EVENT EASE
Event Ease is a mobile event app that helps tired young professionals find healthy, supporting events after work. Instead of overwhelming users with endless event listings, the app recommends activities based on energy cost, social intensity, location, detour, time, and vibe.
Through interviews, synthesis, user flows, information architecture, and iterative prototyping, I designed an experience that helps users move from “I want to go out, but I’m too tired to decide” to a clear, low-pressure plan that feels worth the effort.
Deliverables:
App Design
Interaction Design
User Experience
Branding
Problem
After work, users often feel mentally overloaded and physically tired. They still want to connect with others, but choosing an activity can feel like another task: comparing time, location, price, group size, and social intensity requires too much energy.
Solution
I designed an after-work event app that recommends manageable activities by filtering options through energy cost, social intensity, travel detour, schedule fit, and vibe. Instead of asking users to browse endlessly, the app helps them make a quick, low-pressure decision.
Key Features
Energy Cost
Helps users understand whether an event feels low, medium, or high effort.
On My Way
Recommends events near work, home, or along the route home.
Compare by Effort
Allows saved events to be compared by duration, detour, group size, and energy cost.
Notification-Driven Recommendations
Sends timely notifications so users don't miss saved/suitable events, improve purchase conversion rate.
Research
Trend
Discovering a shift in after-work social behavior
Socializing after work is shifting away from alcohol-centered nightlife toward activities that combine connection, wellness, and recovery. This created an opportunity to explore how an event app could support people who still want to go out, but need plans that feel manageable after a long workday.
Research Goal
To understand how people choose after-work activities when they are tired, and what makes an event feel worth the effort instead of stressful.
Interviews
Interviewee 1: Han
Wants to socialize but avoids alcohol-centered hangouts during weekdays.
Prefers small groups, early evenings, and easy exits.
Hesitates when the vibe, people, or time commitment is unclear.
Interviewee 2: Mia
Feels physically exhausted after work and avoids loud or crowded venues.
Likes calm activities such as walks, stretching, food, or low-pressure meetups.
Needs control over timing, location, and whether the plan feels restorative.
Synthesized Insights
Insight 1 — People want connection without burnout
Users still want to see people after work, but only when the plan feels light, gentle, and easy to leave.
Insight 2 — Uncertainty kills commitment
Not knowing the vibe, crowd, location, time cost, or social expectation makes users hesitate or cancel.
Insight 3 — Wellbeing is part of the decision
Users evaluate events not only by fun, but by how they will feel tomorrow: sleep, energy, comfort, and emotional recovery matter.
Define
Problem Statement
How might we help tired workers choose after-work plans that feel socially meaningful, physically manageable, and easy to commit to?
Persona
Design Principles
Low cognitive load
Reduce browsing, comparing, and overthinking.
Predictable vibe
Make social intensity, group size, and event atmosphere clear.
Energy-aware decisions
Treat effort, recovery, and next-day wellbeing as design inputs.
Flexible commitment
Support saving, comparing, booking, and cancellation without pressure.
Develop
Object-Oriented UX
To avoid designing another generic event listing app, I defined the key objects around after-work decision-making. The most important design challenge was not simply showing events, but helping users judge whether an event was worth the effort tonight.
Balancing User Needs and Technical Feasibility
User Need
Personalized recommendations without feeling over-surveilled.
Technical Constraint
The app cannot rely on complex behavioral prediction or multiple permissions at launch.
Design Decision
Use layered data model, first essential inputs, later optional personalization.
Analysis
Users needed personalized recommendations, but too much data collection at launch could feel invasive and technically unrealistic. I separated the data needs into required information and optional personalization, so the product could feel useful without asking for too much upfront.
Location, time availability, and notifications support the core experience, while calendar access, contacts, and deeper preference learning remain optional. This layered model keeps the first version feasible, privacy-conscious, and easier for users to trust.
Data & Access Audit
Balancing User and Business Needs
User Need
Feel in control, avoid pressure, understand effort before committing.
Business Need
Increase event discovery, booking conversion, and return visits.
Design Decision
Use inline onboarding, fit summaries, saved events, and notifications.
Analysis
Users wanted after-work plans that felt low-pressure and easy to understand, while the product still needed to support discovery, booking, and repeat engagement. To balance both sides, I designed the experience around confidence rather than urgency.
I used inline onboarding so users could browse event cards before creating an account. This shows the app’s core value early, while account creation and personalization appear later when they support clear actions like saving, booking, or receiving recommendations.
Onboarding
When initially open the app, user can quickly start by scrolling on the globe to view events. They can also click on “Current Location” to view events around them, or search somewhere else. This allows user to view events early without sign in / sign up.
Book Event + Notification
User view event detail, book events, receive confirmation, and turn on upcoming events reminder notification.
Usability Testing & Iteration
Search Flow
Task
The user just got off work feeling mentally tired, they want to quickly find a Puppy Yoga class near home to recharge.
Key Feedback
Users may not know what to search for when they are tired.
Filters were not visible early enough.
Results did not explain "Why fit", costing users energy to distinguish.
Design Iterations
Added Browse Categories to Search Page.
Added Filter on the Search Page and keep quick chips on the Results Page.
Reduce users effort by recommending a most suitable activity with "One-line Fit Summary". Displaying key information such as social intensity, vibe, group size, and detour time without clicking into Details Page.
Notification Flow
Task
The user receives a notification that a spot has opened for a saved event. They need to quickly understand why the event is suitable for them, check the details, and book quickly before the spot is gone.
Key Feedback
Users wanted to know how many spots are available, or how urgent the spot is.
After booking, users needed clear next steps: view booking, set reminders, explore similar events, or cancel if plans changed.
Design Iterations
Linked the notification to the relevant Event Detail page with clear spots availability.
Clear navigation on confirmation page: upcoming event reminder, similar events, and view booking as next steps.
Added a visible Cancel Booking option in the booking detail page, supporting easy cancellation.
App Map
Final Delivery
Onboarding
The onboarding process is easy and fluent, it shows events early, reduce user's energy cost of building up a profile. Later, the app introduces personalization gradually.
Search & Results
The search experience supports both intentional search and low-effort browsing discovery. Users can search directly, browse categories, or filter by date, time, group size, and energy cost.
Consider travel distance and time are “Energy Cost”, there are short cuts to access user’s Current Location, Home, Work, On the Way, to quick filter nearby events.
User Profile
Profile page is where user can view their Achievements, edit General Info and Preferences manually, purchase Membership, and manage Notification settings.
Notification
The notification flow helps users act at the right moment, especially when they are tired and unlikely to reopen the app manually. It increase app's conversion rate.
Reflection
Reflection
This project helped me think about event discovery not as a browsing problem, but as an energy-management problem. For tired users, the best recommendation is not always the most exciting event. It is the event that feels possible, clear, and emotionally safe enough to choose.
Next Steps
Test the prototype with more working professionals after real workdays
Refine how “energy cost” is calculated and explained
Improve privacy controls for location and personalization data
Add friend-invite flows
Next work
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