Team
UX UI Designers
Punasa (Bee) Sihsobhon
Pia Miro Quesada
BRANDING
Chloe Meaney, Natalie Rapken
Sipology
Mobile Interface, Education
Purpose
There is no one place where cocktail enjoyers can easily access recipe based on the ingredients they have at home. The process of scrolling through the recipe while making the drink also makes the station and the device dirty.
Duration
5 weeks
My Roles
Researcher
Conducted a desk research to study competitors to identify the unique selling points of the brand, as well as crafted surveys and conducted interviews to understand the user’s drinking behavior in crafting the information architecture of the interface.
Brand Strategist
Crafted the brand voice and value to the ensure cohesive design in the visual and the vernacular.
UX/UI Designer
Streamlined the site map and web flow then adjusted the standard UX writing to match with the user.
Tool
Interviews
Surveys
Dropbox
Canva
Personas
User Journey
Wireframe
Competitor Research
Google Workspace
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator
Key Takeaways
Information Architecture and UI
Balancing copywriting with UX writing while working on the visual hierarchy was a challenge. Feedback surveys were sent out to the same pool of research survey to get feedback on the UX writing on the app.
Team Building
Within the limited amount of time, team members are dividing the tasks and work asynchronously. I centralized design updates, which facilitated the final prototype building process. Working in the same environment in person helps cater more idea exchange and reinforces focus.
Brand Strategy
Studying the existing competitors in the market and positioning the brand according to the user's pain points and conceptualized an authentic brand starting from values, voice, and visual language.
Sipology
Endless cocktails at your fingertips.
a mobile content library app that provides endless cocktail recipes, teaching you how to craft amazing drinks that will leave you feeling like a true mixologist.
Freepour
Perfect Drink
Cocktail Flow
WikiHow
YouTube
Cocktails are constantly being made and invented, and there is no one place to access all these recipes.
Insights from our survey and interview.
Drinking Habit
Most people tend to drink with friends and family and/or during special occasions. It was also noticed that people tend to play music, chat, and plays game while drinking.
The pain points
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There's no recipe that matches what I have in the kitchen.
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The group cannot decide on what to drink and I don't know what I want.
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It takes so long to go through the author's life story before I can get to the actual recipe.
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It is really messy when I need to scroll the screen for an instruction while making my drink.
Is the data valid?
Yes! It is valid, but it is slightly skewed.
With 97% of drinkers, we can make use of our data in the user personas and develop appropriate features catering to their needs. The feedback, however, is slightly skewed towards the female users age between 22 to 25 years old.
Building design criterion
Here's what we do with our data.
With the goal to find a way to teach users how to make cocktails, a means of entertaining guest, and an opportunity to experience new drinks, we listed three design criterion that will resolve our user's issue.
Accessibility to content
Users spend too much time browsing for good recipe. This content library app will have everything in one location based off of your desired flavors chosen.
Reduce uncertainty
Some users do know what to make out of the resources they already have.
Convenience and mess control
User can easily visually follow instruction instead of scrolling while reading the recipe.
Meet our users
Sipology is an app for those who want to have a good time, socialize, and connect with friends while learning to perfect a wide range of cocktails.
Here are our user personas.
Calvin Diznuts (22 years old)
Impresses Party Guests
Calvin is in his final year at Temple University, and occasionally likes to entertain guests at his apartment. Calvin and his friends like to create new cocktails for their dinner parties, and are innovating new recipes from ingredients they have around their apartment.
Alice Reynold (25 years old)
Expands Connection
Alice has an illustration BFA and is pursuing a master degree in business to aid her start-up project after 2 years of freelancing. she is trying to find topics of conversation while drinking to help connect people.
Derek Thompson (30 years old)
Learns New Recipes
Derek is a web developer living in Miami, Florida. He recently picked up a part-time bartending job as a side income. He has always been interested in mixing and creating cocktails, and being a bartender can allow him to experiment.
Where's that recipe?
Calvin's problem
"I invited a group of friends over and my friend's girlfriend wants an Espresso Martini but I have never made one."
Calvin's goal
Learns how to make the drink for his friends
What should we drink?
Alice's problem
"After a few cold months, the temperature is rising, and my girl friends and I are craving tanning and drinking at the beach but we're not sure what to drink exactly."
Alice's goal
The girls enjoy a fun beach day with their drinks of choice.
What can I make?
Derek's problem
"I have been wanting to learn new recipes to "up my game", but its annoying to go through so many places to be able to learn a variety of drinks."
Derek's goal
Has the opportunity to learn hundreds of recipes for various drinks in just one place - prepping him become a bartender.
General app overview
From start to finish
Starting from downloading the app, this flowchart gives an overview on what route the users can take to interact with the interface and how it solves their problem.
Essence of our brand.
We want you to have a good time.
Setting this descriptive and tone of the app can make a better guideline for the team to work on the visual and the vernacular.
Refined
A simple, quick, and easy way to master crafting cocktails!
Sophisticate
There's nothing better than a perfectly crafted cocktail.
Inviting
Come and enjoy a drink with us!
Educational
You want to learn how to craft the perfect cocktail? You've come to the right place!
Sincere
We're here to provide an authentic and genuine experience.
Casual
Like the way you'd speak to your friends.
Naming our brand
How did Sipology came up?
After brainstormed 71 names and researched the market, the team decided to use the name
Sip·ology with the interpunction between sip and ology. We also conducted another survey to get some feedback from our potential users, which was positive.
Name feedback
We sent out another survey after finalizing our naming ideas to observe the alignment of the name with the brand.
Building the visual system
It all started with the logo
To keep the visual consistency, we established the art direction through the solid logo design then develop the supporting visual elements.
Check out the slide for wireframes and visual elements
The deadline looks scary,
but it's manageable.
The team is 3 weeks into the project and this is the start of our visual exploration. We split responsibilities to work on the visual system, wireframe, and prototype preparation.
The exploration of an app icon with the color palette
The team revisited the flowchart to plan the pages need for the app as well as its relationship to each other.
The exploration of icons developed from the logotype strengthens the visual experience and balances the solid wireframe structure with their organic forms.
The exploration of an app icon with the color palette
Visual Language
A summary of visual elements
The visual elements are created to maintain cohesiveness of the design throughout the page. Here is the visual summary.
Storyboard
Sequencing the pages
The storyboard depicts the experience of the users from opening the app to reaching their desired recipe.
The user will answer the screening question if they are over 21 years old. If they are under the drinking age, they will be offered a mocktail recipe instead. In the case of the user being over 21, the app will lead them to the sign in page. Email is selected as the identity verification as they contain data about the user's age.
The user can skip the process and come back to the sign in and login panel anytime. Here we can see the user login to the app, which directs them to the account page. The user has access to their saved recipe under The Usual. Closing the account page, the loading page pops up. The icon and phrases will change to entertain the user during the waiting time.
Tapping on the video, the frame will expand to give a better view of the instructor. The user can tap on the screen to open the movable control panel. After the adjustment, they can tap the screen again or leave it to fade out.
The user will answer the screening question if they are over 21 years old. If they are under the drinking age, they will be offered a mocktail recipe instead. In the case of the user being over 21, the app will lead them to the sign in page. Email is selected as the identity verification as they contain data about the user's age.