New Event Functionality

[bsteinbeigle]

@kaxline Here is the new functionality I've been talking about for the app I would like to see added sooner than later (hopefully this month so I can show others in Oregon when I come visit). Part of my vision for including this functionality comes from an annoyance of having to find something to do after people connect. The idea here is to have a one-stop-shop approach where two people could effectively write each other on the app and click on the event icon in the bottom menu which provides them with a list of things to do. The idea was given to me that I would need to physically add in the events that are happening in a community or have others add in events that are happening near them. For example, say you had nothing to do on Friday night and wanted to see if anyone wanted to go checkout a concert or grab a beer. You could create an 'event' or 'ask' to do so. As you will also see I've added in place where a venue/location to meet up at is an input. I'm sure Google has an API that will allow us to incorporate but this may result in a lengthy development effort so I'm ok if, for now, we find a more economical approach in doing so. Additionally, to hopefully help explain the images below I have included a sketch of browsing events, looking at an event detail and creating a new event. Lets keep event photos optional. I'm thinking that may be a barrier to putting an event out there because someone would have to find an event photo. Let me know if you have any questions and of course our feedback is wanted.

[kaxline]

@bsteinbeigle Cool idea! I know there are services that provide this kind of data for developers to use. If you wanted to get your hands dirty and maybe save me some dev time, you could do some research and see if there are any that you like.

Maybe do a search for event API for developers or add event search to app or event sdk javascript. Then browse any companies or projects that look promising. Look for good documentation pages and other signs of quality. Considering our convos about development, this would be a fun/practical/relevant exercise for you, but I can also do it as well.

The diagrams look clear enough to go on for now and I'll ask for clarifications as I go.

[bsteinbeigle]

@kaxline Sweet! I'll have a look and let you know what I come up with.

[bsteinbeigle]

@kaxline Received some great input yesterday. I’m going to have a look at Ticketmaster’s API as opposed to Eventbrites.

[bsteinbeigle]

@kaxline Comparing the Eventbrite & Ticketmaster API's what comes up with the following search terms. "Concerts next weekend?", "Outdoor events near me"?, "Sporting events near me?"

[bsteinbeigle]

@kaxline Been working on some new UI ideas for browsing internal events. Basically, the major change here is instead of creating events a guy could perhaps spontaneously "ask" the fellas if anyone wants to grab coffee on a Saturday morning or any other spontaneous activity that may come to mind. Down the road it would be great to categorize asks -For example a guy could say I'm interested in finding people to hang out with over food and drink this weekend so a guy could filter all asks for those related to food and drink and find someone to grab a beer with on a Friday night nearby. It's kind of like craigslist but for hanging out. The main reason why I'm referring to craigslist is I believe it will be beneficial to keep creating an ask and browsing asks as simple as possible. For example, if someone wanted to grab a beer, they could quickly select TBD and figure out the location later or choose to copy and paste a hyperlinked location if they had a place in mind for now. This would make it easier on the person asking to do something with someone else/others. Someone for example a guy could say hey, Ya let me ask someone to grab a coffee with me but then come across trying to fill in a location and become frustrated with trying to decide on a location. What's your thoughts?

[bsteinbeigle]

@kaxline you can ignore the create event/ask part for now (Bottom half of the second image). Still working out create event/asks UI.

[bsteinbeigle]

@kaxline Made a few tweaks to the event UI. The main change is here is the simplicity to be able to create an event. You'll notice earlier the UI required a guy to upload an event photo when creating a new event. I did away with this because ultimately, I believe trying to find an event photo would be a barrier to create an event so instead now a guy can just simply just say "lets grab coffee" or "go to a football game" instead of having to browse the web to find an event photo. My guess is this may also cut down on development time.

[bsteinbeigle]

Referencing the first and second photo above you'll notice that when browsing events all events will begin with the profile pic and first name of the guy who created the event followed by the words "wants to" or we could even use the words " is down to"...go hiking or grab a beer for example. The user would fill in the blank essentially for what he is thinking to do. My goal here is get way from having to ask the guy a million questions when creating event. Eventbrite and Meetup somewhat do exactly that I want to test of others feel annoyed when prompt to do so. That said, you'll also notice below under date and time I've given the user an option to quickly select TBD so someone is not having to spend a lot of time or is hung up on deciding on where or when to go and leave that up to future coordination among the individual(s) who want to hangout after someone has RSVP'd.

[bsteinbeigle]

When looking at the third image above (browse detail) this is the UI a guy will see when selecting an event when browsing which will explain the event in greater detail. The main takeaway here is the option to invite friends/contacts from someone's list of friends on the app. A couple nights ago I hung out with a guy from a meetup group I started out here in SLC and that guy proposed to invite some of his friends to our get together. I believe someone may feel more comfortable going to an event if he knows at least one other person on a deeper level that will also be at the event. To hopefully add some clarity into my thinking process, let's say Tom created an event to go to a concert and someone by the name of Seth rsvp'd to the concert and also invited another friend to join. Tom could either get a notification to allow (for lack of a better word) the other person to join or better yet Tom could enable others to invite their friends when creating an event. In either scenario Tom is aware that other people who are not his friends in the app are hanging out as well. I'm also trying to encourage guys to invite any of their existing (say childhood or college buddies) to join the app as well. Sometimes it can be annoying to trying to coordinate plans with a group via text. Fellas would make it easier for guys to hangout. Be great to get a push notification that one of your buddies is hosting a poker night at his house on Friday night instead of having to message others via a group text. Does this make sense? What are your thoughts?

[bsteinbeigle]

Additionally, it appears that material.io has a great tool for adding a date and time to an event should someone know the time when creating an event. That said I'm hung up on how best to include an address or location for a specific event without, I'm sure to be, an extensive dev. effort to incorporate a google maps API for example. Could use your insight here. My goal here is obviously cut down the dev. effort required to include a location or address. It would be nice to be able to click on the location and address under the event and have maps open instead of having to guess the location and address by copying and pasting the event in google maps app for example. What's your thoughts on this? In the interim, I'll see if I can find an open-source solution on GitHub we may be able to utilize that provides us with a middle of the road solution.

[bsteinbeigle]

Moving on, At the top right-hand corner of the top menu I've included functionality to apply a filter when browsing events and creating a new event. My goal here is keep the UI is simple and clean as possible. Immediately below are sketches of what a filtering UI could look like for events. You'll notice I'm basically copying and pasting some of the UI when filtering that one would see when browsing or creating an event. Reason being is I believe this may cut down on the dev. effort required. You may notice this looks similar to the same UI used when editing someone's profile with a collapsible list. My goal here again was to simplify the dev. effort and keep the UI as simple and clean as possible.

[bsteinbeigle]

Referencing the second of the two images immediately above, you'll notice the last filter option to sort and sift through events your friends are hosting. My thoughts are to use the same UI for new friends in messaging without the option to include a group name. I'm not sure if this ultimately work with the messaging UI developed but my hopes here are we can reuse a good portion of code written.

[bsteinbeigle]

Ok, so above hopefully I added some further insight into my thinking for how browsing events will work. Below is a sketch for creating a new event.

[bsteinbeigle]

Here you will see the TBD buttons I was talking about earlier along with my attempt to sort the events so one can filter by event type down the road when browsing. Basically, to cut back on the dev. effort I'm leaving it up to the user for now to choose from one of five event types when creating an event. Ex. Great outdoors, food & drink etc.. The field where it says "Activity/Event is where a guy will say "grab a beer" or "check out a concert" for example. When browsing events, the text written would appear under an event and read [(profile pic) Brandon wants to "hit up a concert".] Does this make sense? My goal here again to keep the UI as simple as possible to make it as easy as possible to create an event or ask.

[bsteinbeigle]

[bsteinbeigle]

Above you will see the proposed UI for adding friends when creating an event. The main functionality here is make an event private as opposed to being public. Private events are only visible to one's friends and contacts on the app. Public events are open to anyone to join. An example where the use of a private event may be of value is if someone decided to have people over to this house where he doesn't just want anyone to come over. I should also note you can still invite your friends to an event without making it private.

[bsteinbeigle]

The intention of my UI sketch above is to also use a majority of the code written to add friends in messaging.

Alright that was a lot of messages! Let me know if this all makes sense. Happy to talk through if not when we get to this phase of development if that is easier. This concludes my event UI thinking for now.

[bsteinbeigle]

Oh, one more thing, here are some inspirational examples......

[bsteinbeigle]

I like the frosted menu look here. Also thought this would be a good way to list out locations. Open to your thoughts and feedback as always.

[bsteinbeigle]

@kaxline Here is another example for inspiration I used when browsing events. Basically I want to make it as easy as possible to sort the data for today or this weekend for example and see what is happening. The data would be organized chronologically and the app would, based on the date, know when next weekend was for example. Not sure how complex this gets on the programming side of things. Let me know what you think.