Hangtime
Spontaneous Hangout Planning App
OVERVIEW
Hangtime is a hypothetical mobile app that empowers friends and acquaintances to hang out spontaneously by cutting down on the many frictions of coordination.
TOOLS
Figma, Miro
CONTEXT
"But there're so many scheduling apps already?"
My friends and I always talk about being able to hang out more, especially spontaneously, which led me to examine the tools we have to make it happen.
Problem Space
I interviewed some friends to both validate the problem and record their thoughts on the source of the issue.
I also assessed competitors' abilities to solve the problem adequately.
Summary
For people planning, spontaneous hangouts require too much work.
For people joining, spontaneous hangouts take work to discover.
Mainstream apps don't close the gaps for either group.
Interview Insights
There are generally two types of people when it comes to getting hangouts going: planners and joiners.
For planners, a lot of communication and guesswork goes into finding out who might be free, what people might be interested in, and where they are.
For joiners, in unexpected blocks of free time, it's difficult to figure out who might be free or who might already be hanging out.
Gmail requires users to share full calendars or create a custom calendar, both of which require too much effort or commitment for one-off hangs.
Facebook Events also requires a disproportionate amount of effort for a quick hang. Moreover, the platform has lost its social cachet.
GOALS
North stars for a successful design
Taking cues from the problem space, I oriented my process around three major goals.
1
Creating a platform to reduce the guess-work and communication needed
2
Maximizing discovery for people to figure out who’s free and what they’re interested in
3
Utilizing minimal UI/UX to potentially avoid any additional load from using the app itself
PROCESS
Zoning in on a solve
To focus my approach a bit more, I spent some time considering:
Types of users and their goals
Ideas of what an ideal platform would look like
Types of Users
Planner
Goals
Create an event that friends will enjoy
Keep track of who can come
Communicate with joiners
Avoid wasting effort
Joiner
Goals
Figure out who's hanging
Join a group doing what I'd enjoy
Communicate with other joiners and the planner
Brainstormed Ideas to Guide Design
Because planning and scheduling are oft-visited problems, I used a reverse brainstorming method to think outside the box, leading to the identification of these core ideas:
Central hangout board where all one's friends' hangouts can be seen
Brief summaries of hangout details
Easy and quick event creation
Solution Flow
Directed by the brainstorm, I charted out a simple UX flow for both sets of users.
INITAL ITERATIONS
Finding the app's identity and core functions
Given the solution's relative simplicity, I prioritized finding pleasing aesthetics and interesting core interactions, leading me to iterate quickly on mid-to-high fidelity mock-ups.
Feedback from users and design mentors were invaluable in this process.
PIVOT
Going back to the drawing board
In addition to the feedback above, after a couple of iterations, I and a couple of potential users noticed that the UX still lacked suitable tools for joiners to express what they're interested in doing and make lives easier for planners,
I took the opportunity to revisit the user journeys for a fuller solution.
Revised Solution Flow
A tab for signaled interests was added to better solve for the needs of joiners who don't find anything they're up for on the initial Hangouts Tab.
SOLUTIONS
Fifth time's the charm
Taking some time to digest design feedback fully and armed with the fresh perspective of the pivot, I tried my hand at a fifth version of app designs and created the following user journeys:
Easy & Quick Discovery
Joiners can scroll through and discover open hangouts for the day. After joining, they will gain access to that hangout's chat for additional coordination,
Signaling Interest for Activities
Joiners also have a couple of options to express interest for specific activities if none of the available hangs are enticing.
They could drop into Interest Groups.
Or they can express interest for an activity not listed yet.
Simple & Quick Event Creation
Planners, on the other hand, can create events, add brief snippets of details, and get their hangout out there quickly for people to see.
More Informed Event Creation
On the Signals Tab, planners can also leverage information to make quick events that are more likely to gain attendees.
Widgets for Additional Discovery
With discovery being a central component of hangout success, I thought that widgets would serve as a great tool for users to reach their social goals.
Users can either use the full widget for a more complete picture of the day's hangs.
Or get an abbreviated summary with the compact option.
KPIs & PROFITABILITY
What would success look like?
While growth metrics will undoubtedly constitute most of the potential app’s KPIs and be fairly clear, as a service without any direct purchases, the path to profitability will be more vague, making revenue-related KPIs also unclear for now.
User Growth & Retention
As the app is social in nature, installs and registrations will be paramount to its success.
Retention metrics monitoring engagement after 7-day and 30-day windows as secondary KPIs will also help signal the robustness of user growth.
Future Revenue KPIs
While monetization methods have yet to be decided, there will no doubt be specific KPIs tied to whatever form they end up taking.
It will be important to monitor these KPIs to move towards a state of financial sustainability.
RISKS & MITIGATIONS
Potential roadblocks to success
Some risks include:
Difficulty of User Acquisition
As for all apps, acquisition is difficult
Need to account for a sizable marketing budget and leverage potential partnerships with social platforms
Unclear Path to Profitability
The core experience requires no purchases and doesn't fit easily with monetization
Could explore bonus features to provide avenues for monetization
REFLECTIONS
Second round of learnings
While working on this second case study, some learnings have begun to crystallize.
Values and goals help navigate tradeoffs.
While working on this case study, there were many decisions about what to include or exclude where I felt stumped for a good while. Returning to the goals in those situations helped me to work through them and settle on a decision confidently.
Leverage product considerations for inspiration.
When faced with walls halting progress, I returned to the core of the product and what needs from the user really required solving. Considering how to solve needs in delightful ways provided further direction.