by karen.johannesen -

Turning the table: Socialised event app

After the first four previous blog posts I reached a point where I was unsure of how to move forward. Personally I found it difficult to see where I could contribute through interaction design – although there are plenty of possibilities. I struggled mostly with finding a direction that I felt comfortable with and doable for me to go through with for my thesis, given my current motivation, knowledge and interest. Therefore I have decided to go back to scratch. 

Through a conversation with a professor from my home university, NTNU, I aired the idea of an application and/or website that would gather events into one platform, making the search for the weekend plans a bit easier. She further added the thought of looking at it from a student perspective, for example also as an erasmus student. This reminded me of the talk about a “loneliness” epidemic, and the hostel app where you can join activities of other solo travellers. 

There are many questions that could be asked around this “topic” or idea. How big is the need for a system that gathers events and happenings into one app, from the users perspective? As all kinds of events would be available for all kinds of people, how would the event hosts feel about this in regards to the target group they are trying to reach? And for the environment they are trying to create? Would it work well practically? How could one ensure safety for the users wanting to join an event with strangers?

In a publication by the Joint Research Center it was written that loneliness was more common among students compared to working people (Berlingieri, Colagrossi & Mauri, 2023). A survey done on students in the US in spring in 2025 by NCHA found that 46.7% scored positive on the UCLA loneliness scale (American College Health Association, 2025). A press release from the UK government stated that almost all participating students had felt lonely at least once during their academic year. 52% of the participants also said loneliness was one of their concerns at university, 48% were concerned with “fitting in” (UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 2023). In a study done at the Carinthia University of Applied Sciences (CUAS) in Austria 31.7% reported moderate loneliness, while 4.8% were severely lonely. Where most felt socially lonely (29.4%) (Limarutti, Maier & Mir, 2023). 

These statistics show that loneliness is a concern and problem amongst students, and specifically socially. When starting university, especially when moving cities it can be difficult to integrate and find people who share your interests. Currently there exists apps like Bumble BFF and Hostelworld’s features for meeting people while travelling, whether or not these can help battle the feeling of loneliness would be something to further look into. 

A problem with such “meeting” apps is related to privacy and safety. Dating apps are a similar way to meet people, however people are concerned whether or not this is a safe way to meet. Pew Research center found that 46% of US adults saw dating apps as “not too safe or not at all safe way to meet people” (Anderson, Vogels & Turner, 2020). Some “meeting” apps have implemented ways of making users feel more secure in meeting through their apps by adding ID verification. Although it can create a sense of safety for others, many seem to be skeptical about giving these app companies their personal information through ID verification (Hendrickson, 2025). There are various other features these apps offer to prevent unsafe situations. The dating app Hinge offers users a way to report users if they experience discomfort or find a fake profile. Finding a balance between safety and privacy is an important goal. 

Of course there exists ticketing apps that offer tickets to events of all kinds in one, such as Ticketmaster and Eventim. But how well these work and if there is a need for an improvement of these can be looked further into. Although they have no particular target group in itself other than a high focus on concert goers. If there is a need for these features to merge and to target students, could be questioned and researched further through the use of surveys.

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