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Project Overview
Inspiration
Adults looking for somewhere or something to do during the evening need a resource to discover new places and nightlife activities in their area.
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As a recent college student myself, I became inspired for this project by listening to the concerns of my roommates and friends about having to "know someone who knows where to go," and their reliance on
word-of-mouth insight on the details of venues, such as cover fee, age restriction, and more.
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Research Process
In order to determine what features the app will have, I first needed to think of who the app is for and what their needs are when looking for something to do during the evening. The target audience for this product includes social young adults, college students, middle-aged adults, or those over the age of 18 looking for somewhere to go on a night out. In order to design the target audience in mind, I developed three different personas.
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Design Process
Over the course of six weeks, I engaged in an iterative design process starting with low-fidelity wireframes to establish an initial app layout and structure, to mid-fidelity to begin incorporating content and questioning app features, and finally a high-fidelity prototype with full functionality and120 different mobile screens.
Based on the given problem statement, the solution I came up with is a mobile iOS app called "nightlife"
that includes the major functionalities:
Discover Places
Based on the user’s location, nearby establishments such as restaurants, bars, pubs, dance clubs, breweries, karaoke bars, and other venues will be listed. Users will also be able to view these establishments in map format to visually see the distance between locations.
View Details
Under view details, users will find information regarding cover fees, drink specials, special events, hours of operation, dress code, etc. for the specific venue.
View Today’s Deals
This feature allows the user to see ongoing deals and specials, such as drink deals, food deals, free admission, and special events, at nearby venues based on the day.
Select Search Filters
Users can select search criteria to narrow down the search results of nearby venues, such as 21+, 18+, food availability, drinks, dancing, live music, rating, etc.
Leave a Review
The ability to leave a review and read other reviews to provide insight into others’ experiences at the listed establishments on the platform.
Favorite a Venue
The ability to add saved venues to a list to look back at later.
Turn on Venue Notifications
The ability to receive notifications about special events and deals of specific venues.
Low-Fidelity Wireframes
Mid-Fidelity Wireframes
High-Fidelity Wireframes
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Design Rationale
With the "nightlife" app, users can discover nearby venues that meet the conditions they require in order to visit (dress code, cover fee. etc.) and will no longer have to rely on word-of-mouth insight on where they should go and what they should do. They can also stay updated on their favorite venues' deals and "save" a location to create a list of venues they may want to visit in the future.
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As for businesses included on the platform, venue owners and management teams can see how other venues with a high rating are operating and the services they are providing to customers, in order to improve the experience at their own establishment.
User Feedback
To ensure the "nightlife" app is usable and the needs of the target audience were met, I sought out feedback from college students, which is a group within the target audience. After completing a usability test, a major finding was that the search filters could be further separated from the search results page to not overwhelm the user and allow the user to fully see the options they have to sort and filter venues by. Secondly, it was found that making the map view a default feature when searching for a venue nearby better aligns with the expectations of users based on their experiences with other applications, such as DoorDash or UberEats.
Next Steps
In future expansions of this app, I would like to include features for "following" other users, allowing users to post review photos, order an Uber or Lyft in-app to the venue, and potentially allow venues to manage their own profiles on the app to create a personalized presentation of their business and keep up to date on customer feedback.