The associate dean of Humber College, Ahmed Sagarwala, was facing a challenge. The Humber student council typically used Eventbrite to plan and organize events, but the fees for this system were too high for the college's budget. Ahmed decided it would be more cost-effective for Humber to have its own event management system (EMS) designed and developed by students. My team and I were given the task of creating an EMS that would provide a seamless experience for end users in hosting and attending events.
"How might we create a responsive EMS that acts as the hub for Humber's activities?"
ROLE
UX/UI designer, in collab with 2 other designers, 2 web developers and a content strategist
SCOPE
8 weeks
PROCESS
User research, competitive analysis, ideation, wireframing, prototyping
TOOLS
Figma, Figjam, Canva
TIMELINE AND SCOPE
We were given 8 weeks to come up with a polished first version of our EMS ...
Our client provided us with the following list of features they wished to incorporate into the EMS:
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A website with a responsive design
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AODA support
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Registration tracking
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Internal registrations (for Humber staff/students)
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External registrations that support capturing attendee details
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Both paid and free ticketing that is linked to cast centre ID
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An administrative dashboard with event analytics
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Onsite registration view
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Ability to create an event details page
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Control registrant types
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Define the number of tickets available
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Coupon codes
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Events Calendar
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Applies Humber banding based on published guidelines
Given the 8 week timeline, it was not possible for us to incorporate all of these features, so instead we selected a few features that we could really emphasize for our first version, and the rest could be incorporated in future versions of the system.
RESEARCH
Competitive Analysis
To guide and inform our design decisions we conducted a high-level competitive analysis with 3 direct competitors of our EMS: Eventbrite, Ticket Tailor, and Whova.
Based on our competitive analysis, we decided to focus most of our efforts on the event creation flow as well as the ticket purchasing flow. Our competitors did well by providing a wide range of features for event management such as promotional tools and event analytics. We wanted to incorporate those things into our design and create a seamless user experience for ticket purchasers.
User Personas
Before we started the ideation process, we conducted user interviews with a few of our fellow Humber students and some of the Humber faculty in charge of hosting events. We opted to create a persona for your average Humber student who enjoys attending events and an events admin who is in charge of the event logistics. This gave us a broader idea of the types of users we were catering to.
The insights I gathered through my research helped me create 2 personas:
Melissa - The passionate professor
David - The outgoing college student
IDEATION
User Flows
Once we had completed the research phase, we had a good idea of who our target audience was. We now needed to decide what user flows to focus on for this draft of the EMS. Since our main target audience was going to be Humber students and Humber events admin, we decided to stick to 2 major flows.
Event registration for Humber students
The first flow we decided to focus on was the event registration flow. This is arguably the most important aspect of an EMS. We wanted our student users to easily navigate the system and sign up for their desired events. To achieve this, we wanted to create the shortest possible flow to get them to their end goal and encourage them to use our EMS again in the future.
Event creation for Humber admin
The second flow we wanted to emphasize was the event creation flow. On the admin end of things, this was a crucial flow that needed to be perfected for our EMS to succeed. We wanted to ensure that the event creation process was very effortless and efficient. Most of the admin using our site will likely be busy and juggling multiple tasks at once, so keeping this flow short and sweet was our goal.
Wireframes
These are some examples of the wireframes we created for this project. I opted not to include too many because many reiterations were made to the final polished prototype, and given our short timeline of 8 weeks, we did not have the time to create new low-fi wireframes for each change. So you will notice big changes in these wireframes compared to the completed prototypes. We kept the structure and design of the wireframes very rough, they were simply intended to serve as a starting point for our high-fidelity wireframes which we wanted to get started on as soon as possible. Initially, we planned to include an analytics page for the admin users, but we later realized we did not have enough time to incorporate that into this version of the EMS. So you will also notice it is not included in the finished prototype.
PROTOTYPE AND TEST
User Interface Design
Our final polished interface design was kept very clean and minimal. We didn't want our users to get overwhelmed with too many options so we kept the navigation menu simple. We also opted to use a lot of white space on the event information and checkout pages to keep things looking professional. The home page has more color incorporated into it due to the banners and event preview photos. That will ensure that the user gets an idea of what the event is about before even clicking on it. The color scheme was kept on brand as requested by the client and we made sure to use the Humber logo on every page.
Hi-Fi Prototype
CONCLUSION
What this Project Taught me . . .
Working on the events management system as a UI/UX designer was both rewarding and challenging. I learned a lot through user research, especially when trying to balance what users needed with the business goals. Sometimes, this led to tough decisions about what to prioritize. There were also moments when the team disagreed on design choices, and we had to find ways to compromise and stay on the same page. Meeting deadlines was another challenge, often requiring me to quickly iterate and refine designs. Usability testing helped me spot areas that needed improvement, which meant going back to the drawing board more than once. Despite these hurdles, this project taught me how to be a better problem-solver, how to work well with others, and how to stay focused on the user experience, even when things get tough.
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