Problem: place suggestions have no relative position

Our approach thus far for the group event planning process has revolved around suggestions and voting — reduced to a list. The system of suggestions and votes captures much of the essence of what we do verbally and textually.

Knowing the groups’ votes is key information for a host to make an informed decision — but it’s not all the information. Sometimes it’s good enough because you have places mentally mapped or a place is so good or reputable that it makes the decision.

Lists are good, but not good enough

Sometimes you want more information: where are these places? where are they relative to me and the group? where are they relative to our previous place and the next place? The general gap is lists lack relative position in time and space. And the answer is a different view — for places, a map view.

Lists lack relative position in time and space

Solution: map view

We added a map view to Let’s events. Now everyone can view all locations on a map and vote on them there. Combined with the existing system of suggestions, the event map is a simple solution and nicely handles the problems of freeform suggestions, freeform responses, and relative locations in group chats — Problem 1, Problem 2, and Problem 3 below.

Analysis: comparing to group chat

While we are confident that our intuition of maps is useful, let’s do a qualitative comparison to the current common solution.

Use-case: agreeing on a place for dinner

Let’s consider a use-case of planning a group dinner. And let’s focus on agreeing on a place, as that is where maps are involved.

The common solution is sharing places in group chats.

The current common solution is sharing places in group chats or emails.

Problem 1: chats are high effort when viewing places on map

Chat messages are freeform. At worst, place suggestions are names of places or screen shots. At best, place suggestions are links – to maps or the venue itself. And often they are scattered throughout other messages. (What a mess!)

For simplicity, let’s assume one person shares links to 3 places in back-to-back messages. Even in this best case, it’s high effort to view them on a map. To view and evaluate these places, purely based on location, you would

1. Click link 1, view the map, go back to the chat
2. Click link 2, view the map, go back to the chat
3. Click link 3, view the map, go back to the chat
4. Write your responses in free form

Problem 2: voting in chat is high effort

You can’t easily vote. Sure you could say “Sounds good”, but which place are you talking about? It takes effort to repeat each place and your opinion, eg, “Saffron Patch is out of the way since we are going downtown after. I’m good with Batouqi and TOLI because they are on the way and both fun spots.” Then the host has to mentally process that and mentally tally the votes. If you’ve been the host seeking consensus, you know this can be overwhelming.

On the bright side, the benefit of this high effort medium is that through laziness, it forces efficiency. So, we just say what we like most “Let’s do TOLI.” So instead of querying everyone’s opinion, we lazily make a quick decision. But it may not be the best decision.

The suggestions (links) are lost in the chat messages above — because of lack of systemization, so you only get some responses. Let’s solves this with suggestions and voting.

Problem 3: view one place at a time

When viewing places, you want to know: “where are they?” When viewing individually, sometimes maps services show locations as recently viewed — but not for long and they also show you everything else, so it can be hard to focus. You want to focus on the options.

Ideally, you also want to know where the options are relative to you — and relative to where we will be before that and where we will be after that.

Summary: a map view for events enables group planning for places

The map view in Let’s events enables everyone to view all locations on a map and vote on them there. Map views are a familiar and thus intuitive interface. In group planning for places, this is ideal.

This system of suggestions and voting on a map is simple and nicely handles the problems of freeform suggestions, freeform responses, and relative locations (Problem 1, Problem 2, and Problem 3 above) .

This simple innovation is a product differentiator!

As simple as this is, there is no other straight-forward way to collaboratively suggest places on a map and vote on them.

We have enjoyed using the map view and we hope you do, too. Next time you are deciding on a place with a group, try an event in Let’s!