Case Study : Behost — A hosting app

7 min readAug 2, 2023

👀 Introduction

Explore — A word that holds immense value in my life. A word that helped me find my passion, Design!

Being a foodie, I love to try different cuisines. My best friend’s mom often invites me over for an authentic Dal Bati treat at their home. Initially it used to be about the food but now its also about knowing their culture, listening to their stories, their experiences. And that is so much fun!

This idea of Behost was born from there!

🏃🏻‍♂️For people who are in a hurry! Here you go!

📌 Problem Statement

India being a country full of culture, its strength lies in its diversity. But very few people are able to experience it. Experiencing various cultures, cuisines, listening to stories, having discussions is only limited to close friends and family. Now with Social media apps, people are constantly on their phones or laptops and their socializing also happens through these rectangles.

🕵🏻 Overview

Behost is an app that lets you host events as well as attend events all at one place! With the boom of Social Media, people are constantly on their phones and their socializing also happens through social media apps. They have forgotten the joy of meeting people in person, discussing things and making new connections basically, experiencing life! Behost makes this experience a little easier for people. You get to choose whether to host an Open event or an Invite-Only event where you pick the guests! Safety for you and your guests is ensured through our Blue tick badges. Through a 4-step process be the host you always wanted to be! (Your time to be Monica!)

🧑🏻‍🤝‍🧑🏽Target Audience

The target audience varies from 18 years to any age! Be it the elderly who sit for a cup of chai and discuss how this world has transformed Or be it our GenZ’s who sit over a cup of Java chip Frappuccino and discuss about how mind blowing the Christopher Nolan movie was Or a Homemaker who invited people over for a delicious lunch out of pure love for cooking Or Some mid 20 guys discussing the next big thing in Tech, Finance or Marketing!

🧠 Research

I conducted a Survey by floating a Google Form to know about how people of different age groups think about the idea of Hosting and Attending events. I received a total of 26 responses from age groups ranging from 17 to 52.

Next I conducted User interviews to get to know users from each age group better! I got a lot of valuable information from the interviews. Initially I thought of behost as an app which lets you experience different cultures but I later realized through the survey and interviews that it could be a lot more than just that. Cultures, discussion groups, bonding sessions, making new connections and a lot more!

♒ Ideating and User Flows

I defined the user flows for Hosting as well as booking an Event. At this point I was quite clear as to what features are required to be built into the app. Created mental images of how my app should look like and noted key features in my notion page.

📱 Final Screens

Home Screen

The home screen shows the different events happening around and mainly for the guests to pick and choose the events they would like to attend. A search button to search for any specific events or categories. It also contains Offer Banners for users which can nudge them not just to attend events but also to Host them!

The event description screen displays information about the event, the time, date, who is hosting it, the ticket price and the location. If the event is an Invite-Only event the user would need to submit to their profiles to the host who then reviews and picks guests. In case of an Open event, users can directly buy the tickets.

For Invite-Only events, on clicking the Submit your profile CTA, a pop-up is displayed about Identity verification. This is done to make the app secure, as safety was a concern expressed by many during the Research phase. A real-time picture to match the profile and a government issued document are required to get the blue badge, which you can’t just buy like in some apps nowadays.😉

Nudging the users at the right time when they press the submit your profile CTA rather than just adding an option for verification in the profile section makes the user realize that the badge will make their chances of getting selected higher and more chances of conversion for the blue tick badge users!

Booking Screen

The booking screen deals with all things related to the post booking events process. It shows the upcoming events and its details in short. The pending tab shows all the events that you have been accepted for and a CTA for paying the ticket price to complete the booking process. The Notifications tab contains all the notifications regarding the booked events like Setting a Reminder for the event, groups created by hosts etc.

Ticket and Message Screen

The ticket screen has a simple UI, with the basic details for the event like the date, time, location and a QR code for the host to scan during the event for entry.

The message sections contains 2 tabs, one for Guests to get additional information of the event, for example in an event for Oppenheimer discussion meetup, the host wants the guests to wear white and black formals for the event, he can simply convey this through the group. The other tab is for Hosts, to manage their guests for the events they are hosting.

Host Screen

The Host screen is the Hero of this app, as the name suggests behost. The host screen contains a Create event CTA and the upcoming events that are hosted by the user and also the completed events. Users can manage their hosted events here. Clicking the Create an event CTA will take you into the process of creating an event step by step.

For events that are Invite-Only, a Review Applications CTA has been added within the event card, that will take the user to a new screen to review applications and pick and choose guests based on the guest details like social media profiles and a Personalized Note that the guest will add while applying. The personalized note shows effort and the willingness to attend the event thereby attracting genuine guests!

Create Event Screens

The create event flow consists of 4 step by step screens to create an event, which decreases the cognitive load on the user. It includes a Stepper to show the progress of the user in creation of event process.

Starting with basic details like title, description, date and time etc. The next page is about location, which can be either a café or a garden or the host’s house! An offer banner is added that displays offers by various partner cafes. The Food and Drinks option is enabled in case an Offer code is applied. The host can choose from the menu inbuilt by the café in the app for food and drinks. The host also has an option of ordering directly at the event day. The screen contains all the costs involved for the event, the host can add additional costs if any to manage and track expenses and then accordingly set the ticket price. There is also a clickable text which helps the user to set the correct price according to the expenses! The screen contains additional details, where you have the option of adding multiple host’s incase your whole friend group decides to host an event!

In this screen, the host can choose to keep the event Open or Invite-Only. In an Open event, anyone can buy the ticket and attend the event, whereas in case of Invite-Only event, the guests submit their profiles along with a personalized note and then the host picks guests based on the profiles and sends invites to those guests for the event.