The Project

Vente is a mobile app for active, energetic users to help them find events, meetups, and activities to do in their respective cities. Users are saturated with options and my task was to help Vente’s users personalize their experience to easily find the right activities that are catered to them. This was a student project that I worked on and I worked on all deliverables as an individual.

The Problem

Developing a design solution that would easily and intuitively assist users to discover preferred activities amongst the many local options.

My Solution

To design a new logo, high fidelity mockups a new user onboarding experience, and creating a marketing website to promote the product.

My Tools

Sketch, Principle, Adobe Creative Suite, InVision, Google Suite, Keynote

The Timeline

6 weeks

My Responsibilities

Design Strategy

Logo Design

Moodboards

Style Tiles

Desirability Testing

Wireframes

Prototypes

Usability Testing

Presenting

Annotated Screens

Style Guide

The Research

To gain a better understanding of the market I conducted some domain research. I evaluated six direct and indirect competitors and put together a visual competitive analysis. Then I created an affinity diagram to find patterns and opportunities amongst competitors to see how they present their brand.

A pattern I found in my research was that some competitors used fun and unique illustrations to draw the attention of users and to engage them. Other successful visual patterns amongst competitors was the delicate balance of keeping designs simple and modern. Lastly, I found an opportunity in differentiating Vente with a strong choice in color, as some competitors stood out from others in terms of their use of color.

I was then introduced to the persona, Nate. He’s a young, city dweller who wants to stay in touch with the local scene in his city. As a busy professional, Nate wants to stay up to date with meetups and events but he doesn’t have the time to search through all the events happening around him.  

Designing a Logo

After researching and understanding the persona I designed a logo to help establish a visual identity for the brand. I first sketched several design paths with several different concepts. Some concepts explored themes around the idea of what’s found in local cities. Other concepts looked into what’s fun and playful considering the younger demographic that the persona fits. After sketching I moved forward with a handful of designs that I then digitized.   

Digitized Logos

The digitized logos I moved forward with explored the concept of a bridge, kite, and skyline. The bridge is emblematic of most cities and symbolized the connecting of users as they came together for meetups. The kite concept explored a more fun and playful logo, which tied with the type of activities users would find through the app. The skyline concept was clean, modern, and aligned best with the persona. This final logo was the design direction I chose to move forward with.

Design Directions

When exploring different design directions I tried my best in looking into very divergent designs. The first moodboard and style tile was bright and playful. This was reflected in its many bright colors and playful images. The second design direction looked into the colors and images we would see when exploring the city. This design explored varying grays that tied to asphalt, yellow from street paint, and green from the patches of grass and trees. The final design explored more clean lines seen in architecture and what you would see in a skyline or downtown. The minimal approach allowed for pops of color to really draw the eye. This final design was the strongest and I chose to move forward with this design direction.

Design Solutions

I evaluated the wireframes for a new user flow. While evaluating the wireframes I focused on visual hierarchy and clarity of information. Some changes involved iterating on the layout of the onboarding information and changes in navigation through the app. The goal of these changes was so that users could easily scan the information as they navigated through onboarding and the mobile experience.

The Prototype

I created high fidelity screens from the wireframes to implement into a prototype. The prototype focused on a new user flow as they go through onboarding, then as they search for and sign up for a local activity. In line with the chosen moodboard and style tile, I kept the overall design modern with a dark theme. With the cleaner design each screen was easier to scan and the brighter call to action buttons stood out more.

Marketing Site

When creating a marketing site I wanted to keep the visual design consistent. While promoting the products many features I also wanted to present several mockups with the app in use. I also wanted to incorporate a warm, youthful image to align with the persona and make the ways to download the app very clear.

Reflections

This was one of my earliest design projects and was the first time incorporating a lot of what I’ve learned as a student. The experience was great in teaching me about thinking through design solutions and applying them towards a project. Ultimately this experience was great in building my confidence as a designer and allowed me to embrace and immerse myself in that role.