Party HostUX Case Study

PREPARED BY AMANDA SPENCE | 2018

The Problem

When throwing a party, hosts can become bogged down by details and planning and not have a lot of time to ensure that their guests are having the best time.

Question How can party hosts encourage interactions among guests and ensure that everyone enjoys their experience?

Round 1 of Feedback:

User Interviews

“My worst party experiences are when

people bring people who did not RSVP

and I don’t have enough resources to accommodate them"

“I wanted to host a small party, but all of

these people showed up, I wish I’d had some control over who was coming"

“Team-oriented, working together and

making connections”

“I feel a strong sense of obligation that

everyone enjoys themselves at my

parties"

User Interviews

What is motivating party hosts?

Wanting their guests to pitch in

Wanting to have control over their guest list

Wanting their guests to make the most of their party experience

Findings

Wanting to make human connections

1

Exploratory AnalysisWhich products out there are helping

people make human connections?

For Adults

Encourages in-person interaction

Let’s People Stay Alone

For Kids

Competitor AnalysisWhich products out there are helping

people make human connections?

PartyWith is centered around parties,

but is about getting out of the house and matching users to attend events together.

PBS Kids app has activities baked

in—dance party, freeze tag, piñata burst,

numbers games—but is targeted to kids.

Heads Up can be a kid or adult party

game and encourages in person

interaction. It is highly successful and

may be a large influencer for my final product.

Party Host Cindy32 Years OldNo KidsWorks as a Consultant

Loves to Throw a Party and Wants Everyone to Enjoy Themselves

PrimaryPersona

Party Host Cindy has a wide range of friend groups. When it’s time to host a party, she wants to invite everyone she knows—friends from work, friends from college, friends from childhood—and she knows that they will bring people too. She’s technically-saavy, but does not want to spend too much time in an app - after all, this is a party!

Bio and Demographics

After throwing a few parties, Cindy realized that some people who come alone or are friends of guests do not always feel comfortable breaking the ice when engaging with other people. Cindy feels obligated to make sure everyone is having a great time at her party, so she tries to give those loners extra attention and pulls them into the conversation. Cindy sometimes feels frustrated that she’s unable to give everyone the same amount of special attention.

Stories and Scenarios

● Gets joy from hosting parties and bringing all of her friends together—she loves them and wants them to love each other

● Floats between groups, making sure everyone feels included● Will feel overworked by the end of the party, but feels it was worth

it if everyone enjoyed themselves

Behaviors

● Needs time to breathe and while she loves to host, doesn’t always want to be the facilitator of all interactions

● Wishes people wouldn’t always bring guests without telling her, but if they’re here, she wants them to have a great time!

● Needs ideas for ice breaker activities so she doesn’t always have to be the liaison

Goals and Needs

Assumptions

Based on user interviews and my initial idea for the project, my assumptions were:

Most party hosts share similar frustrations and priorities during party planning

Everyone will care about ice breakers and other activities

Round 2 of Feedback:

CardSorting

I thought the app was simple enough that everyone would agree with my categorizations, but it turned out that some were not as obvious as I’d hoped.

Also, it looks like some features should have multiple touchpoints to make that feature more successful.

Early Sketches:

Paper Prototypes

Based on the card sorting results and user feedback, I decided to rely more on social media profiles to fill in guest info rather than put that responsibility on the party host. Once that was figured out, it gave me the freedom to explore other features of the app, such as ice breaker descriptions and what kinds of info would be displayed on an overall summary screen. Also, because it’s a party, I’ve added an “Add to the Playlist” crowdsource feature.

I wanted the host to have a overall snapshot view of their guests, playlist, and icebreakers

Guests will be able to suggest songs to add to the party playlist, and the host has admin control to delete inappropriate songs

Login screen starts the two user journeys: the host or the guest. These screens follow the journey of the host.

Wireframes

I added descriptions to the ice breakers list based on a user’s suggestion so that the host has an idea of what the ice breaker is about. They can click on the ice breaker to get a full description, and in this case, a download link to the 3rd party app.

After clicking on the ice breaker from the previous screen list, a full description of the ice breaker is shown, and in this case, a download link to the 3rd party app.

Wireframes

Guest survey allows host to communicate with guest prior to the party; “Thing I love about you” is an option for helping guests get to know each other.

Wireframes

Round 3 of Feedback:

UsabilityTesting

Major takeaways:

Users were generally confused by the initial idea of ice breakers, so I made the decision to make this a secondary functionality

Direction of the app changed through testing; it went from being an ice breaker-centered app to an overall party planning app

UsabilityTestingFindings

This round of usability tests made me make some decisions and change the direction of the app. Key insights:

Most users are confused by ice breakers/games list; will make this a secondary function of the app and not have it in the main nav bar

What if the host is planning more than one party? Make the dashboard screen list all events being planned

Focus on primary planning functions: guest list, task list, playlist

Instead of surveying guests, leave it open-ended to message guests and have the option to send to more than one

For guests who have not responded, can a reminder to RSVP be sent?

Add “View More” on sections to show that they expand to another screen

More sketches to explore additional functionality

User Flow

Hi-FidelityWireframes

Hi-FidelityWireframes

Summary

People want a way to connect; a party hosting app gives hosts an opportunity to collaborate with their guests through playlist suggestions, task assignments, etc. and gives guests more buy-in for the event.

What’s next?

➔ More screens to show list types: tasks, playlists, etc; hi- fidelity screens for ice breakers list and ice

breakers descriptions

➔ Explore additional functionality: Chatbot for messaging guests, chatbot for setting up guest profile

for users who do not use social media, co-host option, logging in via other social media networks

➔ Tool tips to guide users through initial app experience

➔ UX Process for guest journey

➔ UX Process for output/sync device (Smart TV or other)

➔ Iterate, test, iterate, test

➔ Other use case scenarios

Thanks!