From A Box Of Parts, To A Polished Consumer Product
The first thing we knew we had to do was streamline the experience. It would never scale by handing someone a box of parts and a set of instructions. We needed it to be simple to set up and as easy-to-use as any other iPad application. Using the initial application as our prototype, we started talking to people to better understand what they loved about it, they things they wished it had/would do, and what parts were difficult to use or understand.
This learning provided a strong foundation for us to launch the first proper version of the EventBooth software. Consisting of an iPad application that makes it fun for guests to capture candid photos, and a web-based administrative system that allows hosts to easily customize photo strips, review photos, and set up automatic sharing on social networks.
Scaling Down In One Way, To Scale Up In Others
After the launch of the app, we begin to receive inquiries about a physical photo booth to accompany the application. While we typically don’t focus on industrial design and fabrication, we’re not one to walk away from a challenge, especially when customers are requesting it. So we found a fabrication partner and got to work designing a solution.
As usual, testing the product in the real world helped us understand how it needed to be improved… although this time, the lesson came from having to haul the world’s largest and heaviest iPad holder all over the South East.
After learning from our own design mistakes the hard way, we took the physical EventBooth Photo Station back to the drawing board and redesigned it as a sturdy but lightweight modular system. One that breaks down to fit with a standard shipping container. This made it easy for us to ship EventBooths all over the country, and for event hosts to assemble it at an event in just a few minutes.
From Quirky Experiment To Profitable Business
The result was a fun and innovative way to turn any iPad into a full-features photo booth. EventBooth has had tremendous success in the App Store, and was profitable within the first 12 months. To date, it’s allowed users all over the world to snap tens-of-thousands of photos, giving a new meaning to our goal of designing applications that create and “capture” delight!
