Analysis of offline event operation cases!

With the spread of the 996 and long-week corporate culture, office workers are being "exploited" and squeezed to the point where they don't have much personal time, and more and more older single men and women are being "produced". Leftover men and women who want to find a way out of being single can only rely on introductions, which either come from friends/colleagues/relatives, or they pay a blind date company to provide a one-stop service. Blind date services and activities have become a necessity in the context of the Internet.

As the market becomes bigger, everyone wants to get a piece of the pie. As a result, many online and offline dating platforms have emerged on the market. Online platforms include Tantan, Yidui, Ergou, etc., while offline platforms include Jiayuan.com, Zhenai.com, and local dating platforms.

For users, the key point in choosing which platform to use to find a partner is what kind of services the platform can provide, the quality of the services, and the probability of finding a partner.

For the platform, only when more high-quality single members join can the platform have higher competitive barriers. How can users and platforms achieve a win-win situation? I think the key point lies in the user experience of the product.

This article will analyze a case study of a singles event that I attended over the weekend, exploring how dating products/ offline events can improve user experience and platform service quality.

【Activity Case】

Let’s first take a look at the overall activity flow design of the bachelor party event I participated in. Can you spend 10 minutes thinking about what user experience problems this design has?

1. What is User Experience?

User Experience (UE/UX) is a purely subjective feeling that users develop during the process of using a product. Later, it was defined as "the user's overall experience before, during and after using a product or system, including emotions, beliefs, preferences, cognitive impressions, physiological and psychological reactions, behaviors and achievements."

To put it simply, user experience is the user's feeling. How a product can make users feel happy and good is a core issue that every product manager and operator must consider.

2. What are the user experience points of blind date products/activities and how to grasp them?

Blind date activities are also a product. Users who have participated in blind date activities should be able to empathize - the most difficult point of the blind date "product" and the most painful and urgent point for users to solve during use is how the blind date partners should resolve awkward situations with each other, quickly enter into normal communication processes, and finally hook up with the person they want to meet. This embarrassment comes from both the unfamiliarity or social phobia caused by the lack of acquaintance between the two parties, and also from whether the other party is the person you want to continue to have "after-sales (pursuit)" services .

Therefore, only by designing product functions and user experience points around user pain points can blind date products better serve users, improve user conversion rates, and build a product moat. This is also the most critical part of the blind date product.

During a blind date, what are the essential, expected, and attractive functions of a product that can help alleviate user embarrassment? Which functions (links) are indifferent or reverse functions for users? The Kano model can be used to list the function points.

3. User experience map of dating products/activities

We often say that product and operation cannot be designed from a bird's eye view, because even if such products are designed, users are unwilling to pay for them. Only by clearly understanding the overall links, behaviors, thoughts, emotions, key points, etc. of users when using products or participating in activities can we discover more opportunities.

Regardless of the product, the user experience process can be divided into three parts: before the experience, during the experience, and after the experience. A good product or a good event must pay close attention to these three processes, discover user pain points and effectively solve them in the process.

What is the entire user experience map of a user when using a dating product? As shown below, this is my overall journey when using a dating product:

IV. [Case Analysis] Inventory of User Experience Issues in Blind Date Activities

Good user experience is mainly reflected in five elements: strategy layer, scope layer, structure layer, framework layer, and presentation layer.

Let’s compare the event case I shared at the beginning with my personal user experience map, and return to the case itself. What product design and user experience problems does this bachelor party event have? Below I will mainly analyze the three core elements of the structure layer, framework layer, and presentation layer:

1. Structural layer

The structural layer is used to design the process through which users can meet their needs and consider where they can go after completing their tasks .

What are the main needs of users at a bachelor party? It’s about knowing others. Often, the biggest stumbling block that prevents users from getting to know others at bachelor parties is the awkwardness that comes with not knowing each other. The activity in the case made three mistakes in the structural design:

First, the activity process is wrong

The first biggest problem with Halloween bachelor parties is the design of the event process.

Put the 3-minute free conversation time at the last process and the masquerade at the first process. Without introducing themselves to each other, they directly cue the process and enter the dance session, which makes the event awkward for a while. If you don’t even know the other person’s name or where they come from, do you dare to hold their hand and dance?

Second, the interactive activities were too complex and not designed at the right stages. Three interactive games were designed that night, as follows:

1. Look at each other affectionately for more than 20 seconds

2. Both parties stand back to back and pop 3 balloons together

3. Both men and women spend 30 seconds praising each other's strengths

The first two items will not be analyzed in detail, and the last one is simply anti-user experience design. Without the premise of introducing oneself, this game is equivalent to testing a person's Chinese vocabulary level in disguise. The result is self-evident. The vocabulary of the users on site is nothing more than handsome, beautiful, white, tall, well-dressed, heavy... In any case, the vocabulary can be said in 3 seconds, but it was forcibly stretched to 30 seconds, and the crow's cry in the middle of the 27 seconds seemed extra loud.

In fact, there is nothing wrong with the design of the third activity itself, but it becomes a problem because it is at the wrong stage. Activities such as praising each other's strengths and weaknesses are best designed on the basis that both parties already have some understanding of each other.

Third, user segmentation was not done well. The word generation is not unfamiliar at all. At this stage, five years is a large age gap. For a good event experience, users must be stratified and grouped before the event begins, whether by age, interest preference, region, etc., to avoid situations where communication is impossible on site. (It was difficult to communicate when the age gap was more than ten years, not to mention that many people went there just for the Halloween costume gimmick, like me)

Vertical segmentation of the user market and refined operations are issues that every industry cannot avoid and must address.

2. Framework layer

The framework layer mainly considers the design of the product interface, navigation and information.

The biggest problem with bachelor party activities at the framework level is the navigation design, which is mainly reflected in the unclear guidance in the design of activity rules.

Many event designers believe that announcing the event rules on the spot can bring surprises to users. This is a double-edged sword, as risks and surprises coexist. When on-site users don’t understand the rules of your event, they are likely to refuse to cooperate, obey, or even run away. I personally recommend having a KT board or a small note at the event site to introduce the rules of the event, so that users can have expectations and the user experience will be better.

Or you can adopt classic activity gameplay to reduce the difficulty of activity operation. (After all, the ultimate goal of the event is to get users involved, not to innovate for the sake of innovation. For classic event gameplay, see the previous tweet "Best-selling Event Strategy")

Second, the beginning and ending guidance of an event is important. The peak-end effect tells us that the climax and ending are the key points to deepen user memory and can directly reverse the user's experience of the product. A good event should never ignore the ending .

The Halloween bachelor party ignored the small details at the end. After the third game, it went straight to the tea break. However, the users were not informed that the entire event was over tonight. Only after the users asked about it were they told that it had ended for 10 minutes.

Third, no attention was paid to the subsequent needs of users. For example, if you don’t add the contact information of the person you like on the spot, how can you connect with them later? These are actually problems that can be solved by building a community, which can also serve as a link between the past and the future.

3. Presentation Layer

The presentation layer is mainly a visual issue. Putting aside the visual design of the event site, the choice of venue can reduce a lot of points. The event was held on the open-air balcony that evening, but it was very windy on the day of the event and there was no lighting design on site. Only with the help of the light projected from the high-rise building opposite can users vaguely see the outline of the young man and woman sitting next to them.

Venue design is the first factor that users can use to feel the quality of an event, and offline event designers must not be careless about it.

Product design and user experience exist in every aspect of life. A bachelor party event can make people reflect a lot. How to do a good job in user experience design? The key lies in research and insight into users. When you empathize with your users, they will naturally be willing to pay.

I hope that friends who often organize offline activities will consider user experience and user conversion issues more in process design. You are also welcome to analyze cases together.

Author: Kaka

Source: Kaka's Product Notes