Parddy
OVERVIEW
Parddy is a mobile app design of a semester-long solo project.
Parddy provides solutions to help people create and manage party plans smoothly, invite friends to create and vote for the plan in detail, make new friends easily by group chat that generated by every plan automatically.
During the process, I conducted the user research and design process, from observing people on the field when they make party plans to validating design decisions by testing with target users. My design evolved along with several rounds of iteration at different stages.
ROLE
User Research
UI/UX Design
Wireframing and User Flows
Visual Design
TIMELINE
2018.10 - 2018.12
Challenge
How might we make the party planning and preparing process easier?
Even though hosting and attending a party is a common thing for us to spend spare time and celebrate important events. Hosting party is a complicated and annoying thing. People are seeking solutions to hosting a perfect party all over the internet. However, hosting a party is like managing multiple tasks, there are various things to think about, including budgets, guests list, food, and drinks, etc. Besides, It is difficult to satisfy all participants when hosting a party.
Design Process
As a party animal, I couldn't wait to figure out how people think about hosting parties.
Research - Narrow down the Scope
Interviews
Several rounds of interviews are conducted with 5 people who hosted or attended parties before.
Major questions regarding:
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The current process of hosting a party.
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Problems encountering when hosting a party.
During the interview process, I found out that people like to plan and prepare parties with their friends together, so I changed the questions and conducted the second-round interview.
"How might we help people co-host a party with others easier?"
What is everyone concerning about?
I created primary personas based on the findings from research. The personas represent users’ goals and pain points that helped me to prioritize different user's needs to guide the converging phase of my design process.
Current process of Hosting party with friends
According to the findings from interviews, interviewees expressed that they planned a party with their friends together most of the time to reduce the burden on each one, and satisfied others' needs better. What is it like to host a party with friends?
Synthesis
Storyboards - current solutions
Based on the findings, I looked up current and possible solutions to tackle the users’ needs, and then expanded the sketches into scenarios that captured users’ pain points, emotions, and interactions with each solution.
Competitive Analysis - Identify Market Opportunity
I analyzed multiple existing matching platforms, both physical and digital, including Meetup, Facebook Events, Doodle, Party planner and how students clubs host parties, to explore the current solution space users can utilize to plan and prepare for parties.
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I observed other mobile applications that help users to create plan and tasks. None of the apps address the entire specific party plan process and solve the most important pain point of users.
What is it that people struggle the most?
Through the investigation of competitive analysis and current solutions, I found out that there is a pain point of transition between making plans in multiple people. In order to discuss a single plan, the user needs to go through various Apps Switching between plan application and message application.
In order to simplify the party plan process, I aimed to create a simple user-centered design application that could integrate features hosting a party's needs and aim to insights.
So what exactly is the problem?
Problem
Goal
Solution Overview
Parddy helps the users manage all the essential information they need for the party preparation process. Parddy allows the users to create party plan, guide users to create detail plans with their friends and assign tasks. Parddy also allows users to vote for items including time, food and drinks and music.
Feature #1: Create Plan Easily
Support users to quickly build a party plan.
Add modules to help users manage the party plan better.
Feature #2: Invite friends to create a
plan together
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Invite friends through multiple channels.
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Users can choose to decline or accept the invitation.
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Show invite status instantly.
Feature #3: Create time poll to schedule time easily
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Add available time visually and easily.
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Vote for available time.
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Edit time directly.
Feature #4: Mange Plan
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Add your favorite foods, drinks, and music that you want to enjoy in the party.
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Track the items in real time.
Design Process
Information Architecture
Prototype - Wireframe
During the prototype phase, I started in wireframe to figure out the information structure, and then make the paper prototype to do the rapid prototype and user test to evaluate flow and interaction. After that, I added visual language and crafted the high-fidelity prototype and conducted two more rounds user testing.
Design Rationale
Onboarding Process
Before
Design Goal:
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Highlight the main features.
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A friendly first impression.
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Sign up and log in at any point.
After
Design Goal:
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Guide users to do the next step.
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Highlight the feature.
Before
After
Always keep users well informed
Always keep users informed about the plan status and plan progress.
Plan Feature
Plan feature has several small features like time poll, participants, food & drinks. Those features should belong to Plan Feature Level and should be clear to users.
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Wrong hierarchical relationship
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Overwhelming tab.
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low readability.
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Adjust the hierarchical distribution
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Reduce cluttering,