FunCouver Case Study
Vancouver is growing fast and it’s hard to keep up with the growing number of events, things to do and places to go. Our team had the opportunity to develop a mobile app that helps people to discover new places around Vancouver as well as build and share exciting and fun itineraries.
FunCouver is a plan a day app we built to help people learn all about the great things going on in Vancouver. Planning is quick, easy, and relevant…All on the go!
The problem with planning a day out in Vancouver seems to all revolve around what the heck is going on!? We saw an opening in the market for an app that has information on events and places to go in Vancouver. Surprisingly there is no single, centralized place to get information on events in Vancouver. This results in many missed opportunities for getting out and experiencing our amazing city.
We interviewed people all over the city, sent out a survey and did fifteen in person interviews, so the whole group got a strong understanding of the issues that faced our user group. We learned all kinds of things about where people commonly got their information on events and places around town:
- Vancity Buzz
- The Georgia Straight
- Friends
- Social Media
- Accidentally
- Meetup
- Yelp, for options on places to eat
The most common frustrations we heard that prevent making plans are:
- Finding out that something cool had already happened or was sold out
- Unpredictable Vancouver weather
- Lack of information on location, and the event
- Scheduling friends
- Having to use multiple websites for planning and organizing
We developed FunCouver, a way to plan fun and interesting days out in Vancouver!
The app covers three user scenarios, first Karen can create a plan for herself and her friends. Sally can choose from a day in the city or a day enjoying a mountain adventure. She can start creating a custom itinerary by choosing activities she and her friends will enjoy. The app also gives Sally suggestions about what else is near by to help take advantage of her time, based on what she chooses; she can work through planning a day, picking activities, places to eat and different nightlife options. Karen can also create scheduled times for different events or having a go to list for the day. She can also refer to her plan in map view in the app, or download the plan for offline use.
The other option is to pick from a list of suggested plans that have been developed and saved by other FunCouver users. This offers a quick view to choose a plan that is ready to go, plan something fun last minute or get ideas for planning Karen’s own adventures.
The third option is to see what is going on in the city that day. This shows last minute events that are not sold out or options for cool weekly things that are happening in the users neighbourhood.
Site Map
An important feature we included in the calendar view is a fourteen-day local weather forecast. This helps users make informed activity choices based on up-to-date weather information. Given that it’s Vancouver, the weather can be a factor in making plans! Based on our research, this was a significant pain point for many respondents.
The user testing for this app got great reviews, people wanted a one-stop shop for all their planning needs. Some feedback we received, was the need for better pagination – allowing the user to understand where they are in the planning flow, and making it clear that it would be easy to go back and change what they were planning. We added a kebab menu that shows the user at what point in the flow they are and how many steps further it is to complete the task. This also gives the user the option to go back at any point and make change to any portion of their plan.
Going forward from FunCouver’s version one we found in our research and user testing that these additional options would help round out the full FunCouver experience.
- The ability to book tickets to events through the app
- A cab calling bot to help you get home after a big night out
- Parking information for different venues around town
- Reservations for restaurants
- Booking for guest lists at popular clubs and bars around town
