top of page

Project Timeline

10 weeks

My Role

Design Strategist,

UX Designer

Tools

Figma, Keynote

InDesign, Imovies,

Miro.

Team

Sidhant Chopra & Ayusha Mehrotra,

Qi Li

Identifying The Problem

The Problem

The event industry is rapidly changing with the ongoing health crisis. According to event marketers, 7 out of 10 respondents have moved their face-to-face events partially or fully to a virtual platform. Without human interaction and the energy it creates, the celebration can often be difficult to achieve. The feeling of disconnect persists and often the essence of the celebratory cause does not come through, when celebrated virtually.  

"How might we create personalized celebratory experiences for young adults in the virtual world?"

Market Analysis

Mind Map

We brainstormed together and developed a 

mindmap to identify the different aspects of the term "CELEBRATION."

2X2 Matrix

We identified direct and secondary rivals in the celebration industry, specifically looking at the virtual celebration space. 

Our sweet spot:

We want to develop a solution that would be unique and add high value to the users. This would help in enhancing their celebrations in a fun manner while being in a virtual setting. 

Porter's Five Forces

As the pandemic has hit the travel and event industry really hard, but this has not stopped people from taking part in their intimate celebratory causes. Due to this, the demand for alternative methods is high, but available solutions low, leading to a high supplier power but low buyer power. There is a high threat of new entrants as there is a lack of unique solutions available in the market, leading to a low threat of substitutes. 

Defining Network Users

We developed a stakeholder map to identify our target audience and recruit people for personal interviews.

Primary Stakeholders : Hosts, Celebrants, Guests 

Secondary Stakeholders:

Event Managers, Service providers

Tertiary Stakeholders

Vendors

User Groups

Screen Shot 2021-10-14 at 1.40.33 PM.png

Survey

We conducted a survey to collect quantitative data for our topic. We got 56 responses. On the right, is an infographic that summarizes the data concisely.

We conducted 15 personal interviews. Below are a few important insights from the interviews. 

Screen Shot 2020-12-21 at 4.01.34 PM.png

After synthesizing the collected data, we created empathy maps for each user group and developed 8 personas to better understand the problem.

Screen Shot 2020-12-21 at 5.38.25 PM.png

Key Insights

1

Zoom has been instrumental in connecting people during this time but people are getting bored of it and are looking for creative ways of spending time virtually.

2

People are willing to spend money if they get the options to customize their experience.

3

Current avenues of virtual celebrations can get awkward and chaotic if not managed properly.

4

People feel that virtual celebrations will only last till we get a vaccine for Covid, after which everything will be back to on-ground celebrations.

Value Proposition Canvas

FOR

WHO

OUR

WE DO THIS BY

UNLIKE OTHERS

OUR

Young adults i.e. GenZ and young millennials.

Want to find alternative ways of celebrating important events of their lives

Product/service will ease the process of planning and hosting virtual celebrations and also provide interactive activities for people to do while celebrating

Creating a holistic solution to celebrations virtually and help people create interactive and fun filled celebrations

Platforms that lack interactive activities, are not secure and trustworthy and feel like a work video call due to lack of “fun” essence to them.

Approach is to make a product/service that can give the option to customization and add the element of personalization, making it more intimate 

Competitor Analysis

We decided to test out the available applications/solutions available for virtual partying. We critiqued the applications based on functionality, engagement & fun. After this, we found our niche and mapped our strategy.

Strategy Mapping

Concept Generation

We used Miro as a collaborative tool for 

our team. The Five E's matrix was used to generate ideas for our concept. 

Business Model Canvas

Screen Shot 2021-10-14 at 3.04.29 PM.png

1

3

5

End to end

service

2

Discovery

platform

4

Hyper

Personalization

 Link between consumers & talent

One stop

platform for all your party needs

Highest Value Features

We prioritized the highest value adding features and decided to include this in our solution.

Why?

Promote the essence of being together, even if you're physically distant.

How?

We provide an alternate platform for individuals to connect with each other by erasing the physical boundaries and celebrate life’s important events together. 

What?

We are a platform for individuals to plan virtual parties, in association with zoom. We provide unique and fun activities and private entertainment for these virtual parties.

Our Golden Circle

We answered the three questions of the golden circle to develop a clear strategy 

for our solution.

Prototyping & User Testing

User Scenarios

We created user scenarios for each phase of the application to better understand the flow of the application.

Screen Shot 2020-12-22 at 4.58.50 PM.png

Information Architecture

Low Fidelity Prototype

User Testing

We set up Miro boards with the low fidelity prototype & took feedback from 10 users.

User Feedback 

Scenario 1

• Too many quizzes

• Onboarding process is too long

• Back buttons missing

• Too complicated screens 

​

Scenario 2

• Free trial version for new users 

• Address section: This is a bit tedious and confusing.

• Love that you have put into consideration the fact that so many artists are now struggling with the pandemic, great addition! 

​

​

Scenario 3

• Show answer list, with everyone's answer 

• Since this is a zoom plugin, I'm wondering if this entails asking your participants to download something alongside the invite? 

​

​

Brand Development

Final Prototype 

Screen Shot 2021-10-14 at 6.20.34 PM.png

Easy Onboarding

Screen Shot 2021-10-14 at 6.16.14 PM.png

Choose the Occasion

Screen Shot 2021-10-14 at 6.16.49 PM.png

Take a simple quiz

Screen Shot 2021-10-14 at 6.17.01 PM.png
Screen Shot 2021-10-14 at 6.17.13 PM.png
Screen Shot 2021-10-14 at 6.17.39 PM.png
Screen Shot 2021-10-14 at 6.18.03 PM.png
Screen Shot 2021-10-14 at 6.17.51 PM.png

Personalize your party experience

Screen Shot 2021-10-14 at 6.18.19 PM.png
Screen Shot 2021-10-14 at 6.18.34 PM.png
Screen Shot 2021-10-14 at 6.19.11 PM.png

Choose our premium subscription to curate and deliver personalized boxes & book local talent.

Screen Shot 2021-10-14 at 6.19.22 PM.png
Screen Shot 2021-10-14 at 6.18.59 PM.png

We created gift packages for one of our personas - Alexys. While presenting the concept on Zoom, we delivered these gift boxes to three of our peers at their respective houses. These gift boxes were hyper personalized based on a theme "All that Glitters" which our persona decided after using our app "PARTYNATION".

Contents of the box

• Physical invite

• QR code for cool E-invite with the zoom link

• Party cocktail recipe

• Party swag

• Shot glasses

• Essense of an actual party 

​

​

​

​

Scan the QR code

Final App Prototype

This final app simulation. All changes were made after the user feedback. The prototype was created using Figma.

What I learned

Power of Team Collaboration

The research findings must be shared and discussed as a team in order to keep your team connected and engaged throughout the process. Bouncing ideas off each other is an effective way to reach the desired outcome. When reaching any team decisions, the users and their pain areas must be recognized.

​

Feedback is Important

Design Process is iterative and taking feedback from the users can improve the end result. Sometimes the focus might shift and feedback helps in developing a realignment strategy.

​

​

​

​

Next Steps

Future of Partynation

Further brainstorming needs to be done to make Partynation thrive post pandemic.  Verticals that support local businesses & gig artists, needs to be explored further. The concept of party boxes/gift hampers can be also explored in the coporate setting.

​

© 2021 by Ayusha Mehrotra.

bottom of page