Summary of lo-fi prototype process

Taking in the ideas we brainstormed, we voted and picked our top 3 as seen, the "most likely", "most delightful", & "dark horse". The first prototype asked the question of which nearby performances are highly rated and what the environment is like there - answered through the many reviews that are gathered in the app. The second prototype asked the question of how to find out which of your friends are attending a show and if your schedule is empty at those times - answered with the friends tab and schedule tab. The last prototype asked the question of how to quickly find and choose current performances, what they are, where they are, and if they are relatable to your taste - answered by showing you events in a tinder-style swipe right/left environment. 

The key takeaways from our lo-fi prototypes were that some of these features may be easier to implement and more useful to the user, and others may seem fun but may not be utilized as much. Since there were many features we wanted our app to have, we also realized that we may need to reorganize the layout to fit the components, and prioritize certain features over others.

 Summary of hi-fi prototype process

Moving on to the hi-fi prototype versions of our three solutions, we focussed on creating clean UI's that brought to life the lo-fi "most likely", "most delightful", & "dark horse" options. 

The “Most Likely” prototype explores how organizational layout and geographic tools impacts the ease of finding an event. Through the use of multiple tabs and filters, it prioritizes efficiency and structured navigation. The “Most Delightful” prototype examines how the presence of friends influences a user’s decision to attend an event, emphasizing social incentives and engagement with its Snackpass-esque interface. Finally, the “Dark Horse” prototype investigates how far intuition can guide a user within a swipe-based interface, offering a more exploratory and unconventional approach to event discovery based on popular dating apps.

From the hi-fi design prototyping process, we were able to takeaway that users are drawn to familiar looking interfaces that feel simple. When a space appears too cluttered in high detail, users are overwhelmed.

Summary of usability testing process

Our participant group featured the same demographic of people from our last interview which was undergraduate university students aged 18-21. The design research method we used is short in-depth interviews to understand our users' needs. We also conducted usability tests through our hi fidelity prototypes to understand their thought processes. Key insights included (1) how our event radar prototype was too clunky, (2) how the dark horse prototype was unclear in its action to swipe left or right, and (3) how the aesthetics influenced which prototype our users preferred. The recommendations we received were to emphasize the user experience of our prototypes by utilizing our user's previous experiences with apps like Instagram or Reddit, chancing elements from each prototype that were most intuitive to understand to create our final design. Another recommendation we received was to give simple instructions or add a help button to guide the users when they need assistance. The last recommendation was to keep the aesthetics simple and minimalistic to maintain user focus when navigating the application.