User Research / Ideation
Clarifying the Event RSVP Flow
Streamlining the Application Process for Elders
Clarifying the Event RSVP Flow
Optimizing the user flow for joining groups and attending events
Optimizing the user flow for joining groups and attending events
Team Meetup: Lead designer, product designer (myself), PM
My Role User research (planning, recruiting, conducting), Research Analysis, Ideation, Prototyping
Type Desktop Web
Timeline 4 weeks, September 2020
Team Meetup: Lead designer, product designer (myself), PM
My Role User research (planning, recruiting, conducting), Research Analysis, Ideation, Prototyping
Type Desktop Web
Timeline 4 weeks, September 2020
Challenges
Clarify the flow so that the members understand they will be joining the group simultaneously as they RSVP to an event, and that joining the group is required in order to RSVP to the event.
Challenges
Clarifying the flow so that the members understand they will be joining the group simultaneously as they RSVP to an event, and that joining the group is required in order to RSVP to the event.
Vision
Increase clarity of the relationship between events and groups on the Meetup platform for the users. By doing so, it can provide greater transparency to the members, which may increase trust in the brand.
Vision
Increase clarity of the relationship between events and groups on the Meetup platform for the users. By doing so, it can provide greater transparency to the members, which may increase trust in the brand.
Deliverable
A new flow design, testable prototype, and a presentation that summarizes the user research findings and solutions.
Outcome
A new flow design, testable prototype, and a presentation that summarizes the user research findings and solutions.
Background
Currently, the Meetup platform requires users to be members of the group before they can RSVP to an event hosted by that group. This is done by automatically enrolling the users into groups as they RSVP to an event hosted by groups that the users are not already members of (Diagram 1).
Background
Currently, the Meetup platform requires users to be members of the group before they can RSVP to an event hosted by that group. This is done by automatically enrolling the users into groups as they RSVP to an event hosted by groups that the users are not already members of (Diagram 1).
Diagram 1: When a user RSVPs to an event, they are automatically enrolled into a group
However, when users RSVP to events, the success message only confirms their RSVP to the event but does not provide any feedback regarding their joining the group (Video 1).
Video 1: The confirmation only shows that the user successfully RSVP to the event. It provides no feedback that the user has also been enrolled in the group.
Video 1: The confirmation only shows that the user successfully RSVP to the event. It provides no feedback that the user has also been enrolled in the group.
We wanted to clarify the user flow so that the user understands that they will be enrolled into a group simultaneously as they RSVP to the event hosted by the group.
Defining the Problem
User problem
The absence of feedback to the users that they are being automatically enrolled in the group upon submitting RSVP to an event creates potential problems for the following reasons:
- For users who may not want to join the group at this time, we do not inform them that this action is being taken.
- For users who intended to join the group, we do not provide any signal in the flow that they’ve done so successfully.
Business problem
As a business, Meetup relies on the notifications loop to drive activity. Being a member of a group introduces many of these notifications for users: new event announcements, event reminders, updates to events, new discussion posts, etc. If we provide additional clarification to users that they are joining a group from the RSVP flow, we will:
- Clarify the relationship between events and groups on the platform
- Provide greater transparency to the users, which may increase trust in the brand
Defining the Problem
User problem
The absence of feedback to the users that they are being automatically enrolled in the group upon submitting RSVP to an event creates potential problems for the following reasons:
- For users who may not want to join the group at this time, we do not inform them that this action is being taken.
- For users who intended to join the group, we do not provide any signal in the flow that they’ve done so successfully.
Business problem
As a business, Meetup relies on the notifications loop to drive activity. Being a member of a group introduces many of these notifications for users: new event announcements, event reminders, updates to events, new discussion posts, etc. If we provide additional clarification to users that they are joining a group from the RSVP flow, we will:
- Clarify the relationship between events and groups on the platform
- Provide greater transparency to the users, which may increase trust in the brand
Approach
Process
Approach
Process
Hypothesize & Validate
I referenced previous research results and brainstormed some possible user problems that could be occurring in the current user flow and potential solutions to the problem. I then conducted user interviews to validate the hypothesized user problems and solutions.
Assumptions:
Previous research suggests that it’s not clear to the users who are submitting RSVP to an event they are also automatically being registered as a member of the group that's hosting the event.
Possible Solution:
In order to create an Event RSVP and Group Join flow that provides accurate feedback of what's going on, the action of joining a group and submitting RSVP to an event should be separated and be presented individually upon clicking the attend button, as seen in the image below.
Hypothesize & Validate
I referenced previous research results and brainstormed some possible user problems that could be occurring in the current user flow and potential solutions to the problem. I then conducted user interviews to validate the hypothesized user problems and solutions.
Assumptions:
Previous research suggests that it’s not clear to the users who are submitting RSVP to an event they are also automatically being registered as a member of the group that's hosting the event.
Possible Solution:
In order to create an Event RSVP and Group Join flow that provides accurate feedback of what's going on, the action of joining a group and submitting RSVP to an event should be separated and be presented individually upon clicking the attend button, as seen in the image below.
User Interviews
I conducted five qualitative user interviews with meetup organizers and attendees to further validate assumptions and narrow in on the user problem. The users were asked to go through the event join flow in the current website and then interact with the prototype I created that demonstrates the hypothesized solutions to compare the interaction. Each session took about 30 minutes and was done remotely over Zoom. I recruited 5 participants who have been active in the past 60 days, including:
- Two US-based organizers
- Two US-based attendees
- One international (Dubai) organizer/attendee
Remote user interviews were conducted to understand users' painpoints with the current RSVP flow
Research Findings
The key finding was that upon interacting with the current flow of event RSVP, all 5 members were not aware that they were being enrolled into the group as they RSVP to the event, as there is no feedback to signal to the users that they are becoming a group member as they RSVP to an event. They also didn't associate the action or submitting RSVP to an event as permission to start receiving email notifications from the group, which is one of the major action which happens when a user becomes a group member. 4 out of 5 users mentioned that they wanted it to be clear when they are joining a group.
Iterations
Opting for fewer steps
Upon gathering feedback from the users that they wanted to be notified of their joining groups, I showed the users the potential solution that I had created (image below), which aims to explain the way the system functions by adding two notification popups screens before they see their RSVP confirmation. Users found that the potential solution provided better feedback than the current flow in regards to notifying the enrollment into groups; however, they found it tedious that they had to click through two extra screens before they could successfully RSVP to an event.
Iterations
Opting for fewer steps
Upon gathering feedback from the users that they wanted to be notified of their joining groups, I showed the users the potential solution that I had created (image below), which aims to explain the way the system functions by adding two notification popups screens before they see their RSVP confirmation. Users found that the potential solution provided better feedback than the current flow in regards to notifying the enrollment into groups; however, they found it tedious that they had to click through two extra screens before they could successfully RSVP to an event.
Potential Solution: 2 extra steps were added before RSVP confirmation, in attempt to notify the users of their enrollment
Potential Solution: 2 extra steps were added before RSVP confirmation, in attempt to notify the users of their enrollmen
They preferred to have fewer screens, as the screens are simply confirmations and are not necessarily giving the users the option of attending the event without joining a group. (Although some users expressed the desire to RSVP to events without having to become a group member, we could not do that as it could have a big impact on the business structure and it was out of our scope.) I then merged the group join confirmation screen and event RSVP confirmation screen into one, as seen in the image below.
I iterated the flow so that group join screen and RSVP screen was merged into one
However, users still found it unnecessary that they had to click on an extra button once clicking on the initial attend button. They felt that the notification was necessary, but that it didn't make sense that they had to click an additional button as they are not necessarily being provided with options to choose from.
I then removed the second popup, to simply add the notification for group join to the bottom of the RSVP confirmation screen.
"If joining a group is a must, I'd rather have it be one step rather than having to go through an extra popup."
In the second iteration, the second popup was removed and the notification about joining the group was added to the bottom of the RSVP confirmation screen.
Final Design
For the final design, we landed on an event RSVP flow that takes users directly to the confirmation popup, with the added note in the confirmation popup telling the users that they have now become members of the group by RSVPing to the event.
This allows the users to be notified of their enrollment into the group when confirming their RSVP, without having to go through additional popups in between before they can succesfully RSVP.
What's next?
Although the flow I mentioned in my case study focused mainly on the most simple case of RSVP flow where the users can instantly confirm their RSVP to an event upon clicking on the attend button, alternative flows still need to be considered for the following events:
- Events that require users to fill out questions in order to RSVP
- Events that belong to the private groups that require approval by the group host
- Events that require payment
It may also be worth exploring the idea of giving the users the option of attending events without having to become a member of the group, as some users have mentioned during the interview their desire to attend events without the group enrollment.