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Making past events effortlessly accessible.

Spring 2024

@ Partiful

Making past events effortlessly accessible.

Spring 2024

@ Partiful

Making past events effortlessly accessible.

Spring 2024

@ Partiful

Partiful Redesign

Optimizing Accessibility and Navigation for Partiful's Past Events Feature.

Role

UX Design

Duration

a 3 week project, April 2024

Visit Site

Partiful

Team

Dave (🙋🏻)

Ivery Chen

Sohum Sanu

Viviana Wei

Dave (🙋🏻)

Ivery Chen

Sohum Sanu

Viviana Wei

Dave (🙋🏻)

Ivery Chen

Sohum Sanu

Viviana Wei

Disciplines

UI/UX

Tools

Figma, Loom

Project Overview

How might we redesign the landing page to encourage more users to explore ‘Past Events’?

Our team worked with Google Ventures Backed startup, Partiful, to redesign their landing page. Partiful is a web and mobile application that empowers users to create visually engaging event pages for occasions like birthdays, hangouts, and everything in between. The platform enables hosts to invite friends and even friends-of-friends without needing their phone numbers or social media handles. These event pages serve as dynamic hubs for building hype, allowing hosts and guests to interact seamlessly and share the anticipation leading up to the event.

The Problem

Beyond "Upcoming Events," founders expressed the need to expand utility and accessibility for "Past Events."

The original design lacked intuitive navigation to the "Past Events" section, making it difficult for users to access and revisit their past events. Additionally, the platform did not fully utilize the wealth of information and visuals generated from past events, missing an opportunity to enhance user engagement and value.

Original Design

Past Events tab is difficult to locate

Only one full event on view at a time

If no upcoming event, page is empty

Past Events tab is difficult to locate

If no upcoming events, page is empty

Only one full event on view at a time

Solution Goal

Transforming past events into treasured highlights by making them accessible and visually captivating.

In the current design, Past Events pages are treated almost like one-off tickets—hype is generated for the upcoming event but discarded once the event takes place, both in terms of accessibility and experience design. Our goal was to leverage the information and connections available through Past Events to transform them into something more sustainable and engaging. To achieve this, our team focused on:

Reassessing and redesigning user navigation to Past Events.
Building a system around Past Events to increase user traction and ongoing engagement.

Reassessing and redesigning user navigation to Past Events.
Building a system around Past Events to increase user traction and ongoing engagement.

Process

Research + Development

What are our success metrics?

More users navigating to past events
More activity (comments, comment replies, photos) on past events
Users connecting with one another from past events

Who are our customers?

Profile

Liam is a 21-year-old college student living near a university campus, studying Communications. He is highly social and love attending campus events, Greek life gatherings, and hangouts with friends. Alex is tech-savvy and often uses social apps to discover events and stay connected.

Goals

Easily find and revisit past events to relive memories or reconnect with people.
Engage with events through design language that is familiar to GenZ (Instagram feed, SnapMaps, etc).
Stay organized while maintaining their highly social and dynamic lifestyle.

Who did we talk to?

We interviewed Partiful superhosts to ask about their experiences using Partiful, and whether or not they spend much time at all on the app. One of the good insight we gained is that users don’t tend to use Partiful to look at past memories at events, instead, they want to discover new ones in a more effective manner.

Process

Ideation & Low-Fidelity Prototyping

Ideation and creation of low-fidelity prototypes were based on client expectations and the challenges discussed in our meetings. With each iteration, we incorporated interview insights and shared updated prototypes, continuously refining the designs based on feedback.

Solution

How did we respond to founder feedback?

After several iterations, the founders emphasized the need to focus on variations of the landing page rather than additional features leveraging past events. Taking this feedback into account, we decided to double down on three distinct versions of the main page, drawing inspiration from Instagram Feed, iPhone notifications, and Snapchat SnapMap, to showcase a diverse range of unique ideas.

01_Basic Design

Challenge

Past events are too hidden, the app doesn’t feel like a social media platform. Many users don’t have the app downloaded.

Solution

To enhance accessibility to past events from the landing page, we implemented infinite scroll, encouraging users to spend more time exploring past events and fostering connections with others.

02_Feed-Based Design

Challenge

The app lacks a ‘viral factor’ that motivates users to regularly open and engage with its content.

Solution

To make Partiful feel more like a social media platform, we designed a feed-style layout that encourages users to shift their focus from just the events to the attendees themselves.

03_Map-Based Design

Challenge

Interviewees reflect that the app has to offer more than event management. There has to be something more motivating for users to download the app.

Solution

To enhance Partiful’s fun brand image, we designed a SnapMap-inspired feature showing past events by location. Animations highlight upcoming parties, and a heatmap visualizes trends, positioning Partiful as a dynamic party management platform with data analytics—a favorite among the founders.

Conclusion

Growth & Reflection

As it was my first time working with external clients during semester, I learned valuable lessons about collaboration and creativity:

Clarify Expectations
Initially, I was hesitant to drill down with detailed questions during the interview phase to fully understand the clients’ needs. However, as we progressed through iterations, the founders provided a clear direction, and I realized the importance of setting expectations early. This approach not only saves time but also significantly improves the quality of work.
Push Beyond the Status Quo
Brown’s Interaction Design class emphasizes usability over visual appeal. While we identified key user pain points early on, we could have explored bolder ideas beyond the map format to solve user pain points. The overwhelmingly positive feedback on the map-based design taught me the value of pushing creative boundaries further than expected.

As it was my first time working with external clients during semester, I learned valuable lessons about collaboration and creativity:

Clarify Expectations
Initially, I was hesitant to drill down with detailed questions during the interview phase to fully understand the clients’ needs. However, as we progressed through iterations, the founders provided a clear direction, and I realized the importance of setting expectations early. This approach not only saves time but also significantly improves the quality of work.
Push Beyond the Status Quo
Brown’s Interaction Design class emphasizes usability over visual appeal. While we identified key user pain points early on, we could have explored bolder ideas beyond the map format to solve user pain points. The overwhelmingly positive feedback on the map-based design taught me the value of pushing creative boundaries further than expected.