CityPal App - Case study
The product
CityPal is a social-good web platform and app made for Bucharest City, which purpose is to inform their citizens and tourists about any important events, activities, hospitality, health, cultural attractions, and other relevant informations related to the city.
Project duration
from June 2022 to July 2022
The problem
It’s not that easy for users to find suitable events or activities to attend in their city or another city.
The goal
Design an app and a website for CityPal, providing to users a way to be informed and manage activities and events they want to attend in a city (Bucharest in this case).
My role
UX researcher and UX/UI designer for CityPal app and responsive website.
Responsabilities
Make the user research by interviewing them, designing wireframes, making Low-Fidelity prototypes, conducting usability studies, designing High-Fidelity mockups,make High-Fidelity prototypes.
Persona:
Ramona
Age: 19
Education: High-School
Hometown: Bacău, Romania
Family: single
Occupation: student, lifestyle vlogger
“With every experience I have, another brick is added to consolidate my personality”
Goals
– Attending quality but accessible events
– Meet friendly people to build professional relationships
Frustrations
– “It’s a bit frustrating to find a suitable event in a specific city”
– “Sometimes, I forget the events I want to attend in a week, and realise that only after the event pass”
Ramona recently moved from Bacău to Bucharest to study International Business. In her free time, she deals with her vlog about the lifestyle in every place she visits, and for that, she needs to search and find suitable events for her tastes, like concerts, festivals and lifestyle events. She is a very communicative person, willing to accumulate quality infos and to know quality people, an activity which will help her later in the career.
Competitive audit
Insights from direct and indirect competitors, providing opportunities and what can be improved on city info app.
User flow
Digital wireframes
Low-fidelity prototype
Low-fidelity prototype obn how an user can save an event on which they are interested to attend, then configure their profile by adding extra interests, and then leaving a review for an event they just attended in the near past.
Figma prototyping - low fidelity
Usability study: parameters
Study type
Moderated usability study
Location
Romania, remote
Participants
4 participants
Length
10-15 minutes
Usability study findings
Finding 1
Users want a multilingual app since it’s dedicated not only to citie’s citizens, but also to tourists
Finding 2
Users want to be informed when to submit a review for an event they just attended
Finding 3
Users want to know when their review was submited or not
Mockups
After the usability study, I made an improvement by adding a select language feature since the app is dedicated not only to city’s citizens, but also to tourists.
Before usability study
After usability study
After the usability study, I made an improvement on how the users are notified about reviewing an event they have just attended. So, there is not just a notification dot, but also a sticky-card above the notification bell which informs user with an representative image and a short text.
Before usability study
After usability study
Key mockups
High-fidelity prototype
The high-fidelity prototype follows the same user-flow as in the low-fidelity prototype.
Figma prototyping
Accessibility considerations
1
Iconography for facilitating an easy experience with navigation
2
A suitable color palette with prominent colors
Takeaways
Impact
After conducting the usability study, I noticed that all the users finds useful an app that can help them and inform about the events, activities, news, health and all useful information related to a city
What I learned
I learned that no matter how useful I consider an idea of mine, it’s crucial to test it through usability study because other persons may consider and come up with new and fresh insights to basic idea