Event Planning in WhatsAPP. Improving the process of creating and keeping track of events in WhatsApp Group chats.

A smartphone screen showing a WhatsApp chat conversation with the Pickleball Crew. The conversation includes messages about playing pickleball at the Other Racquet Social Club, with options for sending photos, camera, location, contact, document, poll, and event at the bottom.

Screenshot of a messaging app showing a group chat named 'Pickleball Crew' with scheduled events including pickleball games and lunch, listed with dates and times.

Screenshot of a messaging app conversation for a pickleball community. The chat shows upcoming events, including a game scheduled for 4/13/24 at a social club, with RSVPs from members confirming their attendance.

Role: UI/UX designer

Duration: 1 month

Tools: Figma/Figjam

Platform: Mobile App

Group chats must evolve

A smartphone screen displaying a WhatsApp group chat named 'VC Team Chat' with conversations about a bike ride scheduled for Saturday, including messages from multiple participants.

Using WhatsApp as our platform for communicating, my cycling team would endlessly post messages such as ‘when is the ride?’, ‘where are we meeting?’ or ‘what time?’. Messages would get lost in the long text thread, and planning them was a headache because there was no way to organize them with the exception of polls.

It’s such a pain to scroll through a chat trying to figure out when and where we are meeting. I wish there was a way to keep track of our events.

-User quote

There Must Be A Better Way

I researched other group chat apps to see if maybe something else could take the place of Whatsapp for our group. Most of the options I came across were either too clunky and awkward themselves (Slack, Discord, GroupMe), or simply not great for chatting (MSTeams).

Comparison chart of Slack, Discord, and Microsoft for competitive analysis. Shows strengths, weaknesses, and feature support including channels, integrated calendar, third-party integration, event reminders, add to calendar, and RSVP.

The right app - it’s just missing the right feature.

After realizing there wasn’t a better app for our group communication, I decided to just add the missing feature to WhatsApp. The problem was simple, and so was the solution:

Problem Statement:

How might we remind people of their events within WhatsApp so that they do not have to search endlessly for details or possibly miss the event entirely?

Questions and answers

To address the problem, I decided to add a feature to Whatsapp, asking the following questions: What makes WhatsApp difficult to use when planning events? How do people currently plan events in WhatsApp? How can we improve WhatsApp to make event planning easier? Are there any other issues that pop up when planning events on WhatsApp?

WhatsApp user survey infographic displaying research objectives, goals, results, reasons for using WhatsApp, and top user recommendations with percentage data.

Improving event planning and tracking in Whatsapp

From the data I collected, I developed the project goals, which then helped me brainstorm ideas on how to incorporate an event feature. I then created an ideal user flow for how I imagined this feature to work and what my user experience would look like. It developed into a simple user flow and mid-fidelity prototype which was well received during user testing.

A detailed infographic in a grid layout presenting various business goals, KPIs, shared goals, user and business pain points, technical considerations, and a conclusion related to calendar and scheduling features for a WhatsApp app, with sections color-coded in blue, green, red, orange, yellow, purple, and gray.

Mid-fidelity Wireframes

I designed a feature to allow users to add a group event that can be accessed from a pinned list, group info, and added to an external calendar with options to send automatic reminders.

Events can be accessed via the pinned list at the top, or by going to group info.

Ability to send automatic reminders to the group and specify when.

Can add to external calendar as well as view and change RSVP and see who is confirmed.

Add event feature is accessed via the + button.

Yellow represents added features

Screenshots of a mobile app for creating and managing pickleball events, showing event details, scheduling options, and a list of confirmed attendees.

No more scrolling

The event feature focuses on allowing users to easily post and RSVP to events. An event calendar keeps track of group events and there is an option to send reminders to the group. My overall goal was to add a feature that would make it easier to plan, create, and keep track of events in WhatsApp and I accomplished that based on user testing results.

Screenshots of a messaging app showing a conversation about a pickleball game, creating and scheduling events, and viewing scheduled events on a calendar.

Reflection

There are so many times in my day to day life that I’ve thought “I sure wish I could do _____ on this app/website” so being able to define and find a solution to a problem that many users experience was extremely rewarding and satisfying. This project allowed me to see firsthand how a UX designer can improve existing apps and websites and gave me a glimpse of what it might feel like to work as a UX designer in the real world.

The similarities were striking, although I do feel that my version was more robust as it allows users to add more event details, control the reminders, share the event, and change the RSVP.