Event Planner | Case Study

Meet at once

Helping remote teams to organize event and foster relationship easier

I participated in the 2022 McMaster Design League UI/UX Designathon, where I teamed up with two designers to create an event planning app for remote teams. Over two days, we identified pain points and designed a solution to simplify event organization, taking our idea from concept to high-fidelity prototype.

Problem

Remote teams want to host events to build connections, but the planning experience is a hassle. How can we make this simpler and smoother for them?

Outcome

We designed a centralized event app to help employees organize events. Our solution was awarded with the first winner out of 300+ participants and received high praise from the judges.

Mobile design

Concept

Designathon 1st winner

Responsibility

UI/UX design, user research, prototyping

Team

3 designers

Timeline

31 hours, 2022

Problem statement

Help remote teams plan event with less effort

Remote teams value in-person events for building team connections during the pandemic, but planning them can be stressful. Coordination, communication, and tracking details all take time and effort. There’s a need for a simpler, more guided way to make event planning easier.

Jump to final Design

From scratch to hi-fi

in 31 hours

With limited time, we stayed mindful of our scope and design process, prioritizing only the most important issues and designing our solution around them.

8 hours — Exploratory Research

We analyzed 20+ Reddit posts and blogs and conducted 5 user interviews to gain insights into the event journey, stakeholders, and pain points.

9 hours — Ideation

We brainstormed ideas, mapped out user flows, and defined our design focus. I sketched the wireframes while my teammate explored design inspiration and set up a visual guide.

12 hours — High-fidelity Design

We builded design library, created high-fidelity mockups and prototypes, and put all together into the slide deck to present our final design to the judges.

Event planning

Journey & stakeholders

We conducted semi-structured interviews with 5 employees who had experience planning/attending events and mapped the journey and stakeholders based on the insights to better understand the overall experience.

Initial requirement is decided by manager & HR.

Budget, rough date, and event goal is often set by the manager or HR team to set the rough direction of the event.

Team member took the role of event organizer

Once the requiremets is set, a team member will be assigned to be the event organizer, who took charge of all the planning details.

Small-to-medium team gatherings are more common

During the pandemic, small-to-medium size (~15 people) are more common for team gathering events.

Lack of guidance

Organizers have to spend time researching how to organize event and creating detailed plans, which is slow and frustrated.

Complexity of event planning

They need to juggle factors like budget, time, location, transportation, policies, communication, and attendee needs, which is overwhelming and difficult to keep track of.

Too many different tools

They often switch between different tools when planning, which can be time-consuming and complicated.

Difficult coordination

Coordinating with others can be a hassle for organizers, especially when gathering personal preferences and needs.

Pain points

& challenges

Through our research, we discovered that event planning is often complex and overwhelming, due to the following reasons:

Design focus

& scope

Define task-oriented personas

We found that event organizing isn’t tied to a job title—any team member might be an organizer for one event and an attendee for another. So, instead of defining personas by specific people, we focused on their tasks, identifying two main roles: the organizer (primary) and the attendee (secondary).

Adopt mobile-first approach

Events need real-time coordination, which mobile apps handle well, so we went with a mobile-first approach with the goal to design an app that users can access anytime, anywhere.

Prioritize high-value pain points

With limited time, we focused on the following key pain points most people brought up, ensuring to bring values to our users.

📝

Streamline event planning

How might we create a more structured event planning process that reduced stress for organizers?

📞

Simplify coordination

How might we make it easier to collect personal preferences & accommodations for attendees?

🎉

Build relationship

How might we help teams build stronger relationships through the events?

Ideation

& wireframes

We kicked off design by brainstorming ideas and mapping user flows to keep our focus on the concept and make quick iteration. I created wireframes based on our final user flows, defining the layout, structure, and necessary screens. This reduced our needs to make changes during the high-fidelity design and helped us move faster.

Visual design

language & guide

We wanted our app to feel energetic, approachable, and professional. To achieve this, we created a set of visual elements—logo, style guide, and components—to establish a cohesive design language and ensure a consistent experience throughout.

Color

Use professional blue, vibrant yellow, and neutral tones to convey a corporate feel, energy, and cleanliness.

Radius

Apply round corner to create a sense of approachability and friendliness.

Final design

Bridge the gap from online to offline

Our solution centered on three key features—onboarding, event creation, and networking—ensuring a seamless experience from pre-event planning to post-event engagement to our audience.

Feature#1

Collect preference

We make it easier to collect attendee information by having everyone fill out their preferences and accommodation needs during onboarding. When creating events, organizers can access this info directly, avoiding repeated requests or having to ask for the same details.

Feature#2

Organize event

We walked users through each planning step, and they don't have to provide all the details at once. They can fill in the rest later at the event center, where they can manage the event, track RSVPs, and check out event resources—all in one place.

We learned from our users that the organizer role isn’t fixed, so we let people access all events at once—both the ones they organize and the ones they attend. We use unique visual elements to clearly distinguish between the different types of events.

Feature#3

Build relationship

Building relationships is the key for team gatherings, so we added post-event photos and chat rooms to keep the memories alive and give attendees a space to stay connected and networking even after the event ends.

Results

First winner!! 🏆

We won first place for our solution in this design challenge, which was a unique and rewarding experience. Achieving success in such a short time was exciting, and I truly enjoyed collaborating with my teammates for this project.

Retrospective

Design under time pressure

With just two days to develop a high-fidelity solution, we had to be strategic with every step of our design process to focus on real and impactful user needs. If we had more time, I’d take a step forward to explore features like calendar sync, voting polls, or design a desktop version for large-scale events.

Embrace the remote collaboration

Though our team was spread across different time zones, we stayed active in discussions and used tools like Discord and FigJam to stay connected, communicate, and brainstorm. This setup also helped us empathize with our users and feel their constraints when organizing events.