Reimagining the Social Event Lifecycle: A Mixed-Methods Approach
What You Doing (WYD) is an intuitive event app that simplifies event discovery, planning, and participation. It tackles common pain points like scattered information, chaotic group coordination, and impersonal recommendations, transforming event planning into a seamless and enjoyable experience.
As a UX Designer on the WYD project, my work focused on creating a user-friendly app prototype with a cohesive design system, personalized recommendations, and seamless group planning features to enhance the event experience from start to finish.
Timeline
July'25 - Dec'25
Role
Product Designer
Primary research, Concept ideation, Prototyping, High-fidelity designs, Front-end Development
The Challenge
Planning and participating in events can be overwhelming due to disorganized information, lack of personalization, and inefficient tools. WYD aims to provide a centralized, easy-to-use platform for event discovery and management.
Objective
To create a seamless and personalized event discovery and planning experience that encourages social engagement and reduces the stress of event coordination.
Challenges Identified: With Current Event Applications
Scattered Information: Users often struggle to find event details in one place, leading to frustration and missed opportunities.
Difficult Group Coordination: Planning events with friends or colleagues can be chaotic due to a lack of coordination tools.
Lack of Personalization: Users are overwhelmed by irrelevant event suggestions, making it hard to find events they genuinely care about.
Building the Foundation
The Approach We adopted a mixed-methods strategy to capture both behavioral patterns and attitudinal data. This ensured we didn't just understand how users act, but why they feel that way.
Observation Study
Shadowed 10 users (students & professionals) to track natural navigation and engagement habits.
Competitor Audit
Analyzed 7 major platforms (e.g., Eventbrite, Meetup) to benchmark industry standards and identify feature gaps.
Qualitative Interviews
Conducted 5 deep-dive sessions to explore personal frustrations with event coordination.
Quantitative Survey
Gathered data from 48 respondents to validate our qualitative findings at scale.
The Discoveries
Key Insights & Pain Points Our research revealed that while users can find events, the experience breaks down during coordination and social sharing.
The "Clutter" Problem
Users feel overwhelmed by irrelevant suggestions. 65% explicitly requested better personalization.
The Coordination Gap
Group planning is chaotic, forcing users off-platform (e.g., to WhatsApp). 70% found coordinating with friends difficult.
The Identity Need
There is a strong desire for social proof. 80% of users wanted a feature to showcase their event history on their profiles.
Market Opportunity
Competitors excel at centralized discovery but fail to offer robust group planning tools or personalized recommendations.
The Refinement Process
Validation & Iteration We didn't just guess the solution; we validated it. Using low-fidelity and high-fidelity prototypes, we conducted usability testing with 10 users focused on three core tasks: Discovery, Creation, and Profiling.
Based on testing metrics, we made the following critical refinements:
Enhanced Discovery: Added granular filtering (price range, event type) to reduce search fatigue.
Visual Clarity: Redesigned RSVP tracking with distinct visual indicators to improve status recognition.
Profile Customization: Expanded the "Showcase" feature with more badge designs and photo uploads to meet the social validation need.
UI Polish: Reduced the intensity of hover effects and animations to minimize cognitive load and distractions.
Personalized Discovery to Combat Clutter
Our research indicated that users feel overwhelmed by irrelevant event suggestions and desire better personalization. To address this, we've implemented features that tailor the experience to individual preferences.
Profile Preferences: The Profile Section allows users to specify their interests, ensuring that event recommendations are relevant and personalized.
Targeted Search: The Map Search Page enables users to find events using granular filters like distance, date, and category. This enhanced filtering directly addresses the need to reduce search fatigue.
Clear Overview: The Calendar Page provides a clear, organized view of upcoming events a user is attending, aiding in efficient planning.
Streamlined Social Coordination
A major pain point identified was the difficulty of coordinating group planning, which often forces users off-platform. We have designed features to keep coordination seamless and within the app.
Community Visibility: The Event Details page fosters interaction by showcasing the people attending an event, helping users see which of their friends are going.
Intuitive RSVP: We've streamlined the registration process with a clear RSVP flow that includes distinct visual indicators, making it easy to track attendance status.
Identity and Event Management
Users expressed a strong desire for social validation and a way to showcase their event history on their profiles. We have developed features to meet this need for social expression and easy management.
Social Profile: The Profile Display highlights user details, followers, and following to foster social connections. We also expanded customization options, such as photo uploads, to allow for greater self-expression.
Comprehensive Management: The Event Tickets and Management Page displays purchased tickets, social events, and hosted events in one place for easy tracking.
Simple Creation: For users who want to host, the Event Creation Page simplifies the process with intuitive tools for customization.
Personal Takeaway
This section is crucial for a portfolio because it shows hiring managers how you think and grow. I have drafted this to sound reflective and mature.
Bridging the Gap Between Functionality and Sentiment "As a Product Designer, this project reinforced that solving a functional problem (finding events) is only half the battle; the real challenge lies in solving the emotional one (the anxiety of coordination and the desire for social validation).
Initially, I assumed the user's biggest hurdle was simply 'finding things to do.' However, the mixed-methods research challenged this assumption, revealing that 70% of friction occurred after discovery—during the messy coordination phase. This pivot led me to prioritize features that act as 'social glue,' such as the RSVP visibility and profile showcases.
The biggest lesson I learned was the importance of restraint in UI design. During the iteration phase, we found that high-intensity animations were distracting rather than engaging. Learning to dial back the visual 'noise' to let the content and social connections take center stage was a critical maturity point in my design process."