Social Hour
A UX case study served neat
Introduction
With so many bars in NYC, trying to choose which one to go to can be overwhelming. My team and I conducted user interviews in order to isolate the pain points people experienced while trying to choose places for a night out. We did user research and decided on a platform to design for. Finally, we designed our solution and tested it with a high-fidelity clickable prototype.
Challenge
Research users' nightlife habits to determine how people decide where to go for a night out and design a solution to make the process simpler and more enjoyable
Resources
Type: Redesign
Team: 3 UX designers
Timeline: 2 weeks
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Tools
User interviews
Usability testing
Screener surveys
Affinity mapping
Persona development
Wireframing
Prototyping
Stakeholder presentations
01 Research
To start, we sent out a screener survey to find out more about users' behaviors: how often they went out, what types of places they went, and what factors were most important to them.
Screener Survey
We sent a screener survey that garnered X responses in 1 day. It included questions about the participants' nightlife habits, including how often they went out for drinks and what their priorities were when choosing a place. The goal of the survey was to get a basic sense of what priorities people were factoring in when deciding on places for social activities. There were 4 main considerations.
Location
Cost
Friends
Activities
User Interviews
We interviewed 5 users of diverse backgrounds to find out more about how location, costs, amenities, and friends influence their nightlife choices.
Sample Questions
Tell us about a recent night out with friends.
How do you usually find out about bars/clubs to go to?
Are there any tools that you use to select where you go?
Insights
We learned that people liked to look at pictures of bars before going. They tended to use Google, Yelp, and social media for their searches and ratings/reviews were really important. They were frustrated when they couldn't find information on what was going on, activity-wise, at bars they were thinking of patronizing.
And the number one way that people learn about new bars is through word of mouth—recommendations from their friends specifically.
Users generally found out about bars by word of mouth from friends.
Users wanted other activities when they go out besides just drinking.
Users felt stressed about picking “the right bar” for groups of good friends.
People used Google Maps, Yelp, & Instagram to help them in their searches.
Users often had to call bars directly or use Eventbrite to find out activities
Competitive Matrix
We researched the business landscape by creating a competitive business matrix and downloading a lot of other apps to see what they did and didn't offer.
We knew that we wanted a narrow industry focus (just bars) and a high social engagement factor.
02 SYNTHESIS
Affinity Mapping
We placed all of our observations onto individual Post-its and created an affinity map in order to find patterns amongst our users. We came up with the following insights:
Consideration
"I consider my friends' preferences when choosing where to go."
Information
"I find and follow bars on social media to know about their upcoming events."
Advice
"I value my friends' recommendations
above other reviews."
Persona
After affinity mapping, we came up with the persona of Amanda, a Senior Graphic Designer living and working in New York City who represented our user.
Amanda Richardson
Senior Graphic Designer in Manhattan
"A night out with friends is the antidote to a stressful week."
SCENARIO
We created a scenario for Amanda in which she's making plans for a night out with several friends. We put together a journey map that highlighted Amanda's pain points when trying to pick a place that would appeal to her and her friends.
NEEDS
Bar with enough space to be comfortable
Good music but not too loud
Options for back-up bars nearby
Proximity to public transportation
Bars that offer activities besides drinking
GOALS
To plan a fun night out for her friends
To find good drinks at a reasonable price
To pick a place where no one has to travel too far
PAIN POINTS
Bars that are too crowded or completely empty
Irrelevant search results from apps/websites
Spending too much time searching for places to go
Not knowing the prices or drink menu ahead of time
Having to take into account all of her friends’ various preferences
BEHAVIORS
Goes out for drinks after work and on weekends
Goes to places that are recommended by her friends
Uses Yelp, Google Maps, and Social Media
Reads reviews and ratings sometimes to consider where to go
Journey Map
Problem Statement
When bar-goers choose an establishment for a night out, they must consider their preferences as well as the various preferences of their companions.
Amanda is overwhelmed with planning a night out for friends.
How might we help her narrow her search for a bar while making sure it matches her and her friends’ particular needs?
03 IDEATION & DESIGN
Social
Location
Social
Hour
Activities & Events
While Yelp and Google provided some information about locations, Eventbrite and Groupon covered activities and events. Instagram and texting allowed social interaction. But we wanted to be a combination of all three, right in the center.
Feature Prioritization
We used the MoSCoW mapping technique to decide which features would be included in our MVP.
MUST
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Location services
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Filter for bar genre, price, and events
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Recommend bars (public)
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Show bar menu, prices, and specials
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Share places with friends
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Bar rating system
SHOULD
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Indicate the crowd level of a bar
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Message with friends
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Favorite bars (private)
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Group voting on bars
COULD
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Show nearby subways
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Upload photos
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Calendar of events
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Notifications of upcoming events
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Filter by day
WON'T
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Auto plan night out based on preferences
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Track bartenders and their schedules
Platform
We decided that for our purposes, iOS app would be the way to go. If we were looking to create a global app, then Android would be better, but we were only focusing on North America. We decided to do an app as opposed to a mobile website because location services would allow us to better tailor our services to the needs of our users.
04 USER TESTING & RESULTS
First, we tested our app first as a lo-fi paper prototype, in order to save time before getting to the more fleshed out mid-fi iteration. In testing our paper version, we presented our users with 4 scenarios and tasks.
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Finding a bar with a certain activity in a particular NYC neighborhood
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Sharing that bar with friends in the app
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Voting on the bar amongst friends
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​Recommending and subsequently un-recommending the bar.
Our users were able to find a bar that met their criteria but had trouble sending the bar to friends. The results from lo-fi testing informed the changes we made when we progressed to the mid-fi stage, such as moving the airplane icon used to send bars to friends closer to the bar name instead of the upper right corner of the page
Mid-Fi Testing
We then put together a mid-fi prototype using Sketch wireframes and presented new users with the same 4 scenarios and tasks.
1. FIND/SHARE
Scenario: You work in the Flatiron District. Tonight you're meeting friends Ben and Amy for after-work drinks in Hell's Kitchen. You're not familiar with the neighborhood but you know that your friends really enjoy bar trivia.
Task: Using our app, choose a bar that meets your criteria and send it to Ben and Amy to see if they want to go there.
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Results: All users successfully sent the bar to their friends.
Users started off on the app's homepage, where they selected Hell's Kitchen after tapping Current Location
Once they found results for Hell's Kitchen, they used the activities filter to choose Trivia
After choosing a bar from the results, they were taken to a page featuring bar details
From the detail page, users were able to send the bar to friends using the airplane icon
2. RECOMMEND
Scenario: You’re having a great time out with Ben and Amy. The bar turned out to be a great find.
Task: Let your other friends know in the app this is a bar worth checking out.
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Results: All users chose the Recommend option, which was an improvement over our paper prototype, which just featured a thumbs-up icon instead of the full word Recommend.
3. VOTING
Scenario: You are going out with Alex and Tom this week. They weren’t sure what you were in the mood to do, so they sent you a couple of bars to look at and rate.
Task: Using the app, let Alex and Tom know if these bars would work for you.
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Results: Users were able to easily locate their messages and vote on the bars.
Starting at the app's home page, users selected the Friends icon in the sticky footer
In the Friends tab, users selected the unread message from Alex & Tom
After opening the message, the user finds 2 bars waiting for their vote, as well as a chat area
4. UNRECOMMEND
Scenario: You just got home from a bar you’ve been to many times before and have previously recommended on the app, but are not happy. This bar recently switched management and has been going downhill ever since.
Task: With the app, let your friends know this is not a bar you endorse anymore
From the homepage, users clicked on the Account icon in the footer.
This brought them to their account page, where they could select their Recommendations
They were presented with a list of bars that they had recommended
Swiping left on any of the bars revealed a delete button. This way, they couldn't accidentally delete a recommendation
Hi-Fi Prototype
05 NEXT STEPS
Because our app actually has two primary users, we still need to research the bar side—the people who would be updating the bar's events on a daily or weekly basis. We plan on creating a second persona and journey map after interviewing bar employees.
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We'd add a Quick View feature to bars being voted on and develop an onboarding process for people setting up thir accounts. We'd also like to add the ability for users to search for events by date, something that we feel would be important in the real-world application of the product.
Results: 3/4 users were successful in figuring out how to un-recommend a bar.