Research Process

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Introduction:

In a dynamic urban environment like Bucharest, people seek engaging social and cultural experiences, yet they often face challenges in discovering events, coordinating with friends, and planning outings efficiently. At the same time, businesses struggle to reach the right audience and effectively promote their events. This research aims to understand user behaviors, motivations, and pain points, as well as the challenges faced by event organizers, in order to define a seamless event discovery and social coordination platform. By analyzing existing studies, conducting interviews, and synthesizing insights, we identified key barriers in event planning and engagement, ultimately shaping the core functionalities of an MVP that bridges the gap between users and businesses while enhancing social experiences.

The Research Process

Research Objectives

Key Research Questions

To achieve these objectives, we sought to answer the following questions:

User Perspective

How often do people engage in cultural or social events, and what influences their choices?
What challenges do users face when planning outings with friends?
How do people currently discover events, and what platforms or methods do they rely on?
What are the most common frustrations with existing event apps or planning tools?
What functionalities would make event discovery and social planning seamless and enjoyable?

Business Perspective

What are the biggest challenges in promoting events and attracting attendees?
What marketing channels and tools do businesses currently use, and how effective are they?
What technological solutions do event organizers need to better manage planning, ticketing, and audience engagement?
How can a platform help businesses increase visibility while aligning with users' needs and behaviors?

The main objectives of this research were:

Understand User Behavior & Needs – What drives people to attend events, and how do they currently discover and organize their outings?
Identify Pain Points in Social Coordination – What makes it difficult for users to plan events with friends, and how can an app facilitate this process?
Evaluate Existing Event Discovery Solutions – Why have previous event applications struggled with adoption, and what key gaps can we address?
Analyze Business Challenges – What are the struggles of businesses in promoting events, and how can a platform help them connect with the right audience?
Define Key Features for an MVP – What are the most impactful features that would enhance both user experience and business engagement?

1.Desk Research: Understanding the Market and User Behavior

The research started with a review of existing studies on cultural consumption in Bucharest to gain insights into:

Event attendance habits: Frequency, types of events, and motivations for participation.
Challenges in existing event apps: Why previous attempts to build event-based platforms struggled with user adoption.
Market gaps: Identifying what was missing from current solutions.

Additionally, case studies of past event applications were analyzed to understand common mistakes in implementation and adoption.

Key Findings from Users:

Motivations: Users decide to go out based on proximity, time, cost, availability of friends, and personal preferences.
Needs: A platform that centralizes event discovery, simplifies sharing, and helps with social coordination.
Preferences: Users engage in outdoor activities, cultural events, and social outings in familiar or highly-rated places.
Pain Points: Difficulty in coordinating with friends, fragmented information, and lack of an easy event planning tool.

Key Findings from Businesses:

Challenges: Difficulty in promoting events effectively and reaching the right audience.
Technology limitations: Existing advertising tools lack customization and engagement features.
Needs: A targeted event promotion tool with better visibility and integration into users’ social planning.

2. User & Business Interviews: Identifying Needs and Pain Points

To collect qualitative insights, 17 user interviews and several business interviews were conducted.

3.Defining the MVP:
Core Functionalities

Based on the insights, the MVP was structured around solving key pain points while keeping the product simple and effective.

Essential Features for MVP:

Event Discovery: A centralized list of events with filters based on location, type, and time.
Friend Coordination: Ability to invite friends, check availability, and plan together.
Interactive Map: Displaying events in proximity and friend check-ins.
Booking & RSVP: Easy confirmation for events and ticket purchasing (if needed).
Chat Integration: Group discussions to plan events efficiently.
Personalized Recommendations: Event suggestions based on user preferences and past behavior.
Notifications & Reminders: Timely updates on upcoming events and plans with friends.

These features were prioritized to create a minimum but impactful experience, allowing for quick testing and validation.

To ensure a seamless user journey, a User Flow Chart was developed, outlining the steps a user takes from onboarding to event discovery, planning, and attending.

Following this, wireframes were created for key screens, focusing on:

Simplifying navigation: Ensuring a logical and intuitive experience.
Reducing friction: Minimizing steps for event discovery and planning.
Visual clarity: Structuring information for easy readability and engagement.

The wireframing phase helped identify usability challenges early, allowing for iteration before moving to high-fidelity design.

4. User Flow Chart & Wireframing: Structuring the Experience.

User-centric design is crucial: The app should prioritize simplicity, keeping the user’s journey smooth and intuitive.
Social coordination is the biggest gap: Users struggle the most with organizing plans rather than finding events.
Personalization will increase engagement: Smart recommendations based on preferences will make the app more useful.
Businesses need better event promotion: A targeted advertising tool will help event organizers reach the right audience.

5.Key Takeaways & Next Steps

What's next?

Next Steps:

Develop high-fidelity designs incorporating the wireframe insights.
Prototype & test with users to validate assumptions before development.
Refine MVP features based on user feedback and prepare for a pilot launch.
This research provides a strong foundation for building an event application that is user-friendly, solves real problems, and has a clear market demand.

UX principles applied:

The foundation of this research was built upon core UX design principles:

User-Centered Design (UCD) – Prioritizing user needs at every stage.
Iterative Design – Refining concepts based on continuous feedback.
Simplicity & Usability – Reducing friction in event discovery and planning.
Social Integration – Addressing group dynamics and coordination.
Personalization – Enhancing engagement through tailored recommendations.

Methods used:

To ensure a data-driven approach, we employed a mix of qualitative and quantitative research:

Desk Research → Understanding market trends, past event app failures, and cultural consumption patterns.
User Interviews (17 participants) → Exploring behaviors, pain points, and motivations.
Business Interviews → Identifying event organizers' challenges and needs.
Competitive Analysis → Evaluating existing solutions and identifying market gaps.

01.

Desk Research - Map the Knows and the Unknown

The goal of the study was to gather as much information as possible about events in Bucharest and understand the challenges in implementing event-focused applications. We aimed to uncover why previous event platforms might have failed and identify the underlying mistakes in their implementation. Additionally, the research sought to explore the most popular types of cultural events, helping us better understand the interests and preferences of the local population.

To gain insights into cultural consumption in Bucharest, we referenced a cultural consumption study from 2016. This study provided valuable data on the local population’s interests and behaviors regarding cultural activities. It helped us identify key trends and areas where the city’s residents were most engaged.

We also conducted case studies to analyze past event application failures. These case studies focused on identifying design flaws, user experience issues, and operational shortcomings that contributed to the lack of success in previous attempts to implement similar platforms.

02.

Users & business

1. Approach Overview: After completing the desk research, we decided to approach the development of the application in parallel by focusing on two key aspects: the User Experience and the Business Perspective. This dual approach will allow us to gain a holistic understanding of the needs and challenges from both the end-users and the businesses involved in hosting and promoting events.

2. User Perspective: For the user side, we created a set of questions aimed at understanding the pain points, needs, and expectations regarding cultural events in Bucharest. This will help us gather insights into their preferences, behaviors, and what might make an event discovery platform more appealing and useful.

User Interviews:

The user interviews aimed to uncover the habits, preferences, and pain points related to event discovery and social activities in Bucharest. By asking a series of targeted questions, we gathered valuable information about how people plan their social outings, how they prefer to organize activities with friends, and how current solutions fail to meet their needs.

Key Insights from User Questions:

Social Activity and Event Preferences:
- Users tend to engage in social activities with friends, with a preference for either spontaneous outings or planned events, depending on the situation.
- The choice of activities is often influenced by factors such as convenience (proximity to home or work) and recommendations from friends or social media.
- Weekend activities are more structured, with users generally preferring group outings. The main difficulty arises in organizing these events, particularly in coordinating schedules with friends and finding suitable places.
Challenges with Existing Event Apps:
- Users find it difficult to discover events or venues through current platforms, often feeling overwhelmed by the number of choices or frustrated by the lack of useful filters and recommendations.
- Many users expressed dissatisfaction with the apps they use, noting that the user interface is either unintuitive or doesn’t include all the features they need, such as the ability to easily coordinate with friends or see personalized event suggestions.
Ideal Experience and Features for an App:
- The ideal app would make event discovery easy, integrate social planning features (like inviting and coordinating with friends), and provide real-time updates or notifications about events of interest.
- Users would appreciate an app that streamlines the process from discovering events to actually meeting up with friends at the venue, with clear guidance on location, timings, and ticket availability.

Business Interviews: Insights & Focus

On the business side, the interviews with event organizers and venue managers focused on understanding their current challenges with event promotion, user engagement, and the tools they use to manage events. The insights gathered will help inform how our app can offer real value to businesses, addressing their pain points and providing solutions that align with their needs.

Key Insights from Business Questions:

Event Organization and Promotion:
- Businesses face significant challenges in promoting events effectively to reach a larger audience. Many currently use a combination of social media, email marketing, and word of mouth to promote events, but they struggle with audience targeting and engagement.
- The most common tools for managing events are general event platforms (e.g., Eventbrite), but businesses report that these tools don’t always offer the level of customization or integration they need.
Technological and Software Challenges:
- Event organizers often face difficulties with existing software, particularly around ticketing and event registration. Some tools lack flexibility or fail to provide the necessary analytics to help businesses track attendee behavior or engagement.
- A key pain point is the difficulty in aligning event promotion with ticket sales and participant engagement, making it harder to measure the success of campaigns or optimize for future events.
Desired Features for an Event Platform:
- Businesses are interested in platforms that offer better integration with social media for event promotion, tools for audience segmentation, and more customizable ticketing systems.
- The ability to gain detailed analytics on event performance and user engagement is a top priority. Businesses also desire a more streamlined process for building and managing their brand identity online.
Long-Term Business Goals and the Role of Digital Platforms:
- Businesses want digital platforms to play a larger role in the long-term growth of their brand, helping them not only promote events but also build an engaged community of attendees who can be easily targeted for future events.

03.

User Insights Synthesis & Affinity Diagram

After conducting 17 interviews, we analyzed and grouped the responses into several categories to identify recurring themes and insights. The findings were divided into four main categories: Motivation, User Needs, User Preferences, and Pain Points.

Motivation

Users are driven by:

Need for movement: Staying active and engaged in sports or activities.
Proximity: Closer events are more appealing.
Time: Availability during free time or weekends.
Cost: Affordable events attract more participants.
Friend availability: Socializing with friends is a key motivator.
Personal availability: Users prioritize their personal schedules.
Personal preferences & recommendations: Influenced by interests and recommendations

User Needs

Key functional features users want:

Open circles: Ability to join or create social groups.
Personal preferences: Tailored recommendations based on tastes.
Centralized event info: One platform to find all events.
Shareability: Easy sharing of event details with friends.
Time management: Tools for scheduling and reminders.
Map: Visual location of events.
Recommendations: Personalized event suggestions.
Social outings: Easy planning for group events.
Friend map: Coordination with friends on locations.

Users Preferences

Pain Points

Preferred activities:

Outdoor activities: Relaxing, nature breaks, and sports.
Safe choices: Familiar places, home gatherings, and board games.
Cultural activities: Concerts, theater, workshops, and nightlife.
Hospitality: Dining out and visiting restaurants/bars.

Challenges faced by users:

My and my friends' availability: Difficulty coordinating schedules.
Organization: Hassles with planning and logistics.
Information about outings: Lack of clear event details.
Chat groups: Fragmented communication leading to confusion.

04.

Defining the functionality

After gathering all these insights, we were able to define the key functionalities and determine the features for a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that we could begin developing.

The MVP will focus on solving the core user needs and addressing the primary pain points while ensuring the app remains simple and efficient. The selected features will align with the most essential aspects of user motivation and preferences.

Key Functionalities for the MVP:

Event Discovery:
- Centralized event listings with filters based on location, type of event, and time.
- Personalized recommendations based on user preferences.
Friend Coordination:
- Ability to create and share events with friends.
- Integration with social media or contacts to easily invite and coordinate with friends.
Map Feature:
- Display event locations on a map, showing proximity to the user’s current location or preferred areas.
Scheduling & Time Management:
- Tools for users to check event schedules, set reminders, and coordinate with friends’ availability.
Social Engagement:
- A simple chat feature for coordinating plans within the app.
- Group event creation and sharing options for easy collaboration.
User Profiles & Preferences:
- Allow users to set preferences for activities they enjoy (e.g., sports, cultural events, outdoor activities) to receive personalized recommendations.
Event Information:
- Clear, easy-to-access event details, including pricing, timing, venue, and availability.

By focusing on these core features, we can create an MVP that addresses the most pressing needs of users while staying simple enough to launch and gather feedback for future improvements. This approach will allow us to test the app’s viability with real users and iterate quickly based on their feedback.

05.

User flow Chart

After defining the functionalities for the MVP, the next step was to create the User Flow Chart. The User Flow Chart visually represents the steps a user would take within the app to complete a specific task or achieve a goal. It helps to map out the entire user experience, from the moment they open the app to when they complete an action, ensuring that the process is seamless and intuitive.

06.

Wireframing

After defining the User Flow Chart, the next step in the design process is wireframing. Wireframes are basic, low-fidelity representations of the app's layout, showing the structure of each screen without focusing on design details like colors, typography, or images. They help to visualize how the app’s features will be arranged and how users will interact with them.

Here’s an overview of the wireframing process for your app:

Conclusions:

Clear Understanding of User Needs and Motivation:

Through desk research and user interviews, we gained valuable insights into the motivations, needs, and preferences of the target users. We identified:

Motivation is driven by convenience (proximity, time), social factors (friend availability, recommendations), and personal preferences (activity types).
User needs revolve around discovering events easily, organizing social outings, and having a seamless, intuitive experience when planning with friends.
User preferences are diverse, with strong interest in outdoor activities, cultural events, safe environments, and socializing at familiar locations.
Pain points were clear, particularly around organizing events, availability coordination, and fragmented information across platforms.

User Flow Chart and Wireframing Validation:

The User Flow Chart helped visualize the seamless journey users would take through the app. This process allowed us to:

Identify key touchpoints in the user journey and prioritize features that users will interact with most frequently.
Clarify the structure of the app, ensuring each screen serves a clear purpose and leads to the next action, minimizing unnecessary steps or friction.

Creating wireframes for core screens of the app helped translate the user flow into visual structures, allowing us to:

Validate the layout: Ensure each screen is intuitive and users can easily navigate between sections.
Iterate quickly on designs, refining interactions and UI components before moving to high-fidelity design and development.
Spot potential issues early: Wireframes provided an opportunity to spot any usability challenges or complex flows before the development phase.

Defined MVP Features:

Based on user insights, we were able to define an MVP that targets core user needs while being simple and efficient. The key features for the MVP include:

Event discovery and personalized recommendations.
Friend coordination and social group management.
Location-based maps, event booking, and RSVP functionalities.
Chat for coordinating plans and reminders for upcoming events. This MVP ensures that users can easily find, plan, and share events, addressing both their motivations and pain points.

Design Iteration and Future Development:

The process of defining the MVP, creating user flows, and wireframing has set a solid foundation for future development. Moving forward:

The next step is high-fidelity design, which will incorporate visual elements, branding, and more interactive elements to enhance the user experience.
We plan to use feedback from user testing to iterate on the MVP features and improve them.
It's essential to remain flexible and adapt the design as we gather real-world user data during the app's testing and usage phases.

Focus on Simplicity and User-Centered Design:

A key takeaway from this process is the importance of keeping the app simple and user-centered. The app should:

Address users’ core needs without overwhelming them with unnecessary features.
Prioritize ease of navigation, with quick access to events, friends, and social coordination.
Ensure that the app is intuitive, minimizing the learning curve and encouraging regular usage.