Presentation for a UX design and development project authored by myself, Melissa Dryer and Joe Dara for H541 Interaction Design Practice, Fall 2015, in the graduate program in Human-Computer Interaction at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

1. Group G: Joe Dara, Melissa Dryer, Cori
Faklaris
An app to foster community
for young urbanites

2. What’s the problem that you looked at?
Community as a concept occupies a very important place for humans. All
humans have some form of community in their daily life, beginning with their
family. People find safety, comfort and entertainment in these community units.
Communities are created through both explicit and implicit triggers.
• The implicit triggers include proximity, interests, hobbies, etc.
• The explicit triggers include professional connections, activities, charity
events — generally: experiences.

3. Millennials: Fueling the Experience Economy (Eventbrite)
• “More than 3 in 4 (78%) would choose to spend money on a desirable
experience or event over buying something desirable.”
• “More than 8 in 10 (82%) attended or participated in a variety of live
experiences in the past year, ranging from parties, concerts, festivals,
performing arts and races and themed sports—and more so than other
older generations (70%).”
• “72% say they would like to increase their spending on experiences
rather than physical things in the next year, pointing to a move away from
materialism and a growing demand for real-life experiences.”
Source: http://eventbrite-s3.s3.amazonaws.com/marketing/Millennials_Research/Gen_PR_Final.pdf

4. Millennials: Fueling the Experience Economy (Eventbrite)
• “FOMO — Fear Of Missing Out — drives millennials’ experiential appetite:
Nearly 7 in 10 (69%) millennials experience FOMO. In a world where life
experiences are broadcasted across social media, the fear of missing out
drives millennials to show up, share and engage.”
• But “the demand for live experiences is happening across the generational
board. Since 1987, the share of consumer spending on live experiences
and events relative to total U.S. consumer spending increased 70%.
People want to experience more, and businesses are evolving and entering
the market to meet that demand.”
Source: http://eventbrite-s3.s3.amazonaws.com/marketing/Millennials_Research/Gen_PR_Final.pdf

5. Number of residents ages 20-39
in Indianapolis (Marion County)
Source: 2010 Demographic Profile Data, http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=bkmk
33.7
Median age in Indianapolis
252,068

6. Opportunity: Community for Young Urbanites
Based on the data from our interviews, people under 40 in Indianapolis are really
interested in participating in community events on a regular basis.
However, both participants and the organizers are facing certain logistical
barriers in building communities, that no one has yet solved definitively.
We are trying to solve the problems for
both participants and organizers (or
leaders) to promote community-building
among young urbanites.

7. Problems for Participants:
1. Difficulty in finding communities which
match their interests and constraints.
2. Difficulty in finding events from different
communities that are scattered around
various physical and digital locations.
3. Difficulty in choosing between
simultaneous or overlapping events.
<< Persona: Ericka, 22, “urban explorer”

8. Problems for Organizers:
1. Difficulty in informing participants
about the event.
2. Difficulty in publishing updates (like
time changes, location changes) about
the event to the participants.
3. Difficulty in coordinating logistics
(like location, volunteers, transport etc)
for an event.
Persona: Jake, 32, “urban tribalist” >>

9. We came up with four requirements:
1. Usability
2. Visual awareness
3. Logistics solution
4. Social/personal connectivity
This was based on the data from our interviews and observations, then identifying
similar concepts that we know would resonate with our personas.
Requirements to address the problems

10. Brainstorming - Narrowed from 30+ ideas

11. We propose this design solution: A community-building application that scales
across networked devices we use in our daily lives. This includes smartphones,
tablets, laptops and smart watches and even physical branding [Visual]. The
solution will be an easy and fun way for young urbanites to find events in their
community and help organize their own [Logistics, usability, social/personal].
The app would suggest communities and events tailored to user needs and
preferences, and friend connections. It takes the availability and the physical
location of the user into consideration.
It will also tie in “gamification” element via a rewards system for frequent use.
Solution: Multi-Modal Digital Application

12. How our system addresses the problem
Due to the ubiquity of this solution, the application reach is very broad and deep.
We see four key benefits:
 It benefits people who are searching for communities.
 It benefits the people who are trying to promote and organize their
communities.
 It cuts down on the stress involved with the logistics and time
constraints.
 It makes the whole process smooth and swift.

13. On her way from a business lunch,
she passes by Victory Field near
White River State Park. She has
already specified that she is an
avid sports fan who wants alerts
about sports, as opposed to other
activities in the area such as
concerts. The app alerts here to
the Indianapolis Indians game
taking place there that night, which
she then attends after work
Use case:
“Erika”

14. “Jake” is organizing a community
event to clean up a local park and
plant new flowers and shrubs. He
uses our app to create the event
and invite members. The app
already knows who are his friends
and who is interested in outdoor
help and gardening, which it
displays on screen for him to
choose. Enough people mark the
RSVP and show up to make the
event a success.
Use case:
“Jake”

15. Paper prototypes — Web

16. Paper prototypes — Web

17. Demo
for Web
Invision

18. Wireframes — Mobile

19. Interactive Prototype Link
Mobile Application — Mockups

20. Contextual Smartwatch Notifications

21. Results from preliminary usability evaluations
We asked our think-aloud evaluators to complete the following tasks: Sign In,
Create a profile, Choose Interests. We also gathered open-ended comments.
• One evaluator found a user issue with the introductory splash page for
Signup/Interest. The Friends button went to the Communities page, which he
found confusing.
Response: We removed the button. The rationale was that the user can go to the
Profile or to the Communities page to find their friends. However, a subsequent
evaluator didn’t know where to go to find her friends, which she felt was important
for the app. She suggested adding a Friends button to the interface!

22. Results from preliminary usability evaluations (cont’d)
• One evaluator found the original screen for choosing Interests confusing.
Response: We modified the interface to match what Foursquare uses, which is all
in one box. A subsequent evaluator found the modified Interest screen very usable
and user-friendly — her only issue was how to add more Interests.
• An evaluator who saw the high-fidelity prototypes suggested adding more
buttons and functionality. These include toggling to a List view to fit more
information on screen and adding a visible button on both platforms for
creating events. She loved the overall aesthetics and image-heavy design.
Response: We will consider her feedback for further improvements.

23. Other points of note (Scout Slides)
What were our two discarded solutions?
• Creating a line of clothing or other
wearables that could be custom-ordered by
organizers via an online brand and worn to
foster awareness of events.
• A punch-card rewards system tied in with
advertisement and promotion of events.
We decided the app was the solution that was the
most cost-effective and user-friendly. We are
incorporating rewards and physical branding into it.

24. Other points of note (Scout Slides)
How early in our research process did we start thinking about the solution?
We first thought of an app while digesting what interviewees said about their
needs — despite Facebook, Meetup etc., they struggle to discover and organize
communities and events. Then when we started brainstorming and grouping
concepts, we saw all the ideas/options that lay in a digital space.
What would we do differently if we had the chance?
• More users evaluating the product, and more evaluations.
• More prototypes. We saw a lot of design work left to do while in the midst of
doing the evaluations.The Agile process has appeal for this reason —
designers are constantly iterating while researchers gather feedback.

25. Thank you!
Questions?