Partiful Series
Multi-Event Planning Feature
OVERVIEW
Partiful is an event planning app that allows users to plan events in seconds and enables hosts to keep prospective invitees updated.
Series is a speculative feature that would enable hosts to plan and manage multi-event or multi-day gatherings.
TOOLS
Figma, Miro
CONTEXT
Why Partiful falls short
Through conversations with Partiful users who plan and attend many events, I've found that Partiful does a great job when one needs to plan a one-off event.
However, it doesn't provide any features to eliminate the friction of planning multiple events that are tied together in theme.
Problem Space
In-depth interviews with users that plan and join multiple events at a time revealed a good deal of potential for quality of life improvements within the Partiful experience.
Interviewees tended to settle into three main clusters of users.
Summary
For event planners, organizing multiple events that are connected forces you to go from end to end multiple times.
For potential attendees, they must also go from end to end in the RSVP process multiple times.
A feature tying multiple events together for easier creation and RSVPs would also provide a platform for additional features.
Cluster 1 — The Multi-Event Pre-Planner
This type of Partiful user tends to plan multiple get-togethers within a fairly short time-frame for occasions such as birthdays and music festivals.
Given Partiful's current set-up, they need to navigate the end-to-end flow shown below multiple times.
Home
Create Event
Publish
Send Invites
Check Home
Manage Event
Cluster 2 — The Multi-Event Attendee
Users that receive invites to these multi-events need to be able to keep track of multiple invites and which events they've already RSVP'd to.
Receive Invite Text
Click Into Event
Browse Event Details
Check Event
Cluster 3 — The Event Iterator
These users iterate on or continue previously planned events.
Partiful's discovery and management could be greatly improved for multi-events.
These users also saw a lot of potential in a multi-event creation tool.
GOALS
Building a solution within constraints
In an effort to solve the problem while building on top of Partiful's existing UX, I've set the following goals:
1
Make life easier for hosts by reducing the work needed to create multiple events that are tied together
2
Limit the confusion and work surrounding responding to multiple invites for potential attendees
3
Work within the existing event creation flow to minimize the friction of learning a new feature for users
PROCESS
Setting up my design scaffolding
Three major steps buoyed my approach:
Re-examine Partiful's existing UX flow
Identify who I'm solving for
Identify needs and solutions
Existing UX Flows
Types of Users
Pre-Planner
Goals
Create multiple events quickly
Manage them easily
Make invites simple for guests
Event Iterator
Goals
Tie events together
Build upon or continue events
Quick and easy creation
Easy Management
Attendee
Goals
Get details to all available events quickly
Easy tracking of RSVPs
Ideal Flows Visualized
WIREFRAMES
How would a solution fit into UX flows?
Through creating some lo-fi mock-ups, I was better able to scope out the required design work for this hypothetical feature.
One fortunate learning was that fewer screens would be needed than initially thought.
SOLUTIONS
Simulating solutions with new designs
Trying my best to stick to Partiful's established visual identity and design systems, I created prototypes of each flow shown above.
Creating a Series from Scratch
Planning multiple events in one go
Iterating on a Previous Event
Tying past events or series to new events or series
Creating a Series from an Old Event
Adding a New Event to an Old Series
RSVPing All in One Place
Receiving an invite to a series and browsing options
NEXT STEPS
What I would do to improve it
With more time, I would focus my efforts in these areas:
Additional User Testing
I'd love to get these solutions in front of other potential users to gather more feedback and iterate further.
Additive Features
Additional loyalty features akin to cafe stamp cards would allow users to actualize a good deal of potential incremental value from the creation of the Series feature.
REFLECTIONS
Novel learnings from novel methods
For this project, I both switched up my approach and tried something new in designing for an existing product.
Designing within constraints has its definite pros and cons.
While it required more careful planning to build a new feature within an existing app, it also required less effort in making choices around the visual identity and tone of the app.
Documentation is incredibly key to both scalability and communication.
Both of my previous case studies had less documentation, which did save me some work. However, with my process outlined clearly with the additional documentation, I am better equipped to both build on this project and to communicate it to anyone interested.