-as-motivation” system.
A registration format that encourages buy-in from prospective attendees.
Design elements that emphasize that users have “tickets” to events, to encourage them to attend.
Easy control of a users’ payment and donation settings.
High Fidelity Usability Testing
Users tested two different flows and considered the product’s “Reminder” notifications.
I ran the high-fidelity usability test with five participants, focusing on three central questions:
Can users set up their “donation-as-motivation” preferences?
Can users find and register for an event?
How do users react to the donation-as-motivation concept?
This test consisted of two tasks and then a discussion of two different “notification” or “reminder” screens.
This event registration model made sense and resonated with all of the users, across the board. There were a few usability issues that arose, which were easily addressed in the next round of iterations.
Design Iterations
Testing led to revisions on the payment screen, event cancellation settings, and the overall tone of the product.
Users wanted to know that their “Payment settings” were being saved, and they found the UI on this screen to be slightly confusing.
I added the “Changes saved automatically…” banner on the “Payment settings” screen.
I revised the checkbox to be a toggle, and laid out the elements in a more easily readable way.
Users were curious if there was a cut-off on when they would be able to cancel their attendance to an event and avoid donating to their charity.
I implemented a 24-hour cutoff on event cancellation/donation opt-out, and communicated this policy across the application.
Users found the tone of the donation-as-motivation explanation, and subsequent reminders and communication examples, to be slightly pushy and formal.
I revised the copy across the application to better reflect the brand personality of caring, familiar, humorous, and optimistic.
I added emojis along with encouragement for users to consider what “motivates” them.
I made sure to include some humor!
The result of this project is the prototype of a solution for a low conversion rate of accepted invites to event attendees.
The prototype was informed by secondary and primary research and several rounds of design and validation.
Central to this solution is a novel concept that users found compelling and interesting,
which clearly matches the brand’s attributes of being
caring, familiar, humorous, and optimistic.
In the future, I would seek out more guidance early on in the process regarding the specific priorities of the client, business, or the product manager. There were some questions early on—“Is the goal just a higher conversion rate, or more attendees overall?” for example—that made preliminary research more broad than it may have needed to be.
We are still only beginning to understand how to connect people and communities through technology and design. Products like Communify are important steps on that journey.
