Research · UX · Product Design
Event Discovery & Cultural Engagement
Tikko explores how attendees and organizers experience and navigate live events. Many existing platforms treat events purely as transactions—tickets and dates—ignoring the social, cultural, and relational dynamics that shape whether someone decides to attend or how organizers build credibility. This work focuses on clarity, social validation, and low-friction engagement as a way to build trust, reduce uncertainty, and create a more approachable experience for both audiences.
Event discovery isn’t just listings—it exists in social signals, peer recommendations, and cultural context. Most platforms ignore these human and relational dimensions, leaving attendees hesitant and organizers struggling to convey trust.
The design opportunity was to create a trust-forward, culturally aware system: a platform that supports confident exploration, reduces friction, and fosters long-term engagement, rather than forcing immediate commitments or relying solely on transactional cues.
Event attendance isn’t just about tickets—it’s social, relational, and cultural. Attendees make decisions based on peer recommendations, endorsements, and perceived credibility, while organizers must convey trust and relevance to reach the right audience.Most existing platforms treat events as purely transactional, focusing on listings and ticket sales while ignoring these human and relational dynamics. This created an opportunity to design a platform that supports clarity, social validation, and long-term engagement, while respecting the cultural and relational context of event participation.
Attending or promoting events isn’t just transactional—it’s social, cultural, and relational. Without the right cues and tools, attendees feel uncertainty or hesitation, and organizers struggle to communicate trust and reach the right audience.
The challenge was clear: how can we create a platform that respects these social and cultural dynamics while giving attendees confidence and organizers credibility? Tikko is designed to reduce friction, foster transparency, and make event discovery approachable and relational, rather than stressful or opaque.
Event participation is deeply embedded in social networks and cultural context. Without tools that reflect these dynamics, attendees risk missing meaningful experiences, and organizers risk low engagement or loss of credibility.
Tikko provides a platform to navigate events in a socially intelligent, trust-forward way, making event discovery less transactional and more relational, while supporting both attendees and organizers in building confidence and credibility.
Event participation isn’t just transactional—it’s social, cultural, and relational. Attendees often hesitate to commit without signals of credibility, peer interest, or cultural relevance, while organizers struggle to reach the right audience and communicate trust effectively.Without a platform that reflects these dynamics, attendees risk missing meaningful experiences, and organizers risk low engagement or diminished credibility.TIKKO addresses this by providing a trust-forward, socially aware system that reduces friction, fosters transparency, and makes event discovery approachable and relational. It supports confident exploration for attendees and clear, credible promotion for organizers, ensuring the platform strengthens both cultural engagement and community trust.
Rather than designing for generic “users,” research revealed recurring behavioral patterns shaped by social influence, cultural context, and trust. These patterns informed tone, feature scope, and the main interaction flows in Tikko.
Zuri — The Explorer
Primary Tension
Wants to attend culturally relevant events but hesitates if the social or scene context is unclear.
Behavioral Traits
1. Browses casually, often bookmarking events but rarely committing immediately.
2. Relies on cues from peers, trusted organizers, or local communities to gauge whether an event is worth attending.
Design Implications
1. Highlight social signals and contextual credibility.
2. Enable easy bookmarking and return flows.
3. Avoid clutter or urgency that forces premature commitment.
Kofi — The Social Connector
Primary Tension
Prioritizes events that align with his social network and peer group; decisions depend on who else is going.
Behavioral Traits
1. Scans network feedback, peers’ plans, and community chatter before deciding.
2. Looks for implicit validation about the event’s vibe and relevance.
Design Implications
1. Display social proof and attendee context prominently.Include metadata about timing, venue, and scene reputation.
2. Avoid recommendations based purely on popularity or algorithmic metrics.
Nia — The Curator
Primary Tension
Wants to reach the right audience while maintaining cultural credibility.
Behavioral Traits
Selectively promotes events to relevant communities; cares about perceived trustworthiness and social alignment.
Design Implications
1. Tools for curating event presentation and signaling credibility.
2. Metrics that emphasize engagement and audience relevance over raw attendance.
3. Avoid features that encourage spammy promotion or misalignment with scene.
Core Jobs to Be Done
1. Discover events that feel culturally relevant and trustworthy.
2. Assess social and scene credibility quickly.
3. Engage, bookmark, or commit without feeling pressured.
The design strategy for Tikko focused on translating behavioral and market insights into a system that balances confidence for attendees with control and credibility for organizers.Rather than optimizing purely for speed or conversion, the platform was designed to reduce uncertainty, surface trust signals, and support decision-making in culturally and socially driven event spaces.
Every design decision was guided by one core question:
How do we help people feel confident about showing up — and help organizers earn that confidence?
Core Design Principles
1. Trust before transaction
Users should feel confident before they commit.
Credibility signals, social context, and event clarity are prioritized ahead of checkout or ticket purchase.
2. Context over volume
Instead of overwhelming users with listings, the experience emphasizes relevance, cultural cues, and social signals that help users quickly assess whether an event is “for them.”
3. Balanced power
The system serves both sides:
Attendees need reassurance and clarity
Organizers need legitimacy, insight, and control
Neither experience dominates the other.
4. Low-friction exploration
Discovery should feel lightweight and non-committal. Users can browse, save, and signal interest without pressure to act immediately.
Feature Focus: What Was Prioritized
Built
For Attendees
1. Clear event detail pages with strong visual and social context
2. Save / interest signals without forced commitment
3. Trust cues (organizer history, ratings, social proof)
For Organizers
1. Dashboard for event management and performance visibility
2. Tools to present legitimacy (past events, engagement metrics)
3. Simple flows for publishing and updating events
Deferred
1. Advanced recommendation algorithms
2. Dynamic pricing and promotional mechanics
3. Heavy personalization based on behavioral tracking
Avoided
1. Dark patterns or urgency-driven countdown tactics
2. Overly transactional language that strips cultural context
3. Feature bloat that obscures trust and clarity
The final interface translates strategy into a clear, trust-forward experience for both attendees and event organizers. Every screen is designed to reduce uncertainty, surface relevant signals, and support informed decisions without overwhelming users.
For attendees, the UI emphasizes clarity, social context, and ease of exploration, allowing people to browse, save, and commit to events with confidence. For organizers, the dashboard provides visibility into performance, engagement, and audience response, enabling better decision-making and more credible event presentation.
The system balances efficiency with restraint—prioritizing legibility, hierarchy, and context over feature density. Design decisions were continuously refined through real usage patterns and feedback, ensuring the product remains intuitive, scalable, and grounded in how events are actually discovered, evaluated, and managed.
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Tikko
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