Togethr — a social extension for community through events

Designing a platform extension that helps newcomers to New York find meaningful connections through shared interests and events.

ROLE

UX Researcher & Designer

DURATION

12 weeks (Oct – Dec 2024)

TEAM

5 people

TOOLS

User Research, Iterative Design, Figma

CLASS

UX Design

PROBLEM

Solo attendees struggle to connect.

Eventbrite surfaces events, but not the people going. Solo attendees feel social anxiety, skip events, or leave early without meeting anyone.

OUTCOME

A social layer for Eventbrite.

An opt-in extension that lets attendees preview shared interests, browse profiles with context, and send low-pressure invites before the event begins.

IMPACT

Tested, validated, simplified.

100% of testers explored full profiles, onboarding cut from 5+ screens to 3, and trust signals raised the lo-fi sync rate to 50%.

— THE PROBLEM

Moving to NYC can be deeply
isolating

While platforms like Eventbrite help people discover events, they rarely help attendees build meaningful connections with others who share their interests. Many newcomers attend events alone and leave without forming lasting social connections.

"How might we help people new to New York City connect with others who share their interests when attending events?"

— RESEARCH INSIGHTS

→ Newcomers struggle to meet people outside of work or class

→ Event platforms help discover events but not people

→ Users are more likely to connect when they know others share interests beforehand

IMAGE — REPLACE WITH AFFINITY MAP

— PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

What is Togethr?

Togethr is a social extension designed to integrate with existing event platforms like Eventbrite. Rather than building a standalone app, it layers a social discovery layer on top of platforms users already trust and use.

In its current version, Togethr works with Eventbrite to help users find people in their organisation interested in the same events — using a verified community email to establish trust from the start.

In the future, it could integrate with Ticketmaster, MeetUp, and StubHub, and expand beyond organisation networks to location-based connections.

— DESIGN PROCESS

The double diamond

The project followed a full double diamond — diverging through research and ideation, then converging on a focused solution, tested and refined across multiple rounds.

— THE SOLUTION

Three core features

FEATURE 01

🎯

Event-based matching

View others attending the same event and identify people with similar interests — no cold outreach required. Shared events in the past are surfaced to provide instant context.

FEATURE 02

🏫

Community identity

Connect via a shared organisation email (e.g. NYU). Trust is built on verified community membership — no extra personal data sharing needed beyond what you already have.

FEATURE 03

🔁

Community memory

The system surfaces people you've previously attended events with, helping strengthen recurring connections over time and making the next meeting feel natural.

DESIGN RATIONALE

Responding to real pain points

Every design decision maps directly to a user concern surfaced in research. Four pain points shaped the entire design.

TRUST & SAFETY

· Floating pop-ups read as scam ads — replaced with a full branded half-screen co-branded with Eventbrite

· Connect only through verified org email — no strangers, no extra data

· Clear explanation for every data permission requested

ACCESSIBILITY & FRICTION

· No sign-up required — continue with existing Eventbrite account in one tap

· Reduced from 5+ onboarding screens to exactly 3 steps

· Merged visually with Eventbrite's existing interface for consistent mental mapping

SOCIAL DISCOVERY

· Filter by distance, shared hobby, schedule, or culture

· See shared past events before deciding to connect — depth before commitment

· Invite contacts to events directly from the participant view

CLEAR FOCAL POINT — BRANDED POP-UP WITH COMMUNITY INVITE

ACCESSIBLE ONBOARDING — NO SIGNUP, 3 STEPS, MERGED WITH PLATFORM

SAFETY BY DESIGN — COMMUNITY IDENTITY, NO EXTRA DATA SHARING

USER RESEARCH & LO-FI TESTING

Testing assumptions early

We ran usability tests on three core flows with 4 participants: syncing accounts, providing personal preferences, and viewing full profiles. Each flow had quantitative and qualitative metrics.

01 SYNCING ACCOUNTS

50% sync rate. Pop-up felt like a scam — redesigned to a trusted branded screen.

02 PERSONAL PREFERENCES

75% skip rate. Too many fields, no context — we added clear explanations and cut unnecessary data.

03 VIEWING PROFILES

100% clicked "See Full Profile". Users want depth — we enriched profile content significantly.

04 KEY INSIGHT

"I want to know more about the person — like interests or shared connections before deciding to connect."

LO-FI SCREENS — SYNCING, PREFERENCES, PROFILE EXPLORATION

LO-FI → HI-FI

Three key design changes

Floating windows → branded half-screen

The small floating pop-up read as a scam ad. Redesigned into a full branded screen with Togethr + Eventbrite co-branding, immediately establishing legitimacy and context.

Too many steps → 3-step onboarding

The original flow had 5+ screens. Ruthlessly cut to three: connect with Eventbrite, sync your org email, set preferences. Estimated time-to-complete dropped significantly.

HIGH-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE

The final flow, end to end

From discovering Togethr on Eventbrite → branded pop-up → 3-step registration → seeing participants with shared context → sending invites.

The prototype is embedded and plays automatically. You can also open it interactively in Figma.

↗ OPEN INTERACTIVE PROTOTYPE

FIGMA PROTOTYPE

FULL CLICKFLOW — ALL SCREENS ACROSS THE USER JOURNEY

CONTRIBUTION

My role on the team

TEAM / PROCESS IMAGE

01 / 03

UX RESEARCH

UX DESIGN

PROTOTYPING

User interviews & synthesis

Lo-fi to hi-fi iteration

Usability testing & synthesis

Visual design language

CHALLENGES & LIMITATIONS

What we ran into

IMAGE — PROTOTYPE GAPS

Incomplete prototype

Some flows had to be walked through manually during testing.

IMAGE — TEST SESSION

One testing round

More rounds would have clarified flow & CTA language.

IMAGE — REAL-WORLD USE

Behavioural uncertainty

Unclear whether it'd shift behaviour in the real world.

IMAGE — TRUST & PERMISSIONS

Trust at scale

People were wary of sharing details with an unknown service.

LOOKING FORWARD

What comes next

Community features

Clubs & spaces for ongoing meetups.

Secure scheduling

Coordinate without privacy concerns.

Location discovery

Beyond orgs — neighbourhood connections.

Platform expansion

Ticketmaster, StubHub, MeetUp.

REFLECTION

"I enjoyed the iterative process and it showed me the importance of user testing especially with regards to behavioural habits and the power of observation."

Togethr · New to NYC Project 2 · UX Design · Fall 2024