The Events app was designed for a small user-base of event creators and social butterflies who nudged their friends to come out and play.
I was the design lead on the project with Patrick Keenan, who took over the project after my departure; early contributions from Kevin Schaefer.
The app was designed and built from 2015 to 2016, with an official launch in Oct 2016. It was eventually renamed "Local".
Facebook releases a standalone app for events
The Case for a Separate Events App
Highly Engaged Core User Base
Events had a small cohort of power users who discovered, created and shared events with their network. Some used Facebook exclusively for Events, yet their actions had an engagement multiplier effect on the platform as a whole.
Missed Opportunities to Connect
Event notifications and newsfeed stories were timely and valuable to people, but were drowned out by the Facebook content firehose. A significant portion of users had turned off notifications altogether.
A Mismatch with the Facebook App
Calendar integration and more tools were commonly requested by the community, but hard to justify in the Facebook app. Adding that functionality would add significant bloat and dilute its focus on content consumption.
Early Exploration
In early concepts, the app would facilitate casual get-togethers with close friends by creating looser, "lightweight events". With a greater volume of events on the platform, the intent was to leverage an Event-only Newsfeed to nudge people to going out.
Back to Core Assumptions
It took time to define the app's core value proposition. We grounded the designs on what matters most to our core audience:
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Effective Scheduling
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Finding interesting events to join in the near future
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Joining your friends' events
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Frictionless sharing and coordinating
Effective Scheduling
The app imported 3rd party calendary and served as a centralized scheduling and event planning hub.
Finding Events
Searching for events, artists, venues, categories, map areas, and dates at the same time was challenging to design for. Using a combination of autocomplete and constraining search results by relevant time frames (Today, Tomorrow, This weekend, Anytime) helped cut down on noise.
Connecting with Friends
The app framed event discovery with friends whenever possible, as it was the main differentiator with competing services (Eventbrite, local publications).
Sharing and Coordinating
Using Messenger lowered the friction of sharing and coordinating with Friends. Group messages with event details were automatically generated to provide context and draw outsiders in the ecosystem.
Avoiding the Facebook App Graveyard
Creating standalone products at Facebook is a risky endeavor. Apps like Groups, Moments, or Paper were all eventually shut down because they failed to capture a large enough audience, didn't differentiate, or were the victims of shifting product strategy.
The Events app, meanwhile, lives on (albeit under a new name - Local). For better or worse, Facebook might still be one of the best positioned to do help people connect in the real world.