Passafree — Evaluating Usability through the Cognitive Step-by-Step
Problem
Passafree, Cape Verde’s first mobile platform for event management, faced significant user dissatisfaction with its version 1.0. Users reported challenges in performing basic tasks like filtering events, purchasing tickets, and sharing event details. These usability issues hindered adoption and limited the app’s potential to become a reliable tool for event-goers.
Solution
To address these challenges, I led the redesign of Passafree using a User-Centered Design (UCD) approach. This involved engaging users throughout the process—from identifying pain points to testing solutions. The goal was to create version 2.0: a seamless, intuitive, and reliable app tailored to the needs of both event participants and organizers.
Role & Responsabilities
As the lead UX designer, I was responsible for driving every phase of the redesign process:
- Conducting user research to identify pain points and opportunities
- Facilitating workshops to prioritize features and validate ideas with users
- Leading the design process, including prototyping, wireframing, and creating interactive mockups
- Overseeing usability testing and analyzing results to refine the design
- Coordinating with stakeholders and development teams to ensure the design aligned with user needs and technical feasibility
User Research
The redesign process began with comprehensive research to understand the users, their needs, and the business context. I conducted interviews with five participants, aged 27 to 33, who represented the target audience. These interviews revealed 20 distinct user needs, ranging from filtering events by city to accessing tickets offline. Additionally, I performed a competitive analysis of similar apps, such as Eventbrite, Sympla, and Agenda Cultural de Cabo Verde, to identify best practices and gaps in the market. This analysis helped inform key design strategies and opportunities for differentiation. I also examined user interaction environments, noting challenges like inconsistent internet connectivity, which informed decisions like enabling offline ticket access.
Ideation
Using insights from research, I led the ideation process to shape a clear direction for the redesign. I prioritized user needs based on importance and feasibility, narrowing the 20 identified needs to 11 actionable ones. High-priority features included event filtering, ticket receipt emails, and ticket sharing. During this phase, I translated user needs into detailed functional requirements, such as designing a dropdown menu for city-based filtering and integrating ticket-sharing capabilities with popular social media platforms. To ensure alignment, I facilitated workshops where users reviewed and validated feature priorities. These workshops helped consolidate overlapping needs and provided valuable feedback for refining the design.
Design Process
The design phase was iterative, focusing on refining solutions through user collaboration and multiple prototypes. I began by researching best practices from leading apps, which influenced design decisions like swipeable event cards and streamlined checkout processes. Using tools like Sketch and Framer, I developed high-fidelity prototypes that balanced horizontal (broad coverage of features) and vertical (in-depth flows) prototyping approaches. User feedback from participatory design sessions further refined the prototypes, leading to improvements such as better button placement for accessibility and simplified forms for a smoother ticket purchase experience. Throughout the process, I adhered to platform guidelines like Android’s Material Design and Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines to ensure consistency and usability across devices.
Test & Results
To validate the redesign, I conducted rigorous usability testing. Heuristic evaluations by usability experts ensured that the design met industry standards, while cognitive walkthroughs allowed real users to complete key tasks such as filtering events, purchasing tickets, and sharing event details. The results were overwhelmingly positive, with a 100% task success rate, efficient task completion times, and minimal user errors. Post-task surveys revealed high user satisfaction, with System Usability Scale (SUS) scores indicating significant improvements in ease of use and confidence. Additionally, the redesigned interface reduced task completion times by 30% compared to version 1.0, and users reported a 40% increase in confidence when using the app.
