Now or Never

Sai Surender Y

UX Designer

Product Designer

Product Strategist

FigJam

Figma

Whimsical Wireframes

Now or Never: Hangout Once a Day, Every Day

A Spontaneous Travel Application for Young Backpackers

Overview

Now or Never is an app designed for young backpackers who love spontaneous adventures. Instead of over-planning, it helps them find and join real-time local events with minimal effort. The app notifies users once a day with nearby activities, giving them just 5 seconds to decide. No more long planning or coordination — just quick, exciting opportunities to explore and connect with other travellers on the go. Our goal was to create a tool that makes spontaneous experiences easy and fun, bridging the gap between travelers and local culture. ‍

Problem

Backpackers often face challenges such as boredom during downtime, difficulty finding local events, and the lack of platforms for spontaneous, safe meetups. Existing solutions either require heavy planning or focus on long-term travel. We aimed to create an app that enabled serendipity—making spontaneous plans simple, safe, and engaging.

Solution

We designed "Now or Never" to empower young backpackers with an effortless way to find and join real-time, local events. With a focus on spontaneity, the app simplifies decision-making through quick, swipe-based event selection, ensuring users can explore new adventures daily without extensive planning. By connecting like-minded travelers, the app makes travel more engaging, fostering safe, spontaneous meetups.

Design Strategy

1. Design Research

Competitive Analysis

I conducted a deep dive into competitors like Eventbrite, Bumble BFF, and Meetup. While these platforms enable event discovery and social connections, they lacked the spontaneous nature we sought.

Ecosystem Analysis

In parallel, we conducted an ecosystem analysis to explore Lonely Planet's role in the travel journey and identify key opportunities to enhance in-person connections during the "Planning - During Travel" phase.

User Behaviour Analysis

With my team, I conducted interviews with 22 backpackers from 16 different countries across six hostels in Barcelona.

Their feedback confirmed that while travelers loved meeting new people, they often didn’t want to invest time in planning.

This insight solidified our mission: create an app that serves adventure on-the-go.

2 weeks average travel duration

22 Travellers

7+ Hostels

16 Countries

User Persona

Using the personal interviews with our target audience as a guide, we created user personas. User Persona characteristics can be best described as follows -

Spontaneous Adventurers: They share a common desire to meet new people and embrace new experiences without extensive planning.

Diversity in Habits: Some are active on social media, while others prefer staying offline. Some travel solo, while others journey in groups.

Varied Event Interests: They have diverse interests when it comes to local events and activities during their travels.

Hanna Moller Germany, 25

Concern Hanna likes to spend time alone but sometimes she gets lonely on her solo trips.

Duration 3 weeks

Situation Solo

Interests Arts & Culture

Opportunity ‍Loneliness, does not plan

Marcus Luis United States, 18

Concern He has trouble finding the right things to do as he does not plan.

Duration 1 month

Situation Solo

Interests Human Connections

Opportunity ‍Wants things to be organised, needs a plan to go with.

Primary Persona: Shalev, a 22-year-old solo traveler seeking spontaneous in-person connections and meaningful experiences without extensive planning.

Shalev Dahan Spain, 22

Concern Lonely and disconnected, wants to travel, explore and reconnect himself with the world.

Situation Solo

Interests Travel, Socialize

Opportunity Wants to stay present, make spontaneous plans & connections.

2. Brainstorming & Design Thinking

Our mood boards pulled inspiration from apps that prioritize quick decision-making and gamification.

We sketched initial concepts, merging elements from various apps to ensure users could seamlessly find and commit to activities.

UX UI Design

1. Concept Sketch

Concepting & features visualization

I created low-fidelity wireframes to visualize the core flows of the app, such as onboarding, event selection, and event creation. These Annotated Wireframes guided discussions with developers and ensured alignment across the team.

2. Wireframes

Wireframes

After initial testing, I iterated on the design based on feedback, refining the event confirmation system and user chat functionalities. "This led to an enhanced experience that was both spontaneous and user-friendly."

Objective: ONBOARDING New users are introduced to the app, its rules, and the concept of quick decision-making for event choices. Design: ‍Swipe-based navigation for content, a timer-based decision-making process. ‍ Engagement: Users have a mere 5 seconds to decide on an activity, enhancing the spontaneous nature of the app.

ONBOARDING

‍

Objective: EVENT/ACTIVITY SELECTION Users are presented with a countdown timer for choosing from various activities created by fellow travellers. Design: Activities are displayed with timers. Users can swipe away unwanted options, and once they let the timer run out, the selected event freezes. Features: ‍After selecting an event, users gain access to event details, including time, place, entry fee, and chat options. They can also invite friends. Safety Measures: ‍A reporting feature is in place for misuse or fraudulent activity. ‍

EVENT/ACTIVITY SELECTION

Objective: CREATE EVENT Users can create their own activities and invite friends to join. ‍ Design: A form-based interface for entering activity details, including name, city, category, date, time, age restrictions, and entry fees. Activation: Once the details are validated, the event goes live, and users can use the app's features like Chat, Map, and Share.‍

CREATE EVENT

3. Prototypes

Prototyping

After initial testing, I iterated on the design based on feedback, refining the event confirmation system and user chat functionalities. This led to an enhanced experience that was both spontaneous and user-friendly.

Users decide on the activity swiping away the 'uninterested' one. Let the timer run out to confirm the activity.

The activity details are presented precisely so they have everything needed hassle-free. They can chat with other participants.

Users can create new events and provide the details, once confirmed it'll be live for other users to join.

Updating live events in the background.

4. Design System

Colour

We decided to go with shades of orange as it represents joy and an outgoing feeling which resonates to the theme of this application.

Typograpy

For the typography we chose a clean and bold font Montserrat.

Icons & Components

We designed few custom components & icons which go well with the theme and vibe of the application.

5. Sitemap

A sitemap is a visual representation, like a map, displaying the organization and interconnection of pages or screens within a website or app. It serves as a roadmap for understanding the structure and relationships between different components. ‍ For this MVP, we designed 10 pages. Sitemap aids in clear communication among development teams, facilitating the creation of a cohesive and efficient digital solution.

6. App/Product Features Check

Takeaways

Usability is Vital

The importance of ensuring the app's usability cannot be overstated. Users have a mere 5 seconds to make decisions, making ease of use a critical factor.

Diverse User Habits

User research unveiled diverse habits, including social media preferences and varying travel companions (solo or in groups).

Strong Desire to connect

Regardless of differences, all users were looking for in-person connections with fellow travellers during their journey.

Realising the Gap

The user research revealed the golden opportunity in the market for connecting travellers in-person, especially during the journey.

Safety Measures

The inclusion of a report feature adds an important layer of safety, addressing potential misuse or fraudulent activity, and ensuring user trust.

The app successfully blends the spontaneity travelers desire with practical features like chat, mapping, and sharing for event planning.

My Team

Abrar UI Designer

Hussein UX Researcher

Iman UI Designer

Natalie UX Designer

Sai UX Designer

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Posted Dec 5, 2024

Designed "Now or Never" to empower young backpackers with an effortless way to find and join real-time, local events.

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