Creating a pop-up event discovery app
Poppin’
Poppin is a mobile concept for discovering pop-ups, checking the details that matter, and saving plans in one place. I designed the experience in Figma over eight weeks.
Short on time?
Discovery for pop-up events are scattered across social media, online resources, and word of mouth. By the time people find an event, it can be too late to plan around it or know what to expect.
Based on interviews with 5 regular pop-up attendees
Finding an event was only the first step. Before deciding whether to go, people still had to gather the details, fit the event into their schedule, and determine whether the trip would be worthwhile.
People had to turn scattered event details into a plan on their own
How people keep of events track today
See post → copy dates, time & location into calendar → check social media for day-of updates
Interviewees saved posts, copied dates, times, and locations into their calendars, then returned to original sources for updates. The process was manual and still left open questions about wait times, availability, and what to expect.
I always go back to the Instagram page and check because sometimes they sell out or post updates on their stories but they're not always great about updates.
Interviewee 1
The opportunity was to replace this workaround with one reliable place for event details, so people could decide whether a pop-up was worth the trip before committing their time.
Instead of piecing together information across separate sources, people can find out all the details about an event, so they know what to expect to actually plan ahead or go spontaneously.
Poppin helps people go from finding a pop-up to planning a visit
Click a card to preview the feature
A map was for the moment, and a list for planning ahead
The first version of Explore opened in List view. Testing showed that Map was especially helpful when someone was nearby or deciding spontaneously, because it made location and proximity immediately clear. List was better for planning ahead, when people wanted to scan options and compare event details.
2 ways to browse "Explore"
Map view
List view
I made Map the default so location context appears first, while keeping List one tap away for people who prefer to browse in a familiar list format.
Moving filters out of the search bar made key event criteria visible from the start
Before
After
Rather than hiding filters behind an icon in the search bar, I surfaced them directly below it so people could focus the event list before scrolling.
Poppin brought fragmented pop-up information into one place, giving people the flexibility to discover events based on how they actually explore, whether that meant planning ahead or looking for something nearby.
Testing helped validate the core experience while revealing an important lesson: discovery isn't one behavior. Designing for both planning and spontaneity made the experience more useful across different moments.
My takeaways
This project taught me to look beyond whether a feature works and consider when and why someone would use it. People do not discover events in one uniform way. Some are browsing ahead, while others are deciding in the moment. Designing Poppin meant supporting both, then making the most useful information visible at the point of decision.