Bar Hop Case Study
The Team: Ulika - Community Ambassador, Hunter - Developer, Allen - Digital Designer
The Problem: People who move to a new city want to explore their nearby neighborhoods and connect with their new community.
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The strategy was to gamify the experience of finding a bar or several bars to go to for a night out. We wanted to allow users to specify distinct parameters for their ideal establishment then the app will choose a new bar at random for them to tryout and review. Once users found a selection they are excited about they can share the link with friends and add to their favorites. As users explore and get to know their surroundings they can track all of their favorite spots in the app for later reference.
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The Brand Identity of the app should be trendy, fun, and not too serious. the look and feel of the app should embody a night out on the town and connect with the emotions of a magical adventure.
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My Part: It was my job to sculpt the brand, aesthetic and functionality of the user flow for the application with my goal being to make the simplest yet most functional experience that users would want to return to again and again.
Early iterations were simple and clean. The functionality of the flow was the priority in this phase. I was less worried about aesthetics while I prioritized making the functionality powerful simple and fun to use.
Our first working title was "Where to"
This early flow showed the capability of the app to carry out it's most basic features. The "Spin the wheel" function was the first introduction to gamify the process and ad some drama and suspense to the reveal.
We considered the potential to link to ride shares and automatically update the phone clipboard with the bars address. Users can also share results to their group chat to plan an evening with friends.
Reflections and Feedback: There are some good ideas in this first iteration that need to be developed more. The aesthetic does not look cool or chic but the beginning of a "night life" with neon colors and urban aesthetic with the skyline imagery is a first step.
"The wheel spin is interesting animation but feels like a game show or some type of cheap phone game and is not reminding me of the fun nightlife vibe."
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Based on feedback from users and meeting with the team, we decided to give the UI a facelift and expand on the brand values that were determined previously. Cool, Chic, Night-Life
Based on feedback from users and meeting with the team, we decided to give the UI a facelift.
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New Problem: The user interface felt cheap and uncool to our target audience. How can I design the app to be "cool" and functional. we want users to show it off to their friends and keep coming back to use it again and again.
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Solution: My goal was to make the app more chic and fashionable to a younger "night owl" audience.
I renamed the app "Bar Hop" to be more intuitive to the functionality and hinting at the opportunity to use the app multiple times during a night out the name works better as a "noun" instead of a "question" (where to)
The logo and app display icon references a full moon and a DJ turntable.
The color palette embodies nightlife and lively energy. Yet relaxed and "chill" like a cucumber
The parameter screen display is designed to be simple to use but specific enough to fine tune results and add more flexibility and specification than a Google search.
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I chose to keep the spinning wheel function and dress it in a the new aesthetic. All of the functionality of the original flow was preserved. Again, the spinning wheel references the full moon.​
The app works by implementing google business search API to link restaurants with all of the specifications listed on the google business profile. A key feature let's the user can also determine how far from their current location they are willing to travel. with this function they can walk from bar to bar in a busy neighborhood to navigate their night out.​
My Reflections:
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This app could be a very fun experience for users and could be an improved process that offers more social connectivity and more aesthetic pleasure than simple using Google maps to find a place to spend the evening.
I think the design and branding is effective and would appeal to the night owl audience. I have successfully solved the design problems of making it cool and chic. The strategy is to make a pleasurable and sticky experience that will keep users coming back.
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Our team is currently looking for funding in order to launch the app into app stores and create a marketing and promotional campaign to announce the app. At this time we are open to hearing from sponsors and potential business partners.