Gist

Project Overview

The app aimed to centralize all speed dating events in local areas, providing users with a simple and intuitive way to discover, register, and attend events tailored to their preferences. My role as the Lead UI/UX Designer was to develop the entire product's design framework, from early-stage research to final high-fidelity designs, focusing on an engaging user experience that drove user interaction and retention. 🚀

Challenge & Problem Statement

The existing landscape for speed dating events was fragmented—users struggled to find, sign up, and attend events. Most listings were scattered across various websites or social platforms, making it cumbersome for potential participants to discover relevant events. Furthermore, the existing digital solutions for dating apps were more focused on long-term connections rather than facilitating short, in-person experiences.

The challenge was to design a solution that simplified the discovery and sign-up process, making it easy for users to find events based on location, preferences, and availability, while offering an engaging, frictionless experience that would encourage return visits and repeat participation. 🎯

User Research and Problem Discovery

I began by conducting qualitative user research, interviewing potential users to better understand their pain points when it came to discovering and attending speed dating events. I categorized our target audience into distinct personas based on age, dating preferences, event frequency, and technological literacy. This initial phase allowed me to empathize with the users and understand the main challenges. 🧐

Takeaways:

Users wanted ease of discovery—events needed to be easily accessible based on location and preferences. 🌍

Sign-up friction was a major deterrent—complicated registration processes caused drop-offs. ❌

Users were looking for pre-event social features, such as viewing who else was attending to help gauge their interest. 👥

From these insights, I distilled our primary goals:

• ➼ Simplify event discovery and registration. 🔍
• ➼ Provide a seamless, mobile-first user experience. 📱
• ➼ Introduce engaging features that keep users coming back. 🔄

Design Questions:

• ➼ How do we make the app feel lightweight while packing in enough features? 🔍
• ➼ How do we reduce the number of steps users need to take from discovering an event to attending it? . 📱
• ➼ What would keep users engaged beyond the event? 🔄

Wireframing & Prototyping

• ➼ Event Discovery Screen: Showed a list of nearby events, allowing filtering based on distance, preferences, and availability. The interface provided rich information without overwhelming the user. 🔍
• ➼ Event Details Screen: Displayed a detailed view of selected events, including venue, time, and attendee information, along with a prominent 'Join' or 'Waitlist' button. 📱

UI/UX Improvements and Solutions

Throughout the design process, my focus was on making data-driven design decisions. Here are the key design features and the thought process behind each:

• ➼ Mobile-First Design: Given that 90% of our target users would access Gist through their phones, the design followed a mobile-first approach. I carefully structured the UI to make sure it was responsive on various screen sizes while ensuring that essential elements (like event filters and the 'Join' button) were easily accessible with one hand. . 🔍
• ➼ Onboarding & Registration: User drop-off during registration was a known issue, so I focused on streamlining this process. I reduced the sign-up process to 3 steps, making it quick and painless.
• ➼ Interactive Attendee Features: . I designed social features where users could view attendee profiles and send event-related messages prior to the event. This significantly increased pre-event engagement and helped participants feel more comfortable about attending. This feature led to a 35% increase in repeat users. 📱

Final Results and Insights

• ➼ More Sign-Ups: We made the sign-up process easier and faster, which led to 25% more people signing up in the first month. I learned how important it is to keep things simple and quick for users. 🔍
• ➼ More People Attending Events: The new design got 40% more people to attend events, and 35% of them came back for more within three months. This taught me that even small design changes can have a big impact on how many people use the app regularly.
• ➼ Happier Users:. 📱
• ➼ More Events: The number of events on the platform grew by 60% because users were more engaged and the event management features were simpler. I realized that improving both the user experience and how things work behind the scenes can lead to big growth. 🔄