Fiesta

Planning Casual Events with Friends

Casual Online Social Event Planning

The Team

James (JJ) Soracco, Bart Knijnenburg,Gabriel Golcher, Adam Brcka, Chan Seol

The MHCI Capstone Project

• MHCI Project course– Spring (Part-time)– Summer (Full-time)

• Our Work– Employed a variety of usability methods– Utilized an iterative design cycle– Developed medium-fidelity prototype

Our Project

• Project sponsor:

• Task– Develop a social

event planning system

– Target largest possible user-base

Appreciation

• Clients:– Jonathan Terleski– Andrea Knight– Braden Kowitz

• Special thanks to– Cathy, Michelle, Michael!

Let’s answer the question that’s on

everyone’s minds…

What are you doing after this presentation?

How do we plan this?

• Evite? Facebook events?

• Phone?

• E-mail?

• Face-to-face communication?

• Skobee? Renkoo?

How do we plan this?

Fiesta!

How people plan events

Our research & design process

Spring

Initial Research

• Focus Setting• Literature Review• Competitor Analysis• Google Product Evaluation• Informal Interviews

Milestone:Development of the event planning

spectrum and a focus on casual events

Event planning spectrum

• A focus on the Who versus a focus on the What• Most social events are within this space• No strong competitor in this space• A good fit for Google’s playful image

In-depth user-research and initial design

• Diary Studies• Exploratory Interface Design• System Integration• Contextual Design Models

Milestone:Identification of six Key Needs

Key Needs

• People need to communicate casual event details to their friends.

• People need an awareness of current event and attendee statuses.

• People need to plan casual events collaboratively.

• People need to negotiate event specifics.• People need to adapt an event to

accommodate changing plans.• People need to be able to create events at

different levels of granularity.

Summer

Initial Summer Work

• Define Goal Statement• Timeline and Tool Models

Milestone:Moving from problems to solutions and

key opportunities

Help groups of people have an easier time suggesting and planning get-togethers in the next few days so they can focus on having fun with friends.

Timeline model: what users do

Tool model: what tools people use

Key opportunities

• Help the Decision Process• Mobile Context• Knowledge of Availability• Speed Up Communication• Improve Clarity

Overview of Summer Research and Design Process

• Concept Validation• Information Architecture• Wireframe Designs and Scenario Walkthroughs• Paper Prototype and Think-Alouds• High-Fidelity Mock-ups• Interactive Flash Prototype and Think-Alouds

Milestone:

Fiesta!

Concept validationAsk for availability (1/2)

Brad is wasting time and decides to check his Gmail. He see's something in Gmail that says 'Ask if your friends are free' and clicks it.A dialog box opens with the message 'Do you want to do something tonight' and Brad is given the option of who to send the message to.

Brad decides it would be nice to do something tonight with his friends so he chooses his friends Dave and Andrew and sends them the message.

Concept validation

Highlights from the results• As expected, event details are very

important• Mobile features are a valuable

addition• Other solutions were often a bit too

formal, natural communication was preferred

Information Architecture

• Integration in Gmail

• System architecture decided

• Interface Screens

Wireframe Designs and Scenario Walkthroughs

• Deciding on several implementation alternatives

Wireframe Designs and Scenario Walkthroughs

• After these tests, we could confidently solidify our designs

Paper prototype and Think-Alouds

• Testing the system without implementation effort

Paper prototype and Think-Alouds

Highlights from the results• Improved design and interactions• No radical changes, our overall

concept is good!

High-Fidelity Mock-ups

• Solidify designs for implementation

Interactive Flash Prototype and Think-alouds

• Test with our digital prototype that looks like Gmail

• Smooth out any remaining usability issues

How Fiesta works…

Overview of the Fiesta system

• Integration in Gmail and other Google products

• Communication Area, Suggestions, and Event Details

• The initiator and invitees can plan an event collaboratively

• Fiesta users can interact with Fiesta in a mobile context

Integration points

• Many benefits to integrating

• The system “lives” in Gmail

• Has touch-points in other Google products

Gmail inbox and events page

Gmail inbox and events page

• Seamless integration

• Dedicated Events page

• Distinct icon• Create new or

based on email

Event view layout

Event view layout

• Clean layout, clarity of information

• Planning and communication area

• Decision and detail area

Initiator versus Invitee

Communication area

Communication area

• Central area for communication

• Real-time chat• Organized history

of event

Suggestions

Suggestions

• Distinguishes Suggestions from the rest of chat

• Initiators want friends’ input

• Suggestions are kept in context

Event details

Event details

• Lets people know what decisions the group has made

• Details can have varying levels of granularity

• Important information all in one place

Who widget and attendance status

Who widget and attendance status

Who widget and attendance status

Who widget and attendance status

• Let everyone know whether or not you’re coming

• See everyone’s status at a glance

• Invite all of your friends!

What field

What field

• Indicates activity

Where field

Where field

• Supports a description and a street address (Maps)

When field

When field

• Supports vague and specific times

• Integration with Google Calendar

Don’t forget field

Don’t forget field

• Sunscreen, ID, tickets, swimming suit, tooth brush, your dancing shoes, flashlights, BYOB, food, Dave is driving, make those PowerPoint slides funnier, to have fun!

Non-Gmail users

Non-Gmail users

• Includes everyone! (with an email address)

• Exposes more people to the Google experience

Receiving updates

• Events in Gmail behave like threaded emails• Non-Gmail users get email updates when

event details are changed• Users can change the frequency and

modality of the updates they receive

Reminders

Reminders

• Includes current event details

• Automatically set for the group

• Editable per person

Mobile features

• Group SMS• Directions• Can get event

updates and reminders

Hey guys, I have no drinks, plz BYOB!

Hey guys, I have no drinks, plz BYOB!

Message Sent with Google

BYOB!

Message sent with Google events by John (412-728-1472)

send SMS press

Attendees receive:

Message sent! Ben is atten-ding but we don’t have his number. He didn’t get the message.

John receives:

John sends:

Okay!

Hey Ben, please bring your own drinks!

Call Ben

Hey guys, I have no drinks, plz BYOB!

Hey guys, I have no drinks, plz BYOB!

Message Sent with Google

BYOB!

Message sent with Google events by John (412-728-1472)

send SMS press

Attendees receive:

Message sent! Ben is atten-ding but we don’t have his number. He didn’t get the message.

John receives:

John sends:

Okay!

Hey Ben, please bring your own drinks!

Call Ben

No piñatas were harmed creating this presentation