Search Flow Redesign
Year
2025
Company
Cvent
Role
Product Design Intern
Team
Cvent Event Diagramming (CED), Design Team
Cvent is a leading provider of technology solutions for the meetings, events, and hospitality industry. Their suite of B2B SaaS products supports event planners, managers, hoteliers, and suppliers across a wide range of needs.
During my time at Cvent, I worked on Cvent Event Diagramming, a tool that enables event professionals to visually plan and collaborate on event layouts. As part of the Event Diagramming Design Team, I focused on enhancing the venue search feature to improve usability and streamline the planning experience.
The Core
What underlies this project?
Event planners using Cvent Event Diagramming need to search for and select specific venues they've contracted with to start creating diagrams and visualizing their event setups. This is a critical early step in the event planning workflow.
Typical user search workflow:
Search for contracted venues quickly
→
Identify the right venue and floor plan
→
Select and start diagramming with confidence
My Approach
How did I tackle this task?
I conducted the redesign of the venue search experience by understanding the job event planners needed to accomplish and removing barriers preventing successful job completion, while ensuring my designs aligned with company goals and aesthetics using their design system. Below is an overview of my process:
Discovery
Heuristic evaluation
Competitive analysis (CSN, Airbnb)
Datadog session analysis
User testing
Exploration
Team design workshop
Low-fi to mid-fi iterations
Content design collaboration
Figma prototyping
Key Skills
Jobs to be Done framework
Iterative design process
User-first thinking
Cross-team collaboration
Discovery
Understanding the users & identifying pain points
To identify the main areas where users experienced frustration that caused them to abandon searches, I engaged in a variety of research methods, including conducting a heuristic evaluation, auditing internal & external products (Cvent Supplier Network & AirBnb), and analyzing DataDog user sessions.
Research Methods & Findings
Heuristic Evaluation
Review of the venue search flow against usability principles.
Navigation issues:
2+
Search problems:
4+
Actions:
Unclear
Internal & External Audit
Audited similar search experiences in Cvent Supplier Network (CSN) and Airbnb.
Platforms reviewed:
2
Features compared:
Search & Filters
Datadog User Session Analysis
Observed user behavior in recordings of activity to identify friction points.
Sessions analyzed:
10 sessions
Abandon rate:
High
Redirects observed:
Frequent
⇡ High Impact
Navigation
Users struggled to understand the flow and how to navigate between venues, floor plans, and search results.
Confusing layout of information
Unclear information hierarchy
Abandoned searches and page redirects
⇡ High Impact
Search Efficiency
The search and filtering system made it difficult to quickly find and identify the right venues and floor plans.
Search results showed irrelevant venues
Limited filtering options (only 3D)
Lack of visual differentiation between venues
⇡ High Impact
Action Clarity
Users were uncertain about what actions to take and what the purpose of different elements was.
Ambiguous buttons and actions
Unclear differentiation between venue types
Confusion about purpose of features
Through my findings, I gathered that event planners struggle to efficiently search for, identify, and select venues and floor plans in CED due to confusing navigation and lack of clear differentiation. This increases cognitive load and can lead to frustration or abandonment.
Therefore, I asked the question:
"How might we help event planners efficiently search for, identify, and select venues and floor plans in CED to reduce cognitive load and prevent frustration or abandonment of the workflow?"
Exploration
Ideating & Designing Solutions
After identifying the key problem areas, I moved into the exploration phase. I worked closely with my team through design workshops, iterative sketching and wireframing in Figma, and user testing to develop and refine solutions.
01
Design Workshop & Ideation
I led a design workshop & continuously collaborated with my team to brainstorm solutions for the three main problem areas.
From the design workshop, I solidified several directions to guide my design solutions, each targeting one of the three main problem areas:
Improve use of empty space for better navigation
Add more visuals for better venue identification
Increase personalization with filtering & AI suggestions
Remove ambiguity and make actions clear
Explore connection with Cvent Supplier Network
02
Low-Fidelity Sketching
Sketched initial ideas to visualize solutions for navigation, search efficiency, and action clarity.
Key elements: Low-fi sketches, multiple concepts, early critiques
03
Mid-Fidelity Wireframes
Iterated designs to digital wireframes in Figma, exploring tabs, filters, and card layouts.
Key elements: Mid-fi wireframing, filter design options, saved venues vs unsaved exploration
04
User Testing & Iterations
To gather further outlook into my design ideas, I created an initial interactive, high-fidelity prototype to utilize in testing with 2 users. These testing sessions revealed critical insights that shaped my final design decisions:
Scroll Visibility
Problem: Users didn't realize there were more elements below the fold when I split venue cards into two sections labeled "Saved" and "Additional/Other".
Solution: Pivoted away from two labeled sections. Instead, saved venues appear first in a single scrollable section, maintaining hierarchy while showing users there's more content below.
Filter Design Evolution
Problem: Originally used dropdown fields for all filters (including binary ones like "Saved" and "3D"), which required too many clicks.
Solution: Converted binary filters to toggle-able buttons, moved multi-option filters to a single dropdown. Much more efficient for the user.
Final Solution
Venue Search Reimagined
My final design addresses all three main problem areas — navigation, search efficiency, and action clarity — with solutions validated through user testing and refined based on feedback from users and the content design team.
Current Design/Flow
Key Focuses:
Lots of unused white space
Vertical venue cards laid out vertically on page
Lack of CTAs, filters
My Re-design
Improved Scan-ability & Visual Hierarchy
Redesigned card layout and content to follow natural left-to-right, top-to-bottom reading patterns with better visual differentiation between venues.
01
reimagining
Reimagining
venue search
Venue search
Visual of venue to provide quick association
CTA to prompt user’s workflow
Tags to provide relevant venue information in a concise manner and match filter options
Home page split in 2 sections: AI suggested venues based on user’s activity or that of similar users, and their saved/favorited venues
Venue cards displayed in 4 column rows
Multi-option filter dropdown with relevant filters useful for searching for a specific venue
Sort options available on the venue page
Information relevant to room/event needs
User is able to view diagram & photo of the room for further association
02
Enhanced Filtering & Sorting
Implemented toggleable filters for binary options (Saved, 3D) and consolidated multi-option filters into an efficient dropdown.
Refined Search Results
Improved search algorithm to show only the most relevant results (e.g., searching 'Hyatt New York' shows only Hyatt hotels, not all NYC venues).
03
# of results displayed is accurate and specific
Results are limited to the most relevant to the search input
Throughout my summer, I gained valuable insight & guidance into the UX process of a B2B SaaS company with the help of my mentor, managers, fellow interns, and the entire UX department of Cvent!
Now, see how it all works together!
The End
Key Achievements
User-Centered Research
Conducted heuristic evaluation, competitive analysis, and DataDog session analysis to identify core issues
Iterative Design Process
Evolved designs from low-fi sketches to mid-fi wireframes with continuous testing and refinement
Cross-Team Collaboration
Worked with design team, content design team, and mentor to refine and validate solutions
Working with an Established Design System
Learned where/when to apply different elements from Cvent's established design system to ensure my solution would align in both aesthetic and structure with other products in the ecosystem
Future Design Opportunities
Integration
Explore further integration with Cvent’s hospitality product ecosystem
Natural Language Search
Explore how Natural Language search could make a user's search process more intuitive and allow planners to search using natural phrases rather than specific keywords