Read Part I of the Freshly Baked @ Foursquare Ideas series.
This is Part II of the Freshly Baked @Foursquare Ideas series. In this post, we focus on exploration...particularly around events.
Exploration (or discovery) is core to Foursquare's model. You only have to view the homepage (...Find your Friends. Unlock Your City) or play with the latest 3.0 update (which features an Explore tab) to realise the value that's been placed on exploration.
Currently, users explore via direct search or through filters (food, coffee, nightlife, shops and arts & entertainment) and the Foursquare recommendation engine returns a list of locations to the user. But whilst searching for locations is an effective means to explore a city, it's just one angle, one approach.
Imagine if Foursquare were to partner with an events network such as Plancast or Yahoo Upcoming. This would add a new dimension to a user's experience of exploring their city. No longer would users just explore by locations (already added in the Foursquare ecosystem), but by upcoming events (e.g. art exhibitions, flea markets, food markets, live music gigs, etc) as well.
Imagine this:
- You're in New York City and you have nothing planned for Sunday.
- You load the Foursquare app to explore what's happening.
- You're presented with a list of events on Sunday along with their opening hours and tips.
- You see that the Brooklyn Flea Market is open till 5pm, at Williamsburg, Brooklyn. You also notice that four of your Foursquare friends have already been there.
- Finally you read the tip, "Check out the bank vault whilst you're there...you'll be in for a treat!".
- You add this to your to-do list, throw on a jacket and head out to check the markets.
Exploring by events...A simple, yet a new and powerful way to explore a city. No longer will you miss out on an event of interest to you. No longer will you have to read another pocket-size pamphlet or visit another external website to list upcoming events. The beauty with this solution is that the entire exploration experience from planning to physical check-in is all contained seamlessly within one convenient environment for the user: the Foursquare app.
Below is just a sneak preview of the Foursquare Events prototype I've been developing. I've viewed the 'Events' feature as an entirely new Foursquare product offering and have thought through some of the workflows.
What do you think?
