OVERVIEW
A B2B event planning tool with a search flow that worked against event planners.
Cvent Event Diagramming (CED) — formerly Social Tables — helps event planners visualize and design event layouts. Within it, venue search lets planners find the specific venues and floor plans they've contracted to start building their diagrams. I owned the design process end-to-end: from research to final UI, identifying usability gaps and redesigning the experience to make finding, filtering, and differentiating venues faster and more intuitive.
THE PROBLEM
Event planners know what they're searching for.
They just can't find it.
DISCOVERY
Event planners enter this flow with a venue already in mind — and still get lost.
The original flow presented a flat, undifferentiated list of venues with no visual hierarchy, minimal filtering options, and no clear distinction between similar venues and floor plans.
Users were forced to manually scan every result to find what they'd already contracted. What should be a quick task turned into a frustrating hunt.
⌙ User Journey: Friction points across the flow
RESEARCH
Understanding the gap between
what planners had
and what they need.
RESEARCH
Looking at the problem from different angles.
10
Datadog sessions
Observed 10 user sessions to understand where and how users were experiencing friction in the flow.
1
Internal audit
Audited Cvent's venue sourcing platform to benchmark what planners might expect before arriving at CED.
Led
A design workshop
Led a workshop to ideate on gaps and explore preliminary design directions with the product team.
Three things kept coming up:
1
Navigation and structure
Users couldn't find venues because the layout felt empty and confusing — no clear hierarchy or visual anchor.
2
Search efficiency
Poorly organized or overloaded results caused frustration and frequent abandonment of the search process.
3
Action clarity
Users were unsure what was clickable and what actions were possible — slowing their progress at every step.
EXPLORATION
From ideation
to tradeoffs.
TRADEOFFS
Three decisions that shaped the final design.
I explored early solutions through sketching and wireframing — and hit some decisions that weren't obvious.
Here's where I had to actually think:
AI personalization vs. filtering clarity
Recently contracted venues pulled from cross-platform data for personalization.
Cross-platform data linking introduced technical ambiguity around feasibility.
Pivoted to AI suggested venues using only in-platform user data.
Less ambiguous, more buildable.
Scoped to what is more likely to ship.
Filter interaction model
Multiple separate dropdowns for different filters — too many clicks, potential cognitive overload.
Added friction at each filter step instead of reducing it.
Consolidated multi-option filters into one dropdown, surfaced binary toggles alongside it.
Fewer clicks, quicker filtering.
Reduced decisions per step without losing filter power.
Saved vs. unsaved venue separation
Saved and unsaved venues in separate sections.
Usability testing with 2 participants revealed users didn't scroll past the first section, assuming the page had ended.
Consolidated into one ranked section with saved venues appearing first.
Hierarchy preserved, below-the-fold problem eliminated.
Usability Tested / Caught by 2 participants before final delivery.
FINAL SOLUTION
A search flow that prioritizes relevant results,
boosts scanability, and builds confidence.
WHAT CHANGED
From a list you read to a layout you scan.
NAVIGATION & STRUCTURE
Redesigned layout to support natural scan patterns and hierarchy
Clearer flows between search results, individual venues, and floor plans.
Visual cards replaced the flat text list, giving users a way to scan rather than read.
SEARCH EFFICIENCY
Enhanced filtering, sorting, and result relevance
Consolidated filters reduce clicks.
Updated algorithm surfaces the most relevant venues based on user input.
Built using Figma to prototype the full interactive search flow within Cvent's established design system.
View
Create
ACTION CLARITY
Clarified buttons and actions to reduce friction
Improved visual cues make next steps obvious.
Larger visuals, clear CTAs, gateway to pivot to sourcing platform if needed.
ACCESSIBILITY
Reducing cognitive load is itself a foundational accessibility consideration — a connection raised by an audience member during my technology department presentation, affirming that usability improvements and inclusive design are deeply intertwined.
WHAT THEY SAID
IMPACT
User-centered decisions,
validated before final delivery.
10
Datadog sessions that showed us exactly where the flow was hurting
3
core pain points resolved across the redesign
2
usability test participants caught a layout issue before final delivery
REFLECTION
What I took away from my first B2B design internship.
Designing within a real ecosystem
Every decision I made had to hold up against the broader Cvent product. That constraint was actually useful — it forced me to think in systems, not just screens. Working inside an established design system is not just about knowing the components, it's understanding when to stay consistent and when to push back, and being able to make that case to the people around you.
If this shipped, I'd measure…
search abandonment rate, time-to-venue-selection, and error/backtrack rate. Those are the clearest signals that a search flow is actually working — or isn't.
check out my other work!
