Revenue for the Wedding Services industry declined 34.2% in 2020 as many weddings were postponed due to restrictions on large gatherings. While it is expected to bounce back in the next 5 years, many venues have still not caught up with modern technology, and have outdated sites with limited information. With 1 out of 4 weddings now planned as a destination wedding, there is also a client need to tour, book, and communicate virtually with venues.

As someone who is now beginning to plan a wedding themselves, I have struggled to find the information I need on venues without having to call them during business hours, which is when I'm busy working, or email and wait days to get the information. Weddings are expensive, and people want to make informed decisions when spending so much money on one day. I have created an app design for the "Wedding Venue" that serves as a possibility for venues ready to upgrade their user experience to provide clients and their families easily accessible information.

Project Duration

• May 2021-August 2021

My Role

• UX/UI Designer and Researcher from conception to delivery

• Conducting interviews, paper and digital wireframing, low and high-fidelity prototyping, conducting usability studies, accounting for accessibility, and iterating on designs.

• Create an app with a virtual tour experience

• Have a way to book a date without calling or meeting with a venue representative

• Show information on venue policies and rates

While I heard some general problems with wedding venue sites from my initial conversations with friends and family, I did not actually have a lot of experience looking at them until recently. I decided a competitive audit for venues in the Vitoria, BC area would be a good sampling to look at, as this is an area I considered for my upcoming wedding. I settled on a venue called Langtry Walk as my main example as I felt it was pretty standard in its offerings and pricing. From there I selected competitors of Langtry Walk that were around the same ballpark in terms of their offerings.

After completing this audit, I complied a report to analyze my findings.

Next I setup remote interviews to see if user answers affirmed my competitive audit analysis, or if I had missed something that people really needed in a venue app. As I hadn't designed anything yet, I just had a few open-ended questions for my participants.

Interviews were conducted over video call or in person. My target audience had either had a wedding, was planning a wedding, or hoped to have a wedding soon. They were all between the ages of 21-65.

Empathy Maps

After completing the interviews I compiled their answers into empathy maps. These all formed the basis from which I created my personas. I have added a few examples below:

The target audience for weddings can vary in age, but I focused on 21-65 year olds and either have had a wedding, are planning a wedding, or want to have one in the future. I also included people who may be attendees to a wedding needing specific venue aspects such as my Niya Persona below.

I begin the design with some paper wireframes, and after deciding on a layout, created a digital wireframe in Figma.

After a quick review of the IA in the wireframe I filled it out the connections in Figma to create a functional prototype.

Before committing to this design and creating a high-fidelity prototype, I wanted to do some quick user testing. I knew my design needed some changes but I wanted to see what others thought the priority was before I started changing everything.

I interviewed 5 participants, all again in my demographic of 21-65. It was an unmoderated study conducted remotely within the US. My users consisted of two males, two females, and one non-binary person. I set forth a few navigation tasks for them to complete, and then asked for their general thoughts on layout and possible features. I had them voice record their process, and then compiled responses into the matrix below.

I then analyzed their responses and used quotes from their interviews to create an affinity map. This showed me that I had several changes to make.

While there were a number of different suggestions from the testers, I focused on the top three that were most in common.

1. Users needed a more intuitive way of exiting the Profile screen.

2. Users wanted a contact form to be included in the contact section on the homepage.

3. Navigation options needed to be expanded to include a Home button.

First, I went ahead and restructured the app design to take care of the three design changes my users wanted from the user testing session.

It was now time to bring my high-fidelity prototype to user testers. I felt really confident in my design and was ready to hear affirmation and praise. I tested the same group that I had for the low-fidelity prototype and expected them to really enjoy the changes I had made based on their previous feedback.

It was again an unmoderated study conducted remotely within the US. I set forth the same navigation tasks for them to complete, and then asked for their general thoughts on layout, colors, features. I had them voice record their process, and then compiled responses into the matrix below.

I then analyzed their responses and used quotes from their interviews to create an affinity map. I was surprised by some of their feedback, but also found it super helpful.

While there were a number of different suggestions from the testers, I focused mostly on the visual design and communication feedback.

1. Most users hate the pink.

2. The design has too much text.

3. It's not modern, it needs rounded corners.

Having worked as an event coordinator and designing my employer's own venue website, I felt pretty confident about this project. Once I received my rounds of feedback though, I realized that app design is possibly even harder than web design. Apps have much less space, meaning everything you put in there needs to have a purpose and visual appeal. It also needs to be fun to use and not over crowded. A website offers much more space to play with, so you don't have to worry as much about editing the design down.

I also learned through this design that my work doesn't have to be different from all the other apps out there. In fact, an app works better when it adopts the common icon, rounded corner, and other visual aspects that other apps use. It creates a visual continuity for users and make navigation much easier. This process was a huge learning curve for me, but makes me excited to start the process again with a new project after having this experience to reflect on in future work.