Celebright
Creating a mobile web app that helps parents plan children's parties and host memorable events that leave everyone smiling – not just the kids.
Project Type
Mobile Web App
Role
Time Frame
Approximately 75 Hours
Tools
Figma, OptimalSort, Google Forms, Octopus.do
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.
The Problem
78% of parents report feeling a lot of stress over their child's parties. What resources would make this easier?
Project Goals
1.
Identify and understand the needs of potential users. What kinds of resources would be helpful?
2.
Develop a user-friendly UI that allows parents to easily access tools and resources.
3.
Create branding and high-fidelity mockups to demonstrate a variety of typical user flows employing these tools and resources.
This was my first UX project and a learning experience from start to finish. It was completed in tandem with months of lessons on UX principles, research, design, and testing.
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.
Methods
Secondary Research into the event planning industry.
Competitive Analysis of event planning sites.
Interviews to understand user needs.
Key Takeaways
Analyzing Research Data
As I pulled important quotes from interviews, I used Affinity Mapping to visualize the data. Below, you'll see categorized responses concerning different "essential" party elements.
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.
Now that we know a good bit about the problem, it's time to start formulating a solution.
Defining the Big Questions…
…and the Main Features
Proposing solutions to these questions, I determined the following key features for the site:
User Account
PlanningTools
Vendor Search
Venue Search
Inspiration
But what does that look like, exactly?
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.
Branding
As I began working on the initial wireframes, I developed the branding and components I'd use for the High Fidelity Prototype.
Wireframes
Early Wireframe Iterations
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.
High Fidelity Wireframes
Prototype & Testing
Prototype Flows
The prototype allowed users to test three flows: the sign in/sign up process, the venue search, and the inspiration search.
User Testing Results
User testing was moderated and conducted in person. Along with providing general feedback, I asked participants to test the following task flows:
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 Priority
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 Priority
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.
