Enthusiast
Helping people make sustained connections with like-minded people through in-person events.
Role
Sole Designer and Researcher
Timeline
December 2022 - February 2023
Tool
Figma
The Challenge
People feel lonely and dissatisfied with their social life.
Almost anyone can agree that having strong friendships is crucial for their wellbeing. However, evidence shows that people are increasingly feeling lonely. They crave deep social connections but find it challenging to make friends as adults. Making friends requires people to put themselves out there, which can be overwhelming for those with social anxiety.
How can we help users develop meaningful and sustained connections with like-minded people through in-person events?
Solution: The Enthusiast App
Enthusiast encourages users to meet like-minded people through in-person events and maintain these relationships after the initial interaction.
Discover events that match your interests
Select your interests and join groups during onboarding to receive relevant recommendations for events. On the explore page, you can browse the recommended events or use the search feature to find one to attend.
Once you find an event that captures your interest, you can join the group that’s hosting it and then register for it. You can invite a friend to go with you so that you feel more motivated to attend.
Get acquainted with other group members before the event
Each group has their own group channels where members can chat with each other. Joining these conversations, or even just reading other people’s messages, can help you feel more acquainted with the group, which can help you feel less anxious about attending the event.
After you attend an event, it’s easy to lose touch with the people that you met. The day after the event, the app will prompt you to connect with other event attendees. You can send a friendly message to build rapport. Since groups host recurring events, you have the opportunity to see each other again.
Discovery Research
Learning from Competitors
Here are my main takeaways:
Have users select their interests during onboarding so that the recommended events are tailored to their interests.
Allow users to add people as friends on the app so that they can see what events their connections are going to and invite them to events.
Have users join groups that host recurring events so that they can interact with the same people again.
Allow users to message people.
Learning from Users
I conducted user interviews with five participants who had all recently moved to a new city. My goal was to understand how they felt about their social life, how they went about making friends, and what role events played in facilitating connections. It was illuminating to hear about their successes, hopes, and frustrations.
Initial Observations About Participants
They want to make new friends and expand their social circle.
Qualities they value in friends: shared values and interests, empathy, kindness, vulnerability.
They’ve all felt dissatisfied (either currently or in the past) with their social life because they didn’t have a lot of close friends nearby and found it difficult to make new friends.
They like exploring different interests and find value in doing activities with other people rather than by themselves.
Research Synthesis
Insights from Research
Creating an affinity map helped me identify patterns across my user interview data and gain a deeper understanding of the user that I would be designing for. This is what I found:
How people make friends
Becoming friends with someone requires making the initial connection and then building a deeper connection. Deepening a connection requires:
Frequent and repeated interactions
Having the intention to become friends
"Doing things together or meeting each other frequently is a really huge catalyst for friendship."
Why people find it challenging to make friends
Introverted personality
No opportunities for frequent repeated interactions
Don’t have like-minded people around them.
Interactions have to be deliberately organized.
Asking someone to hang out feels awkward. Fear of rejection.
What motivates people to attend events?
People attend events because they want to meet like-minded people, deepen their existing connections, or explore their interests.
Having similar interests, values, and life experiences speeds up the friend-making process because it allows people to relate to each other.
People are encouraged to attend an event when there's an opportunity to meet people who share their interest or they know someone who is attending.
“I love my husband's friends but I need to branch out on my own and meet people with like-minded interests.”
What discourages people from attending?
They don't know anyone else who is attending.
They don't think they can relate to the other attendees.
“The main reason why I don't go to those meet ups is just not having a single person that I know. It's like a total group of strangers.”
What makes it more likely for people to make friends from an event?
The event repeats regularly with the same people attending and if attendees get to have natural interactions with each other.
The attendees get to have natural interactions with each other.
From my research, I discovered that introverted users struggle the most with making new friends.
Creating a persona allowed me to focus on designing around the user's needs, goals, and pain points.
Kara: The Socially Awkward Introvert
“I've always wanted to put myself out there since I've gotten to Atlanta. But I'm very introverted. I have a very difficult time.”
Goals
Make new friends in her city and expand her social circle.
Explore different interests.
Connect with people with similar interests and values.
Deepen and maintain relationships after the initial meet up.
Have frequent social interactions
Pain Points
It's difficult to maintain the relationships after the initial meet up.
Doesn't have opportunities for frequent repeated interactions.
Doesn't have people around her that she can relate to.
Feels awkward initiating conversations and hang outs.
Feels anxious about attending an event where she doesn't know anyone.
Needs
Opportunity to meet like-minded people in real life.
Overcome anxiety and feel more motivated to attend the event.
Maintain the connection after the initial meet up.
Design Challenge
Help users discover events in their area where they can meet like-minded people?
Reduce the anxiety and uncertainty that users may feel about attending the event?
Encourage users to build deeper relationships with new connections after the event?
Ideation
Having defined the user needs, it was time for me to translate them into a design solution.
User Need
Solution Feature
Opportunity to meet like-minded people in real life.
A way to find events in their area that match their interests and are conducive to making genuine connections.
Overcome anxiety and feel more motivated to attend the event.
A way to invite their friends to attend with them and a way to get familiarized with the host/attendees prior to the event.
Maintain the connection after the initial meet up.
A way to message people that you met at the event and an opportunity to see them again in the future.
I created user flows to map out the sequence of actions that the user would take when interacting with this solution.
Flow 1: Complete onboarding to receive relevant recommendations
During onboarding, users can 1) select their interests to receive recommended events curated to their interests and 2) add their contacts to see what events their friends are going to.
Flow 2: Find an event and register for it
Users can find an event by browsing the recommended events or using the search feature. After deciding on an event, they can register for it and invite their friends to attend with them.
Flow 3: Engage with people on the app
Users can join a group to keep up with the group's events and participate in the group chat. After they attend the event, they can connect with the people that they met and send them a message.
Designing in Low Fidelity
Sketching allowed me to explore different possibilities for what a solution could look like. I incorporated useful features from existing event apps while thinking about where they fell short of meeting users' needs. Then I turned the sketches into wireframes to validate the design with potential users.
Knowing that two of the user pain points are 1) feeling discouraged to attend the event and 2) losing the connection after the initial meet up, I wanted to have users join groups that host reoccurring events and engage with other members through a group chat.
Usability Testing Round 1
Conducting usability testing with 5 participants allowed me to uncover some usability issues with the wireframes before moving on to high-fidelity screens. After testing, I reiterated the designs in high-fidelity and attempted to fix the usability issues that were identified during testing.
Finding #1: The group chats section does not look interactive
Most participants struggled to complete the task of introducing themselves to the group members. They didn't think that the group chats (#Announcements, etc.) could be clicked on. Not having the group chats appear interactive would prevent users from conversing with each other.
Change: I redesigned the individual chats to look like buttons that can be clicked on, which would encourage users to explore them.
Before
After
I redesigned the group chats to look more interactive.
Finding #2: Inconsistent word choice
The words “friend” and “follow/following” were both used to describe the feature of connecting with people on on the app, which creates ambiguity.
Change: I decided to stick with “friend” and eliminate “follow” because friend implies a reciprocal relationship whereas follow is one sided. To add someone as a friend, the user would "connect" with them.
Before
Some screens used the word "friends" while others used "follow" or "following."
After
I decided to stick with "friend" and eliminate "follow."
Usability Testing Round 2
With the reiterated designs, I conducted another round of usability testing to uncover more usability issues.
Finding #1: Users are not encouraged to interact with other group members
One participant said that he wouldn’t feel inclined to participate in the group chats because they look like a place for the host to share information rather than a place for group members to chat. He didn't notice the instruction “Click on any of the chats below to begin chatting."
Change: After the user joins a group, they will receive a welcome message in the Inbox from the group. This message orients the user to the group and prompts them to visit the group chats, which would encourage them to interact with other group members.
Before
After
Once the user joins the group, they will receive a welcome message prompting them to check out the group chats.
Finding #2: The flow for finding someone that you met at an event doesn't make sense
In the original flow, the user had to go to the group members list to find someone that they met at an event, which didn’t make sense because not all group members would have attended the event. One user mentioned that he wouldn’t feel inclined to reach out to someone on the app.
Change: I redesigned the flow so that on the day after the event, the user will receive a pop up window asking if they attended the event. If the answer is yes, they will be asked if they want to connect with other event attendees. Clicking on “See Who Went” will take them to the attendees list where they can search for the person that they want to connect with. Prompting the user to connect with attendees would make it more likely for them to do so.
Before
After
The day after the event, the user will receive a pop up window asking if they want to connect with anyone from the event.
Clicking on "See Who Went" brings the user to the Event Attendees list where they can search for someone that they want to connect with.
Finding #3: Registering for an event and joining a group should feel more intentional
Some participants believed that allowing anyone to register for an event regardless of whether or not they’re in the group makes the registration feel less intentional and doesn’t give the user a strong reason to join the group. Similarly, allowing anyone to join a group with the click of a button makes the group feel less of an intentional community.
Change: I redesigned the flow so that the user has to join the group before they can register for the event. Before the user can join the group, they have to fill out a questionnaire from the group. After the user submits the questionnaire, the group host will review the answers. Once the user is admitted to the group, they will receive a notification and a welcome message in their Inbox.
Before
After
The user has to join the group before they're able to register for the event. To join the group, the user has to fill out a questionnaire and be admitted by the host.
Final Solution Screens
Discover events that match your interests
Join a group and register for an event
Familiarize yourself with other group members before the event
Connect with an event attendee after the event
View Prototype in Figma
