Carnaval del Sol

A mobile-first event site designed for structured navigation

ROLE

UX Designer

EXPERTISE

UX/UI Design

YEAR

2023

Overview

Carnaval del Sol organized by Latincouver in BC, Canada, is a mobile-first event website designed to enhance navigation and engagement for festival-goers. As the biggest Latin American festival in the Pacific Northwest, the platform needed to organize 20+ events efficiently while ensuring a seamless user experience.

Collaborating with a UX designer and a design agency, I focused on improving information architecture, usability, and accessibility to create a scalable design that could be reused for future festival editions.

Discovery & Research

To understand user needs and pain points, I conducted stakeholder interviews, user testing, and competitor analysis. Key findings included:

80% of users accessed the website via mobile, reinforcing the need for a mobile-first design.

Users struggled to find event schedules due to complex navigation and scattered information.

Lack of a structured information hierarchy made ticket purchases confusing and led to drop-offs.

Frequent design resets every year resulted in inconsistencies and unnecessary rework.

Defining the Challenge

With over 15 years of history and continuous growth, the festival faced key challenges:

Organizing complex content – Managing a diverse range of events across multiple dates.

Ensuring mobile accessibility – Creating a smooth experience for on-the-go users.

Building a reusable design system – Standardizing components to simplify yearly updates.

Based on user research, I identified three key challenges that shaped the design direction:

Data-sensitive

Users struggled with unclear scheduling and fragmented event information due to the complexity of organizing diverse data levels.

Embracing Mobile-First Design

Over 80% of visitors accessed the website via mobile, reinforcing the need for an intuitive, mobile-first experience.

Complex contents

With 20+ attractions and varying information structures, it was essential to create a clear and scalable way to categorize event details.

Ideation

Based on research insights, I explored multiple approaches to structuring event information effectively:

Affinity Mapping – Organized content based on themes, helping align stakeholders on critical information.

Scalable IA Model – Designed a flexible information architecture to support future event expansions.

Wireframing & Prototyping – Created low-fidelity wireframes to test layout variations before refining the final structure.

This allows us to share the information that has been in their heads so far with everyone and to understand which information is uncertain or undecided. Although a lot of information was certainly uncertain on the event page, I noticed that many of the structures listed were the same and could be grouped into several groups.

Solution

To help users effortlessly build and maintain habits, this app focuses on simplicity, flexibility, and engagement. By eliminating common frustrations like complex habit setup, lack of progress visibility, and rigid scheduling, the app enables users to create and track habits with ease.

Highlight Features:

Stay on track with your habits

Customize your habit routine

Track time with a built-in timer

Increase engagement with streaks

Filter function to guide the users
Guiding users to relevant events through a 5-question filter enhances engagement and streamlines content discovery.
Improved Content Discovery:
Filters enable users to refine and narrow down the displayed content based on their specific preferences or criteria. Users can quickly find the relevant information which matches them.
Time-saving and Efficiency:
Searching for vast amounts of information can lead to user detachment or misrecognition. This feature enhances efficiency and improves user satisfaction by providing a more direct and focused path to the desired information.
Analytics and Insights:
The usage of filters can provide valuable analytics and insights into user behavior and preferences.
Grouping card components
Use card components to improve content navigation and create a user-friendly interface that looks good and works well.
Visual Hierarchy and Organization:
Implement visual tiers to organize related content, aiding users in understanding the relationship between different cards and facilitating efficient content discovery.
Mobile-Friendly Design:
Ensure that card components adapt well to mobile devices, stacking vertically on smaller screens for seamless content browsing through easy scrolling.
Reusability:
Employ scheduling components across various sections to establish a flexible system capable of accommodating information updates and changes.
Tabs
Using tabs to allow users to switch between different sections with a simple tap or swipe gesture, enhances mobile usability.
Flexibility and Scalability:
Tab components are highly flexible and scalable, tabs can be easily extended or modified without significantly impacting the overall structure or layout of the interface.
Clear Navigation:
Switch between tabs to access the desired information without the need for excessive scrolling or searching for users can quickly understand the available options.
Content Organization:
Organize and present content to reduce clutter and improve the overall organization of information.
Filter function to guide the users
Guiding users to relevant events through a 5-question filter enhances engagement and streamlines content discovery.
Improved Content Discovery:
Filters enable users to refine and narrow down the displayed content based on their specific preferences or criteria. Users can quickly find the relevant information which matches them.
Time-saving and Efficiency:
Searching for vast amounts of information can lead to user detachment or misrecognition. This feature enhances efficiency and improves user satisfaction by providing a more direct and focused path to the desired information.
Analytics and Insights:
The usage of filters can provide valuable analytics and insights into user behavior and preferences.
Grouping card components
Use card components to improve content navigation and create a user-friendly interface that looks good and works well.
Visual Hierarchy and Organization:
Implement visual tiers to organize related content, aiding users in understanding the relationship between different cards and facilitating efficient content discovery.
Mobile-Friendly Design:
Ensure that card components adapt well to mobile devices, stacking vertically on smaller screens for seamless content browsing through easy scrolling.
Reusability:
Employ scheduling components across various sections to establish a flexible system capable of accommodating information updates and changes.
Tabs
Using tabs to allow users to switch between different sections with a simple tap or swipe gesture, enhances mobile usability.
Flexibility and Scalability:
Tab components are highly flexible and scalable, tabs can be easily extended or modified without significantly impacting the overall structure or layout of the interface.
Clear Navigation:
Switch between tabs to access the desired information without the need for excessive scrolling or searching for users can quickly understand the available options.
Content Organization:
Organize and present content to reduce clutter and improve the overall organization of information.
Filter function to guide the users
Guiding users to relevant events through a 5-question filter enhances engagement and streamlines content discovery.
Improved Content Discovery:
Filters enable users to refine and narrow down the displayed content based on their specific preferences or criteria. Users can quickly find the relevant information which matches them.
Time-saving and Efficiency:
Searching for vast amounts of information can lead to user detachment or misrecognition. This feature enhances efficiency and improves user satisfaction by providing a more direct and focused path to the desired information.
Analytics and Insights:
The usage of filters can provide valuable analytics and insights into user behavior and preferences.
Grouping card components
Use card components to improve content navigation and create a user-friendly interface that looks good and works well.
Visual Hierarchy and Organization:
Implement visual tiers to organize related content, aiding users in understanding the relationship between different cards and facilitating efficient content discovery.
Mobile-Friendly Design:
Ensure that card components adapt well to mobile devices, stacking vertically on smaller screens for seamless content browsing through easy scrolling.
Reusability:
Employ scheduling components across various sections to establish a flexible system capable of accommodating information updates and changes.
Tabs
Using tabs to allow users to switch between different sections with a simple tap or swipe gesture, enhances mobile usability.
Flexibility and Scalability:
Tab components are highly flexible and scalable, tabs can be easily extended or modified without significantly impacting the overall structure or layout of the interface.
Clear Navigation:
Switch between tabs to access the desired information without the need for excessive scrolling or searching for users can quickly understand the available options.
Content Organization:
Organize and present content to reduce clutter and improve the overall organization of information.
Filter function to guide the users
Guiding users to relevant events through a 5-question filter enhances engagement and streamlines content discovery.
Improved Content Discovery:
Filters enable users to refine and narrow down the displayed content based on their specific preferences or criteria. Users can quickly find the relevant information which matches them.
Time-saving and Efficiency:
Searching for vast amounts of information can lead to user detachment or misrecognition. This feature enhances efficiency and improves user satisfaction by providing a more direct and focused path to the desired information.
Analytics and Insights:
The usage of filters can provide valuable analytics and insights into user behavior and preferences.
Grouping card components
Use card components to improve content navigation and create a user-friendly interface that looks good and works well.
Visual Hierarchy and Organization:
Implement visual tiers to organize related content, aiding users in understanding the relationship between different cards and facilitating efficient content discovery.
Mobile-Friendly Design:
Ensure that card components adapt well to mobile devices, stacking vertically on smaller screens for seamless content browsing through easy scrolling.
Reusability:
Employ scheduling components across various sections to establish a flexible system capable of accommodating information updates and changes.
Tabs
Using tabs to allow users to switch between different sections with a simple tap or swipe gesture, enhances mobile usability.
Flexibility and Scalability:
Tab components are highly flexible and scalable, tabs can be easily extended or modified without significantly impacting the overall structure or layout of the interface.
Clear Navigation:
Switch between tabs to access the desired information without the need for excessive scrolling or searching for users can quickly understand the available options.
Content Organization:
Organize and present content to reduce clutter and improve the overall organization of information.

As a result, 23% sales increase

Sales went up by 23% from last year, showing that the better website design helped turn more visitors into customers. The redesign made the website more appealing, which brought in more people and boosted sales. This proves that investing in improving user experience was a smart move for the company.