HEPPI

All files were redacted due to NDA

HEPPI

FinTech for Graduation Parties and Party Planner Marketplace

Overview

Graduation parties hold significant importance in Brazil, with students beginning to save money and plan their celebrations from the first year of their college courses.

Heppi is a FinTech startup that specializes in providing smart collective fundraising solutions for graduation events. The company mainly focuses on helping graduating cohorts organize their parties, manage finances, and ensure payment compliance. With a strong emphasis on community engagement and partnerships, Heppi offers a platform that facilitates valuable exchanges between students and event-related service providers.

Project Involvement

I joined Heppi's team from the initial ideation meetings, having the opportunity to build the UX strategy from the ground up. Throughout the project, I conducted user research to inform business decisions, helped with the Business Model Canvas, and conducted Design Thinking workshops. Developed user-centered solutions, information architecture, and wireframes and tested prototypes at various stages of fidelity.

Tools

Survey Monkey

Miro

Gliffy

Adobe XD

My Responsibilities

UX Research

UX Design

Process

Co-creation workshops

Focus Groups

User research

Information Architecture

User Interface Design

Usability Testing

The project started by analyzing the company's existing brief to ensure a shared understanding of its services and operations. Our main focus was assisting student cohorts in saving money for their graduation parties. Through co-creation sessions, we explored ideas and developed an initial Business Model Canvas. To further inform future ideation sessions, we conducted a comprehensive benchmarking study and collected quantitative data through surveys. The Business Model Canvas was continuously updated with the team's learnings throughout the process.

At the beginning of the research process, we conducted a survey with 122 respondents to understand mass behavior and the main recurring problems related to financial organization and party planning.

Survey Main Points

Difficulty in remembering the monthly deposit

Challenges in planning and coordinating various aspects of the party, such as venue, food, and other arrangements

Lack of transparency in fund collection and handling for the graduation event

Challenge in managing and organizing the cohort's finances for graduation parties

Hard to decide things collectively

Difficulties on keeping track on cohort's overall financial health

Interviews

Based on the survey findings, we identified key interview topics. And led 14 user interviews.

Professional party planners are crucial for a good experience

Limited options or information for finding party planners

Lack of guidance/resources for informed party planning and budgeting

Time-consuming and inefficient processes in managing party-related tasks and logistics

During the student interviews, we discovered that party planning was a significant challenge for them, leading us to expand our service portfolio to include helping students find professional party planners. This expansion allowed party planners to showcase their services, including celebration experiences, pricing, capacity, food options, and other pertinent information.



Personas

This project has two different types of end-users: the cohort commission members and the cohort participants/the standard student contributor. The cohort commission members have privileged access to the platform, responsible for overseeing the cohort's finances and making decisions regarding celebration experiences. They monitor fee payments, identify contributors, and select experiences for cohort voting.

On the other hand, the cohort participants are students who contribute by depositing money in the cohort financial account. They can, also, access information about the cohort's financial status and vote on the available celebration experiences.

These two user types work together to ensure effective financial management and decision-making within the student cohort.

Cohort Commission Members

  • Privileged access to the platform

  • Oversee the cohort's finances

  • Monitor fee payments

  • Identify contributors

  • Select celebration experiences for cohort voting

Cohort Participants

  • Contribute to the cohort's finances

  • Access information about the cohort's financial status

  • Participate in voting on celebration experiences

Suzana needs support and resources to navigate the party planning process, including finding venues, coordinating with vendors, and making informed decisions about party arrangements.

Rodrigo needs assistance in effectively planning and managing their finances for the graduation party, including budgeting and tracking expenses.

Co-creation Workshop (with Party Planners)

During the interviews, we discovered that students faced challenges in finding professionals to assist them with organizing their celebrations. As a result, we made the decision to address this aspect by creating a Party Planner Marketplace.

The marketplace in this project serves as a platform for connecting two distinct user groups, namely students and party planners. By incorporating party planners as premium users, the platform offers a dedicated space for these professionals to showcase their services and expertise. Students can then access this marketplace to explore a variety of celebration experiences, including options for venues, food, music, and decoration. This marketplace simplifies the party planning process for students and provides opportunities for party planners to promote and sell their services, creating a mutually beneficial ecosystem within the platform.

To facilitate the design of the party planner marketplace, Heppi enlisted the expertise of a professional party planner as a business consultant, who provided valuable insights into the field. Some points were the main party planners’ concerns and needs:

The party planner needs a platform that connects them with potential clients (students) seeking their services for graduation parties.

Client Acquisition

They require a platform to showcase their party planning expertise, including past successful events, available packages, pricing options, and additional services they offer.

Showcasing Services

The party planner needs an efficient communication channel with their clients to discuss party details, gather requirements, and provide updates throughout the planning process.

Streamlined Communication

They seek a platform that boosts their visibility and reputation within the graduation party market, helping them attract more clients and establish themselves as trusted professionals.

Increased Visibility

Three Collaborative Design Workshops were conducted involving party planners and students. These sessions incorporated Card Sorting to establish information architecture hierarchies, validate ideas, and generate new possibilities of features.

User Interface

I designed the User Journey, User Flow, Sitemap, and Wireframes with user input. A low-fidelity prototype was then developed to validate the User Flow and Information Architecture. This enabled us to design visual mockups based on testing results and the established moodboard.

Structure Flow, Wireframe, Homepage UI

In the high-fidelity prototype test sessions (2 rounds with 5 users each), we utilized InVision to link and animate the mockups, providing users with an interactive experience. Based on the feedback received, we proceeded to develop the first version of the website, which was also tested with users.

Mobile UI

Party Planner's Marketplace

A Celebration Experience

Party Planner Profile

DESKTOP UI

Heppi's solution is an easy-to-use app and web-based system that simplifies financial organization for graduation events, ensuring a secure and transparent collection of funds while assisting students in planning their parties.

Results

Throughout its journey, Heppi successfully graduated from the Porto Digital Incubation program (2019), garnering national recognition through featured articles in specialized business magazines. The company has forged strong local partnerships and established a loyal customer base.

Heppi has transformed into a robust marketplace, bridging the gap between students and party planners. By organizing student cohort finances and handling money collection transparently, Heppi ensures a seamless and trustworthy experience for all stakeholders. The design process involved extensive user research, collaborative workshops, and the creation of prototypes and mockups to meet the needs of both students and party planners.