Flyer is a mobile-focused event planning platform empowering casual get-togethers through expressive invitations.

Introduction

Flyer was an exploration how Paperless Post could enter the high frequency causal event space. Instead of hosted events, we'd support organizers and give them utility. Instead of the paper card & envelope metaphor, we'd create a digitally native expressive asset that senders could customize to set the tone. Could we create a fast, useful and expressive mobile platform that helps people get together in real life?

During my time with Flyer we launched an internal beta to gather user feedback and test assumptions that couldn't be validated without hands-on play.

Roles

Product Designer, Prototyper

Credits

Ray Masaki
Brand Designer


Norah Stone
Content Designer

Year

2016 – 2017

The Goal

The ultimate deliverable for the Flyer team was a mobile Event Page that could be spun up quickly by an organizer and shared to friends. This event page needed to house the expressive asset (customized by the organizer in Flyer's Create Tool), as well as provide a higher level of utility beyond just recording RSVP's i.e. organizational tools to help groups plan events.

As to the expressive asset: because a form of this product is still being developed, I am not able to showcase the work I did on the Create Tool. Suffice to say this asset contained a background layer able to be swapped out from a curated set of moving images, and a text layer that could be customized with animated effects and copy.

In this first version of the Event Page, the main interactions were the RSVP buttons and chatting with the organizer and other members of the event. Everything else was minimized; even the title of the event was hidden in the event details view. As soon as the user scrolled past the expressive asset, they landed in the chat.

Group Chat with Event Details

Ultimately we managed to deliver an end-to-end experience that resulted in an event page where the organizer and guests could chat and RSVP. We worked to reinforce the identity of the organizer on the page via the avatar to build trust with receivers.

When we began testing it with actual users, however, we realized that while people thought the creation experience was fast and easy to pick up, after opening the event page, they really had no reason to come back to it. Most event pages ended up looking sad because most of the page was an empty chat.

Part II: Unplanned Events

We always wanted to incorporate tools into the Flyer event page that would help guide the organizer and friends through the planning of a hangout, not just a finalized event. After testing the first version of the event page, we began exploring planning tools that would give receivers agency to engage with the event page.

Intro to the Event Page

The invitation from the organizer is sent to friends via an sms message (unless a receiver already has the app). When opened via a browser, the event page is designed to confirm the identity of the organizer and put to rest any worries of spam.

Other than the who, what, where as well as the expressive asset the organizer has customized (more on that later), the other elements prominent on the page are the date picker and the chat button.

The Date Picker

For an unplanned event, the most important interaction on the Event Page is the date picker. We reasoned that rather than building out polls for date, time and location at the same time, nailing down a date was the crux of the conversation.

The receiver is presented with up to three dates that the organizer has proposed, along with the current vote count and tap-able actions. After submitting a response, the receiver is taken to the chat area to talk to the host or to qualify their response.

The Chat Area

In previous iterations of the event page, a heavy emphasis was placed on the chat, to the extent that the page was really a chat room with some event information standing on the wall. But after testing, the notion of actively messaging over mobile web seemed awkward and unnecessarily complex.

We began to view the chat as more of a release valve, a supplement to the binary nature of a poll. People can chat or not, but is easily accessible via a separate layer. Even in the chat, the poll CTA is still clearly visible.

Just as we wanted the receiver experience to feel lightweight and flexible, the tools we gave the organizer needed to be easy and intutive as they gather responses from friends.

Shared Experience

We wanted the Organizer's view of the event to be similar to the receiver's, so I designed a layer of management tools onto the exisiting event page. Organizers at any moment can change the final date and time of the event, even to a date that wasn't originally on the poll.

Once the final date and time is decided, receivers are notified of the time and are automatically RSVP'd based our their submitted dates. They can of course change this at any time.

Index