Creating Propelify Festival's Physical Web
Company
Client
Date & Length
Role
Tools
Framework
About
Propelify is a yearly tech conference, networking event, & festival in Hoboken, NJ. The festival brings together 8,000 people every year for virtual reality, drones, music, and a startup competition.
Problem
One of the biggest complaints from the 2016 event was that the event didn't have enough information about each booth available in the moment. This includes hiring information, who the spokesperson is, and background on the company. And, sometimes, people wait to chat to a company spokesperson with the intention of networking, to only find it wasn't a fit for their networking goals.
Solution
To improve the festival experience, propelify contracted my company ContextGrid. We designed a a location-based notification experience via their festival/networking app Topi. This allowed users to get hiring information, spokesperson info, and background on the company when they approach a tent in the form of a notification.
Surveys showed the people who had Topi App and receive notifications had 20% higher rate of satisfaction. The festival also received valuable, real world analytics, which showed which stalls people passed by most and spent the most time by as a whole.
Discovery
Stakeholder Interviews
I met the Propelify team in Manhattan to discuss their business and users needs. Their main business objective was to use it beacons to deliver content about sponsors as an upcharge via Topi. On the user side, one of the biggest complaints from the 2016 event was that the event didnt have enough information about each booth. Our deadline was to have a ready-to-use experience in exactly 30 days, so we decided on 3 requirements:
1. Topi would ping users when they passed Sponsor’s stall with info about each stall.
2. That info would include links to info about each Company (their website/s, hiring info, and a video).
3. Users could also access a location-based scavenger hunt that gave users the opportunity to win prizes.
Ideation
Placement Of Location-based Notification & Explanation
With consideration to foot traffic, the approximate beacon transmission radius, and the square footage of the festival, I began by looking at the floor plan.
I noticed there was only 1 entrance/exit. Knowing that customers will have to loop back to the entrance in order to leave, and do to a short deadline of 1 week, I created 2 scenarios:
1. A customer enters Propelify festival and checks out vendors on Sinatra Drive, goes down to the Stage of Wisdom, comes back along the Waterfront.
2. A customer enters Propelify festival and checks out vendors along the Waterfront, goes down to the Stage of Wisdom, comes back along Sinatra Drive.
Knowing our user’s pain points, we mapped out the best locations, and types of content to deliver at each point to deliver information about booths (IE, know who’s hiring), and meet business side requirements like pushing company info and sales.
There's 4 categories of Notifications:
1. Welcome–theres one at the entrance of the festival and one at the entrance of VIP.
2. Informative–These are notifications that open up to a webpage with links to various content about the company, including hiring information.
3. Selling–Pushes Propelify food, drinks, and clothing.
4. Scavenger Hunt.
Designing The Content Delivery Experience
All location based notifications from beacons opened up into a landing page and follow the respective order.
Notification Landing Page
Final UI
Prototyping
Testing
Placement of Beacons at Tents
With our beacons ready, we went to the the festival day before to figure out placement of devices.
To reduce distraction and chance of theft, we found that if we duct taped them to poles on the inside of the tent, they were still fully functional, and they had the least visibility.
Final Product
Full app integration with Topi App
We integrated our solution with Topi app within 2 weeks, just in time for the festival.
Satisfaction & Data
Surveys showed the people who had Topi App and receive notifications had 20% higher rate of satisfaction. The festival also received valuable, real world analytics, which showed which stalls people passed by most and spent the most time by as a whole.