ACAN
Role
Lead Designer
Deliverables
Mobile app, Web responsive app, Wireframes and UI
Team
Cynthia Luu, UX Designer
Anton Munin, UI Designer
Peng Xiong, Developer
Overview
The client came with a developed trial-run app published in the app store. However, it faced technical hurdles and was not optimized to drive location based events for business owners and local city residents. Originally a confusing, limited consumer app experience, our client wanted to start their app from scratch.
Below are a few screenshots of their 1st iteration.
Problem
1
How might we drive paying customers to ACAN partnered venues via in-app event promotion?
Businesses need a way to promote & capitalize on popular days to balance out their slow days and Customers are often trying to plan out their nightlife.
2
How might we maintain brand control between Business Partners and Admin during event creation and experiences?
As a branded curator, ACAN needed to be a better middleman (a better promoter) between consumer and branded venues.
3
How might we insure ACAN's ecosystem maintains scalability as they gradually expand to multiple cities and states nationwide?
Scalability affects how events and venues are found and displayed in the Consumer and Admin platform.
Challenges
Time constraints
MVP features were not scoped out properly during initial client conversations. With limited time to dive into other user roles, this led to multiple unanticipated MVP additions later down the line.
Tight timeline often included late night turnaround for client approvals.
Business concerns
Stakeholders were concerned if there were enough revenue and event discoverability opportunities for business owners.
Users
Consumers
Women, 20’s - 30s, organizers of their friend group. They are willing to plan and pay for fun, curated experiences.
Business Owners
Business venues and their on-site staff need to manage, promote, and create events.
Admin
Admin approves events, manages pass refunds, and oversees business venues and event check-ins.
Design
Ensuring the client was aligned on all fronts, I walked through weekly iterative hi-fi wireframes & Loom recordings to foster a transparent and collaborative process.
Visual Direction
As part of the app redesign, the client shared photos and assets from past events to share their vision between Marketing and Product. The name "ACAN" stood for the Mayan god of wine and festivities, and it was important to keep the brand color orange while refreshing the app with a contemporary feel for users in their 20s and 30s.
Partnering closely with our UI designer, we created ACAN's first WCAG AA-compliant design library, ensuring accessibility within a dark-themed app across mobile and web platforms.
Consumer Home Screen
Initial explorations of the consumer app led to multi-media carousel slides and emphasis on event types. While collaborating with the client, I realized it was important to take into account how many cities ACAN would operate in initially and scale the filters appropriately as the business scales. Consumers are visual navigators, so the use of map feature would provide quick hand zoom in/out functions to discover events relative to their general location.
Likewise, the client emphasized the use of reels as self-promoted events for business venues. Business owners would create their own promo reels using vertical format videos similar to social media to draw in consumers and immerse them in experiences via short form media.
Initial wires
Final concept
Final UI
QR Check-In
The client previously relied on pen-and-paper guest check-ins, which was slow and manual. Modernizing the process, I implemented a 2-step digital QR check-in process giving assigned ACAN representatives the ability to scan and check-in guests as the door. Seeing an opportunity to streamline this process, I added an 'Assign' feature to the Admin’s event calendar. Now each event is linked to an ACAN representative responsible for scanning QR passes using their mobile browser portal.
Admin view
Admin / ACAN Rep view
Consumer view
Approval Measures
In order to maintain ACAN brand standards, the client needed a way to approve any new and all edits a Business Owner may need. This required a web platform for Business Owners to view, create, and edit events. Vice versa, Admin also needed to be able to view and approve new and edited events.
Business Owner view
To streamline the approval process, I designed a synchronous approval system that is managed by internal staff members from both user groups. UI elements included confirmation toasts for completed and expected actions and status labels for pending and approved statuses. By implementing these elements, the goal is to reduce confusion on last clicked action and speed up back and forth communication between two parties.
System Admin view
Event Metrics
To keep track, measure, and compare trends and patterns between events and best performing reels, I worked with the client to define the marketing metrics they need for both Admin and Business Owners.
Future
Present
Internal Testing
In this phase, the Android, iOS, and web browser app is externally tested by the client's preferred list of 10 users to identify bugs, gaps, and collect feedback for fixes before the product is fully released.
Future
Defining KPI's
We help the client define KPI's (Key Performance Metrics), such as number of App Downloads, Passes Purchased, and Engagement via Sign Ups and Reels Watched for future goals and improvement.
Future
Iterate & Optimize
If the client came back to work with us again, it would be important to review improvements and new ideas based on their current data, both qualitative and quantitative.