socially is an event management app that connects hosts and guests in an engaging, meaningful way that makes social events memorable. Users can create events, join, add sub-events, post photos, chat with other users, view the event's location, and receive important alerts. Socially increases the interaction between the users and helps the host manage the event efficiently and quickly.
Managing social events, particularly large ones with a high number of attendees, can be quite challenging. It can be overwhelming to communicate with and handle the invitees efficiently.
In the current digital era, many individuals have opted for digital invitations instead of physical ones. By establishing a platform that caters to both the inviter and invitee, users can enjoy a unified environment that makes event management efficient and easier.
I did a survey to know about the habits of people attending and organizing social events. Thirty-three people participated in the research.
• 90% of the people receive digital invites through social media apps. 45% of them receive physical invites.
• Most of them attend Personal Events (Birthdays, Promotions, etc) and Family and Friends Events (Meetups, Hangouts, etc).
• Formal Events (Weddings, Workshops, etc) and Religious Events (Festivals, Rituals, etc) were also attended by half of them.
I selected three competitors to do a competitive analysis. WeTales, Paperless Post, and Evite were the main competitors to socially.
WeTales offers personalized digital invites in a form of an app. It specializes in wedding events. Other than weddings, WeTales is not optimized for other types of events.
Paperless Post offers multiple templates for various kinds of events. It is an all-rounder app for events, big or small. However, user interaction between multiple users is limited.
Evite is one of the most popular apps for event invitations. Evite has multiple invitation templates for various kinds of events. It has a lack of user communication between the inviter and the invitees.
John
24
Student
John is a student and attends social events on monthly basis. He also organizes events occasionally. He attends and organizes Personal, and Family and Friend based events.
Pain Points
- Problems in coordination.
- Is shy, so faces problems in inviting people.
Anna
50
Homemaker
Anna attends events every month and occasionally organizes events as well.
She also faces problems in coordinating with the invitees. Anna attends Family, Formal and Religious Events.
Pain Points
- Problems in communication with invitees.
- Unable to organize large events.
Romulus
18
Student
Romulus attends events on weekly basis. Sometimes, he faces problems in coordinating with other people. He attends Personal and Formal Events.
Pain Points
- Finds difficult to attend events.
- Can’t communicate with large no. of people.
A user creates an event & a sub-event for an occasion.
A user joins an event created by another person.
A user communicates with another user regarding the event.
I created black and white wireframes for the three task flows. The layout and the user experience was finalised.
After creating the wireframes, I conducted user testing for my user flows. I selected 5 candidates and got feedback from them. User Testing vastly improved my user experience of the app. I made changes to the layout and colors based on the feedback. I was able to finalize features and UI changes due to A/B Testing. More information about user testing is available here
The icon represents the spark and connection that social events represent. The cooler shade gradient represents the host and the warmer shade represents the guest. The idea about the logo is that the host and guests meet at a social event and a spark generates between them.
I have designed the prototype of the three user flows on Figma and coded a prototype using HTML, CSS, and JS. You can view the coded prototype here.
socially is hosted as a mobile web app on the cloud to emulate an iPhone 14 / iPhone 14 Pro application. (390 x 844 px)
I made a concept video explaining what socially is and does. It is made using Illustrator and After Effects. An AI Voice is used for narration.
I learned a lot about the importance of user flows. User flows can help designers identify areas where users may need additional guidance or support.
User Research is essential. Conducting user research to understand the needs and pain points of both event hosts and guests is crucial to designing a successful event management app.
Conducting usability tests is an important part of the design process to identify and address usability issues. Several A/B Testings helped me in finalizing the best variation of wireframes.
