3 UX Designers Walk Into A Bar
A Case Study In Drinking & Friends
No, it’s not a set-up for a joke. When my two teammates and I were given free rein to choose a topic of focus, we selected an area that interested all of us…discovering more about people’s nightlife habits.
What we thought would be a seemingly overcrowded market of apps and websites, turned out not to be the case. Instead, we found a few big players all of whom are not delivering the information their users need.
The Ask
To identify an opportunity within a problem space and select an appropriate platform for which to design a solution.
Getting Started
We decided to each brainstorm topics of interest to focus on. After a few rounds of dot voting, we wound up with self-care, travel, and bars. Through topic mapping each option we felt “bars,” or more specifically people’s habits around going out in NYC, might be a meaty enough topic.
The Proposal
Before moving forward we needed to write out a formal proposal with a hypothesis, competitor matrix, and a platform choice for our project.
Hypothesis
We believe creating an app to show tailored events hosted at bars/clubs for bar-goers will help them find bars that they’ll enjoy and help them plan ahead of time. This will bring more business to the bar.
Competitive Matrix
Platform Choice
We chose to create a native iOS application for the following reasons:
ACCESSIBILITY
Users’ data stored on their devices and can be accessed easily.
PERSONALIZATION
Settings will be saved; users will not have to log in every time they want to use the app.
ACCURACY
Ability to provide results based on users’ real-time location using location services.
PROFIT
There are more iOS users in the US. iOS users also bring in more revenue on apps compare to that of Android users.
Gathering Data
After receiving approval on our proposal we immediately began discovery. A screener survey was sent out to find people that went out a least 1–3 times a month and were living in New York City.
In our research, we found that New York City had over 25,000 nightlife establishments and that nightlife in NYC accounted for $35.1 billion in total economic output for the city. As a place to concentrate on an app dealing with nightlife, NYC was the place to start.
From our screener survey, we were able to select 5 users to interview. Below are just a few of the key insights:
5/5 Users said location is a very important factor
5/5 Users said they consider friends’ recommendations before public reviews and ratings
4/5 Users have used applications such as Google Maps and Yelp to help with their search
3/5 Users said cost is something they consider when choosing a bar
Meet Amanda
From gathering our insights we were able to create a persona that best summed up the needs, behaviors, goals, and pain-points of our users.
Formalizing the Problem
When bar-goers choose an establishment for a night out, they must consider their preferences as well as the various preferences of any people they’re with.
Amanda is overwhelmed with planning a night out for friends. How might we help her narrow her search for a bar while making sure it matches her and her friends’ particular needs.
From Amanda’s Point of View
Finding the Sweet Spot
We next look at the various apps and websites Amanda uses to find the places she goes out to. We were able to break them down into 3 categories. Overlaying them on one another we were able to see where our app could intersect
Developing a Solution
It was now time to start solutioning. After brainstorming features we plotted them on a MoSCoW map.
This was then follow-up with a design studio session that led to our initial paper prototype. We tested and iterated, increasing the fidelity level with each round until we reached high-fidelity.
Prototype
Potential Corporate Partners
We were also tasked with selecting a potential corporate partner that would add strategic value to our app in the market place. We felt that TimeOut would make the biggest impact.
Who They Are
TimeOut is a global publication that inspires people to “enjoy the best about their city.”
Their mission is “to help people around the world go out better.”
How We Align
The missions of TimeOut and our app are much the same: aiding people in staying connected with their communities and enabling them to better enjoy their night-out experience.
How It Would Work:
- TimeOut would supply us with feature articles and recommendations, which we would highlight on our app
- This would increase brand awareness for TimeOut.
- We would supply TimeOut with our user ratings and bar event information
- TimeOut would also promote our app on their website and in feature articles.
- TimeOut could potentially open up additional markets across the globe
Next Steps
Developing The Second Persona
After beginning to develop our app, we noticed the need for a second persona. This would be the bar managers or event coordinators that would be entering the bar event schedules.
We felt this would be a great opportunity for bars to take a certain level of autonomy around their bar listing. We would need to complete user interviews and synthesize that data to make any definite conclusions.
Other Features to Add
- Develop an onboarding process
- Add a Quick View feature on the bars to be voted on in the messages
- Add badges for bars featured by TimeOut
- Add the ability to follow bars
- Add the ability to filter results by day
