sydney tong.
Park City Insider is an event website that caters to visitors and locals searching for events in Park City Utah. Collaborated with the owner on research, design and branding for this site.
My Role
Research, Design, CodeTimeline
Feb `18 - Aug `18Platform
Responsive websiteTools
Sketch, Mockflow, AnimaOverview
Park City Insider is a new business that wants to highlight the apés ski culture to visitors and give locals new and exciting things to do. They are partnered with popular venues in the area, radio stations and bars, and restaurants.
As of February 2022 this company is still active and is undergoing a facelift. I will post a new updated case-study upon completion.
The Problem
Park City Utah needed an events calendar loaded with local events and things to do. Existing bars, restaurants, theaters, and venues did not have functional websites that listed the events that they had going on. The only way for locals and visitors to know what was going on was through word of mouth.
The Goal
- Conduct research on the local and national competition in the area.
- Interview event planners, promoters, and venues to find out what process of data collection is the easiest and most beneficial.
- Interview locals on how they get information on events and things to do in the area.
- Designs include; wireframe, digital wireframes, high-fidelity mockups and prototypes.
- Create a proof of concept and MVP to show potential partners, investors and gain traction with users to get data with what the users are finding important.
- Develop a website and CMS for the client.
- Create a feature-list and plan a roadmap for future development.
Research
User interviews, a competitive audit, personas and user journeys were hugely helpful in deciding the direction of the company and the structure of the website. We interviewed locals event seekers, visiting event seekers and event poster/promoters in order to discover pain points in the community.
- How might we inform locals of specials and exciting events in Park City?
- How might we inform visitors of the 'must-sees' in Park City?
- How might we get event data information from local venues and event planners?
User Hesitations
Lack of resources
There is no one-stop shop to find events. The best events are kept hush hush.Not online
Events aren’t advertised. Sometimes it’s just a poster outside the venue.Inaccurate information
A lot of online information is outdated, inaccurate and oldSocial Media
Social media is the best place to find information IF it is availableResearch Kit
Competitive Audit - We analyzed features and sites locally and nationally to decipher what would be advantageous to us. If we could create our own unique features that would set us apart.
User Interviews
Our users fell within 3 different categroies, Local, visitor and promoter
Data Acquisition
Design
During the research phase, we made a list of features that were important to our users and unique to Park City Insider. We initially cut back on a lot of the nice-to-have features in favor of getting the absolute necessary needed to produce the product and test it. The client needed to have a prototype to show to investors, venues and potential partners.
With feedback from partners and through several design iterations, we came up with three design principles
- Clear - The design has to be fun but easy to navigate. Filters must be in place so that users can narrow their search.
- Informational - The design needs to quickly and accurately convey information that is essential to the event.
- Local - The design needs to showcase the best of Park City culture
Digital Wireframes
Sitemap - It was a collaborative effort to decide which features and pages would be valuable to users and promoters. This rough sitemap is a culmination of those early meetings, designs, and train of thought. We needed to specify what we were going to create based off of an idea.
Home - digital wireframes
Digital wireframes continued
Digital wireframes continued
Design Obstacles
1
Recurring events
We showed the date range on the event card, with one shared URL, and the card would show up in the search on every day it is active. Improved speed of site. 2
Monetization
We opted for a tiered program, promoters could pay for a boost in exposure and weight in the trending events section. Users, stakeholders, and promoters both felt this was fair. 3
Trending events
A ‘trending events’ section on the home page and the events page allows users to see what events are receiving the most traction. Venues and partners that are approved by the Insider team receive more weight when users click their events. 4
Event listing page
After testing with users, we opted for a featured event card at the top of the page to bring attention to events that were receiving more traction. Components Design
Recurring events - It was a collaboration between design and engineering.
Venues and promoters wanted to pay for exposure for their event. It is essential that promoters get the exposure they want without compromising the integrity of our product.
Trending Events - To protect users from being bombarded with a plethora of useless and irrelevant events we added a trending section so the best of the best get the most exposure.
It took several iterations of the event listing page to get this wireframe. We went back and forth between venues, users and the client to find a design that worked.
Final Designs
Updated 2021 Version
Featured events page - Unfortuately my original sketch file is corrupt, these designs have inconsistencies not seen in final designs.
Blockframes of the event detail page. Unfortuately my original sketch file is corrupt, these designs have inconsistencies not seen in final designs.
Light mode. Unfortuately my original sketch file is corrupt, these designs have inconsistencies not seen in final designs.
Takeaways
Impact
Building Park City Insider required a lot of research and interviews. We started with a vague idea and a want to improve our city and turned it into a product with a lot of promise. Based on the feedback from partners and analytics we have an idea of how we will improve the product within the upcoming months. We have been able to clarify what features are valuable to both us, the promoters and our users.
Within the first month of the beta release, our website was consistently in the top 4 on searches using common search phrases for events in the area. We were able to get the attention of future partners and businesses.
In hindsight, I would have left more time and budget for user usability testing and interviews.
What I learned
Park City Insider is a new product for a new business, so a large portion of time was spent researching, clarifying and refining.
We didn't have a strict timeline which at first was great, but it meant we were constantly battling "scope creep". For the upcoming steps, we have talked about putting more constraints on the timeline so we can put a product out to test its effectiveness before we invest more time and money on developing features we're not 100% sure will work.
Every event promoter, venue, and bar owner had an opinion on how they wanted the website and future app to work. So we spent time sifting through the opinions to find commonalities.
Next Steps
Road map
We have a long list of features that users and partners would find useful. We will work on building and establishing the brand within the community. We've received feedback and data from the site and are working to refine the existing website to meet needs. 
Previous Case StudyShazam.A concept to generate a custom playlist based on users music taste and recently Shazammed songs in order to bring users back to the app after the initial use.
Next Case StudyScope Travel.Analysis of analytics gave insight to how we might improve the above-the-fold design for a travel blog website.
Designing out of
San Diego, California.
San Diego, California.
I'm always open to hearing about new project ideas and possibilities for collaboration. If you have an idea that you'd like to bring to life or if you're in need of a passionate product designer to be part of your team, I'd love to have a conversation.
hello@sydneytong.com
510.338.7860©2024 sydney tong. All rights reserved.