Client Proposal

Create an app for cocktail enthusiasts that like making drinks at home.
Have some way to know whether you are picking a quality recipe.
Be able to use ingredients you already have at home.

The Problem

People want to make great cocktails at home without going to the store every time.
It’s hard to know what to make with the ingredients you have at home.
Covid 19: Bars are closed and people want to take less store trips.

The Solution:

An app that generates craft cocktail recipes from spirits and mixers you have at home.
Lets savvy home bartenders decide what to make based on ratings and styles,

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My Process

For my design process, I took the following steps:

1. Research & Define

HMW Questions
Competitive Analysis
User Interviews
Target Audience

2. Strategy

Personas
Journey Map
Storyboard

3. Information Architecture

User Flows
Site Map
Rapid Sketching
Wireframes

4. Branding

Logo
Color Palette

5. Visual Design

Hi Fi Mockups/Prototype
User Testing

How Might We Questions

First, I asked a series questions to help define the product:

Q: HMW help home cocktail makers create cocktails based on ingredients they have?

Have a recipe list that gets generated based on home ingredients
Have ingredients listed in categories that users can add to a virtual home bar

Q: HMW help home cocktail makers know they are picking a cocktail recipe they'll like?

Have a recipe list that gets generated based on ingredients users have
Have ingredients listed in categories that users can add to a virtual home bar

See all HMWs

Competitive Analysis

Next I did a competitive analysis with 3 popular cocktail apps recommended on the App Store that had features for adding ingredients to a virtual bar. Here were some key takeaways:

Issues to Avoid:

Long unordered lists of cocktails or ingredients
Burying ”Home Bar” under other features
Unclear CTAs

Things to Remix

Easy and fast way of adding cocktails to virtual home bar
Color coding cocktails you can make
Simple navigation and categorization

My Bar

Cocktail Flow

Modern Classics

See SWOT Analysis

Target Audience

Based on Client's Vision

Cocktail enthusiasts that have some knowledge of making cocktails
Discerning users that want quality classic and creative drinks recipes
People who buy liquor and would have some ingredients at home

Neilson Norman Research

Older millennials 32-39
Woman and Men
Middle to upper income

User Interviews

I conducted user interviews with 3 users via Zoom. The interviewees were selected using a screener I created, and were in the target audience. The takeaways from the interviews were:

Most respondents used Google, and one person used a cocktail recipe book.
They make drinks at home because bars can be expensive.
Users want to go the store as little as possible due to Covid 19.
Users don't have all the ingredients when they find a recipe.

Christina

A 33 year old NYC project manager

Motivations

Make delicious new drinks.
Wants to be creative and has a curious palette.
Have company and make drinks as good as her favorite bars.

Goals

Make a good cocktail without having to run out to the store.
Get recipes based on what she has at home.
Reduce trips to the store due to Covid.

Frustrations

It's challenging to find a good drink you can make right away online.
It's hard to know what to make with what you have at home.
It's hard to know if a drink is going to be good.

Solution Sketches

I picked my favorite Crazy 8s sketches and reiterated. I chose a recipe screen that lets you know which ingredient you're missing, a 3 up ingredients list that lets you select using radials, and a cocktail list that's color coded.

Recipe Screen

Add Ingredients

Cocktail List

Hi Fi Mockups

I started making HiFi mockups in order to build a prototype and start usability testing

A Home Ingredients list lets you add what you have on hand to generate recipes.

A Home Recipes list tells you which cocktails you can make with ingredients you have.

All Recipes lets you search for any cocktail and use custom filters.

A cocktail recipe screen provides clickable ingredients and ability to rate and favorite.

Usability Testing

Testing was conducted remotely using Zoom with a test script and Maze software. Feedback indicated the need to:

Provide instructions for users
Reorganize features (combine Ingredients & Generated Cocktails in one section)
Help orient users to where to find their cocktails after adding ingredients.
Rename the My Drinks page to Favorites.

Before

After

New hi fi mockup screen with changes circled

Alert added to orient and let users know their options.
Used color to let users know what screen they were on.

Before

After

Recipes you generate appear in your Home Bar instead of Cocktails
Number added next to "Home Recipes" to inform users where to find the recipes

Before

After

Changed "My Drinks" to "Favorites" improve findability

Drinkeasy

An app that lets you get quality craft cocktail recipes and use spirits and mixers you have at home.

View Prototype

Conclusion

Overall, I believe I created a solid MVP for a cocktail app to let you get recipes from ingredients you have at home. I learned some of the challenges in organizing lots of information in categories (i.e. spirits, mixers, etc).

Further iteration and testing would be helpful to organize ingredient types. Further testing with ways of adding ingredients outside of using an accordion, including having users add ingredients during the onboarding process could be helpful as well.

Client Proposal

The Problem

The Solution:

My Process

1. Research & Define

2. Strategy

3. Information Architecture

4. Branding

5. Visual Design

How Might We Questions

Competitive Analysis

Issues to Avoid:

Things to Remix

My Bar

Cocktail Flow

Modern Classics

Target Audience

Based on Client's Vision

Neilson Norman Research

User Interviews

Persona

Christina

Motivations

Goals

Frustrations

Journey Map

Story Board

User Flow

Solution Sketches

Recipe Screen

Add Ingredients

Cocktail List

Digital Wireframes

Hi Fi Mockups

Usability Testing

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

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