Duration

Sep 2021 – Feb 2022

My Role

User Experience Designer

Kickback - A Social Event Planning App for College Students

Objective: Design an intuitive and engaging user interface for Kickback, a social app specifically designed to help college students organize and find social events on and around their campus. The app's goal is to streamline the event planning process and create a seamless experience for users to discover and attend events, fostering a stronger sense of community among students.

Challenges:

- Ensuring the app's design is both user-friendly and visually appealing to a college demographic.

- Incorporating a map-based navigation system that allows students to easily find events near them.

- Creating a registration system that limits access to students from the same university, ensuring a safe and exclusive community.

- Making the event creation process simple and straightforward while providing essential event details such as date, time, and location.

User Research

To kick off the design process, I conducted interviews and surveys with college students to understand their pain points in planning and attending social events. The research highlighted several key insights:

- Discoverability: Students wanted a simple way to find events happening on their campus without having to sift through multiple platforms or social media channels.

- Privacy: Participants expressed a need for privacy controls in event planning, allowing them to create private or invite-only events.

- Community Focus: Many students preferred an app that restricted access to their university community, fostering a safer and more connected environment.

Attributes
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Personalization
No personalization; one-size-fits-all content.
Limited personalization based on user preferences.
Highly personalized content tailored to individual learning styles, pace, and preferences.
Feedback Mechanism
Basic feedback on quiz scores.
Regular feedback on assessments and progress.
Detailed, real-time feedback with actionable insights for improvement.
Cost (monthly)
$4.99
$9.99
$14.99
Integration with Other Platforms
Limited integration with external tools.
Moderate integration with common learning management systems (Google Classroom, Microsoft Office)
Seamless integration with a wide range of educational platforms and tools (Google Classroom, Microsoft Office, Canvas)
...

Personas and User Flows

Based on the research, I developed two primary personas:

- Sarah, the Event Planner: A junior who frequently organizes study groups and social gatherings. She needs an easy way to create events and invite her classmates.

- Mohammed, the Event Seeker: A freshman looking to get involved in campus life. He needs a straightforward way to find and attend events that interest him. With these personas in mind, I mapped out the user flows for both event creation and event discovery, ensuring that the processes were intuitive and required minimal steps.

Wireframing

Wireframing

Understanding Customer Preferences for App Features:

Cost (Monthly Subscription): Average Importance: 34.46%

I began with low-fidelity wireframes to lay out the basic structure of the app. The key features included:

- Map-Based Navigation: A central map that displays all upcoming events on campus. Users can tap on event pins to view details and navigate to the event location.

- Event Creation Flow: A simplified process where users can quickly input event details such as name, date, time, location, and privacy settings.

- University-Based Registration: A registration system requiring users to sign up with their university email, ensuring that only students from the same university can access the pool of events.

Visual Design

Once the wireframes were tested and refined, I moved on to high-fidelity designs. The visual design was guided by the following principles:

- Vibrant and Youthful: The color scheme and typography were chosen to appeal to the youthful energy of college students, with a playful yet clean aesthetic.

- Intuitive Icons: Custom icons were designed to represent various actions, such as creating an event or navigating the map, making the interface easy to understand at a glance.

- Consistent Layout: The layout was kept consistent across all screens to ensure a smooth user experience, with clear hierarchies and easy-to-read text.

Prototyping and Testing

I developed an interactive prototype using Figma, allowing users to navigate through the app and test key functionalities, such as:

- Exploring Events on the Map:
Users could click on pins to view event details and see the exact location on campus.

- Creating an Event:
Test participants found it easy to create events, appreciating the streamlined process and the ability to set privacy options.

- Registration Process:
The university email verification step was well-received, as it ensured a sense of community and security. Feedback from usability testing was overwhelmingly positive, with students particularly praising the map feature and the app's overall ease of use.

Final Designs and Outcomes

The final design of Kickback successfully addresses the needs of college students looking to organize and attend social events. Key features include:

- Map-Based Event Discovery: The map allows users to easily find events nearby and get directions, making event discovery both fun and functional.

- Streamlined Event Creation: The simple and intuitive event creation process encourages more students to organize events, contributing to a more vibrant campus life.

- Secure Community: The university-based registration system ensures that only students from the same institution can access the event pool, fostering a safe and exclusive environment.

Conclusion

Kickback's design emphasizes user engagement and community building, offering a tailored solution to the unique needs of college students. The app's focus on simplicity, privacy, and ease of use ensures that it effectively meets its goal of enhancing social interactions on campus. This project not only showcases my ability to design user-friendly interfaces but also demonstrates my commitment to creating products that resonate with users and address real-world problems.

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