Zara Tewolde-Berhan
COMMUNITY BUILDING
A design project to connect bartenders by buidling a global bartending community.
THE BRIEF
The bartending app aims to inspire bartenders and provide them with the opportunity to improve their skills, knowledge and connect with the wider bartending community. At the start of the apps launch, the goal was to focus primarily on improving bartenders skills and knowledge by providing courses.
The next phase was to develop the bartending community.
Yep! That's when we started operation "community building"
THE PROBLEM
The users want to connect with the wider bartending community on the app and are unable to do so.
"I'd love to connect with other bartenders"
THE SOLUTION
Create a user profile with a followers and following feature to build their networks
Developing a groups feature to expand the bartending community: based on location, interests and experience
KEY GOAL
Connect bartenders to the global bartending community
MY ROLE
Benchmarking
UX Research
UX Design
TOOLS
Asana
Sketch
Zeplin
RESEARCH
By conducting extensive user research, I divided the project into two design phases to meet both the user and stakeholder needs
SOLUTION
I conducted indepth user research to understand the user goals, problems and behaviours. This included competitor research, bechmarking and user interviews. My research also included gaining insight into the clients long term and short term objectives. Based on my findings we prioritised the ....
The users were satisfied with the courses on the app provided and encouraged by the knowledge they were gaining. But wanted the chance to network with their fellow bartenders.
The key user goals based on our research was the deep yearning to be part of a wider bartending community. Both the clients objectives and the user goals were aligned. The key question was: how do we design features that follow the overall timing and business objectives with the users immediate need to be part of a bartending community?
Our solution was to divide the project into two design phases
Design phase numero 1: Operation user profile and follow features
Design phase numero 2: Operation group feature wih a twist
I conducted extensive user research to gain further insight into the users goals- both short and long term- aligning their goals with stakeholders goals and identifying user problems with the app.
"It's the community, stupid!"
USER GOALS
"It's the community, stupid!"
A key recurring user goal was for users to connect with their fellow bartenders, to expand their network and build a sense of community. Community being the key word.
Global vs local community?
The clients and stakeholders business objectives to expand the app to more countries led to their focus on the international bartending community.
The end users goals wanted to be part of a community but emphasised their desire for a community based on interests and location.
Solution: Meet both needs by having a group feature with groups based on interests, hobbies, location, bars and experience that included users globally.
Two birds in one stone!
DELIVERABLES
UX strategy, user flows, wireframes and recommendations
Expanding the bartending community- both local & global communities to create a greater sense of belonging and platform for users to engage and form groups with users that are geographically close and have similar interests; based on location and interests
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THESE WERE SOME LESSONS LEARNT AND POINTS I WANTED TO HIGHLIGHT
It's the community, stupid
A key motivation for the users was an inherit desire to engage with their fellow bartenders but local and global.
Break it down
Dividing the design phase into two phases was vital to meeting our overall objective
Aligning end user and client goals
Understanding the end user and client goal was a key insight. The end user was focused on the overall goal to engage with the community and the clients were considering their business objectives and timing. Finding "the middle" to meet both needs, dividing the goals into two design phases to satisfy both.
