Planning parties just got easier!

Parteee is a service to help plan parties without frustrations. It makes communication between hosts and guests way easier. With Parteee, everyone enjoys the parties more.

My Role

UX Research, UX/UI Design

Project Type

Personal project, Proof of concept.

Timeline

November 2022 - January 2023

Tools

Figma, Creative Cloud Suite

The Challenge

Party planning can be a lengthy process. The current lack of tailored digital tools leaves many hosts and guests feeling frustrated. As a result, there is a need for a more comprehensive service in planning a party, allowing hosts to do all their planning on the one platform.

Discovery

I started researching the main factors of why planning a party causes so many frustrations and what are the possible solutions. My research showed there's' no one platform that can provide most party planning features, where hosts have to toggle between multiple platforms. In addition, the guest list has to be re-edited and added every time, which is very time-consuming and highly inefficient.

Research

I actively listened and learned about their goals, challenges, and perspective. This allowed me to understand my target audiences and support their needs.

Research Objectives

Understand the target audience’s mental model and current process of planning a party.
Understand what are the motivations for planning a party.
Understand what is the most essential factor in planning a successful party. Ie. Food, decoration or activity, etc.
Determine what features will be helpful for the target audience.

To find out the competitor landscape, I performed a thorough competitor analysis to understand their current strategies. Additionally, I conducted user interviews to empathize with the target audience’s pain points and needs.

Methodology

Competitor Analysis

A competitor analysis helped me understand what currently exists within the market. I focused on 4 primary competitors: Eventbrite, Zola, Paperless and bark.com.

Key Insights:

3 in 4 competitors offered guest list trackers.
Zola and Paperless provide beautiful online invite templates.

No competitor provides a guest list pool feature for recurring users’ future parties; we see an opportunity here.
Zola and Paperless allow users to bulk upload their guest list through an Excel spreadsheet template.
Eventbrite has a feature for users to sell tickets or split costs.

Interview

Through my interviews with 6 experienced party organizers, I discovered that digital tools play a crucial role in their planning process.

Interviewees:

2 males, 4 females, age between 20’s to 40’s.
Based in the USA

Through my research, I confirmed that planning efficiently and staying on one platform is essential for the hosts.

Key Insights:

Users worked across multiple planning platforms which is highly inefficient.
According to most participants, finding a more efficient method to handle their guest list and send out reminders is the top priority.

Affinity Mapping

Affinity mapping helped identify recurring themes in their prospects, primary needs, pain points, motivations, and goals.

Goal

Create and manage a party without using multiple platforms to save time and effort in planning.
To maintain social connections by hosting memorable events.

Needs

Efficiency is the key for the users.
Spend less time managing their party guest list.

Motivation

In today's fast-paced world, a digital planning tool is crucial for those who value their time.

Pain Points

Creating and managing guest lists takes too much time.
Providing a comprehensive checklist of tasks and reminders.
Communication between hosts and guests

Define

Define the User Base

Through the interviews, I developed a better understanding of my potential users by synthesizing my research. While going through the insights, I created a distinct persona named Johanna. The product is designed for individuals like Johanna, who is 31 years old and lives in Los Angeles. Johanna enjoys hosting parties for her friends, both new and old. She has a close friend group that she frequently invites. She’s tried various digital tools in the market but has yet to find the tool that fits her needs.

Johanna:

One of my main goals is to manage a party more efficiently and with less frustration, especially during the scheduling phase, I don’t want to spend too much time in editing my guest list.

With a clear understanding of Johanna’s frustration, my next task is to tackle…

How might we simplify the process of communication and guest list management for users like Johanna when interacting with their guests?

Porject Goals

Create a digital party planning tool that empowers users to plan more efficiently and save time. With this tool, users can easily create a guest list, send out invitations, and even manage RSVPs in one place. The service provides features for planning a party so the user will stay on one platform.
The user can keep the guest list data and create a guest list pool so they will have less editing to do when coming back for their next party.

Ideate

Brainstorming

I have gained a much deeper understanding of my users after conducting thorough research. To gain valuable feedback, I presented my findings to a designer critique and took into account the perspectives of other designers.

After careful consideration, two key concepts emerged from the brainstorming session. I devoted ample time to testing multiple ideas to arrive at the optimal solution. I received valuable input from party planners to ensure our final product met their needs.

The Solution

Name: Parteee

Who is it for? People who want to efficiently plan parties regularly.

What does it accomplish? The service provides tools for the users to create their party, manage their guest list, budget tracker, and many other features.

How does it accomplish this? The service provides the users with directions for planning. The user will have a guest list pool so they don’t have to edit/add to their guest list every time. In that way, the user can save valuable time after they have built their guest list.

Determine Task Flow

I focused on the most essential part of the user journey. I landed on designing two task flows.

Task 1 - Create a party

Task 2 - Add a guest

Design & Test

Wireframing & Low Fidelity Prototype

Before jumping into Figma, I started to map the journey out and core screens and after I was confident of the screens, I started my midfi.

The first version of my mid-fi wireframes was straightforward to navigate. I focused on letting the users go through as few pages as possible. Most pages had a search bar for the users to search for the content they were looking for quickly.

I decided to conduct user testing to integrate my research findings into the high fidelity design. Given the limited time available for extensive high fidelity revisions, I aimed to identify necessary adjustments at an earlier stage.

My finding was…

Create a Party Flow

Feedback -

When the initial version of the party flow was created, it required a lot of information and was quite time-consuming for testers. Many of them expressed uncertainty about whether it was necessary to go through such a lengthy process to create a party.

Solution -

I rewired the party-creating process to a three-step form, only collecting essential information. Users have the flexibility to return and edit additional details after creating the party.

Updated Create a Party Task Flow

Add a Guest Flow

Feedback -

As a regular planner, re-adding guests to their list can be time-consuming.

Solution -

The platform offers a guest list database for frequent users, reducing the need for extensive modifications each time they return to the service.

Branding

My goal for mid-fi usability testing was to refine the design to ensure the high-fidelity wireframes' user-friendliness. After a few adjustments, I am ready to go to the next steps! - branding and high-fidelity prototyping.

Before finalizing the high-fidelity wireframes, I completed the branding.

The brand wants to generate fun and chic energy, so I went with a trendy gradient background look.
The logo is the brand name in a fun font and a star symbol on top. Simple yet fun.
Color concept inspired by a disco ball. The holographic color scheme gives the users an energetic and exciting feeling.

High Fidelity Prototyping & Final Usability Testing

After I finished my high fidelity prototype, I recruited five testers like Johanna to do usability testing. We met on a Zoom call so I could monitor their reaction while testing it.

Create a Party Flow

5/5 of my participants completed this task.
The participants rated the flow 1.5 on average. 1 the easiest, 5 the hardest.

Feedback -

On the preview page, based on users feedback, I changed the last page from a card to an editable input field so it is clear that the user can make some final adjustments. But they can always preview as a guest, or send out a test invite to themselves.

Add a Guest Flow

5/5 of my participants successfully completed this task.
The participants rated the flow 2 on average. 1 the easiest, 5 the hardest.

Feedback 1 -

The testers were confused by the search bar and filter on the upcoming parties and guest list page. One participant suggested having the filter on the chart so the users can filter the guest status.

Feedback 2-

A couple of testers suggested changing the most important CTA (manage your guest list) to a different style, so the users understand the next step.