Celebright
Creating a mobile web app for a party planning site specifically for children.
Project Type
Mobile Web App
Role
Solo Project: Research, Branding, UX/UI Design, User Testing
Time Frame
Approximately 75 hours
Introduction
Background
Modern families have never been busier. Between school, sports, and a variety of other activities, children often attend multiple parties a year: birthdays, sports celebrations, seasonal events, and more. Sooner or later, most parents will find themselves responsible for organizing at least one of these events, but few parents have the time to research, plan, and host parties for their children, year after year – and these are often high-pressure occasions, with high expectations.
Celebright is a resource that guides them through the planning process, step by step, and connects them to vendors who can provide products and services to host memorable events that leave everyone smiling – not just the kids.
The Problem
78% of parents report feeling a lot of stress over their child's parties. What would make it easier?
Research Objectives
Understand the relative importance of children’s parties to families.
Understand the biggest points of stress for event organizers.
Determine what types of resources are most valuable for event organizers.
Determine what types of vendors/services are most utilized by event planners.
Research Methods
Secondary Research into the event planning industry.
Competitive Analysis of event planning sites.
Interviews to understand user needs.
Let's Meet the Grown-Ups: User Personas
Using information and opinions gathered throughout my preliminary research, I developed three distinct personas: the budget planner, the busy professional, and the party princess.
The Big Questions
How might we help parents navigate the various elements involved in planning and hosting parties for their children?
How might we help party planners find the local vendors and venues they need to host successful events?
How might we help budget-conscious parents plan parties that include all of their “party essentials”?
How might we help the parents who are guests at children’s parties feel welcome, comfortable, and well-informed about the events?
Affinity Mapping & Prioritization
Based on research and personas, key site features were identified through Affinity Mapping, sketching, and brainstorming.
I.A. & Site Map
Using a Card Sort with several participants, the Information Architecture of the site was developed, illustrated through the preliminary site map. Major categories include Planning Tools, Vendors, Venues, and Inspiration.
To assure the site map accounted for the needs of the likely user, I created a user flow considering "Brook's" journey as she searches for a local party venue.
Branding and Identity
After completing the initial wireframes, I began to consider the branding and components I'd use for the High Fidelity Prototype.
Next, I started working on the design, first with Low and Mid-Fidelity Wireframes, focusing on task flows for the Sign In/Sign up process, the Venue Search, and the Inspiration Search.
The prototype allowed users to test three flows: the sign in/sign up process, the venue search, and the inspiration search.
User Testing
Process
User testing was moderated and conducted in person. Along with providing general feedback, I asked participants to test the following task flows:
Create a new account using an email address.
Find a local venue for a dinosaur-themed party and contact them for more information.
Find ideas/inspiration/suggestions for throwing a Valentine’s-themed birthday party and save to favorites.
General Overview
Testers were overall complimentary about the colors, design, and branding.Testers felt the site was straightforward and easy-to-use.All testers were able to successfully complete tasks. Tasks, on average, took a minute or less.Overall, few testers made errors. They were able to easily recover from errors when they did happen.
Suggested Changes based on Testing
HIGH
Add a Picture Gallery on the theme detail pages
Add an Accordion function to areas with lots of text
Add a Terms & Condition checkbox and Password Confirmation text field on sign up page
Remove log-in/sign-up options on menu and replace with User Account
LOW
Add an additional contact/link button toward the top of the page on the venue/vendor pagesHave user icon become a picture or avatar once logged in
Reflection
I learned a great deal on this project — it was almost impossible not to, given that it was my first. Throughout this process, I sometimes felt like I had a difficult time seeing the bigger picture, and I occasionally struggled to make decisions when I wasn't entirely certain what the next steps would be, or what impact my decisions may have later. Nevertheless, I gained a tremendous amount of new skill, and while the process was long and occasionally awkward, I felt much more confident going into my next phase of learning and tackling new challenges.
