Designing an Online Beer-Crafting Experience in 4 weeks
Validate the market potential of a beer-making machine through an e-commerce platform. We had to design fast and empower users to become “master brewers”.
Context
Imagine being able to create endless beer combinations at home, crafting your perfect brew based on your preferences. That’s what our client, Mahou San Miguel, the leading brand on the Spanish market, envisioned with their revolutionary beer-making machine. However, translating this complex technology into a user-friendly experience required a bridge – an intuitive online platform. That’s where we came in.
Mobile version of our MVP built in 4 weeks.
Our challenge was twofold:
Validate the concept: Would people be interested in creating their personalized beers with a machine?
Design the experience: How could we translate the complexities of brewing into a user-friendly platform that everyone, from novice beer lovers to seasoned enthusiasts, could enjoy?
AN UNCONVENTIONAL START:
Unlike traditional product development, we started with the final solution, the machine itself, already manufactured by the client. We knew it could create countless recipe combinations, but who would use it? What features would they need? Our initial hypothesis was that two distinct user groups might be interested:
Novice Beer Lovers: Individuals with no prior brewing experience, eager to experiment and create unique, personalized beers.
Enthusiastic Brewers: Existing homebrewers seeking new tools and recipe exploration possibilities beyond traditional methods.
Wireframes of key screens of the personalization process
Test goals:
To gather relevant data that would validate the desirability and viability of this new machine we decided to create an online MVP. With it, we could:
Identify our ideal user base: By observing user behavior and preferences, we could understand which group resonated most with the concept.
Discover what users expect: Through interactive elements and feedback mechanisms, we could uncover user needs and expectations for a personalized brewing experience.
Validate the market potential: User engagement and platform traction would indicate the concept’s overall marketability.
Determine essential features: User feedback and data analysis would guide the development of features for a future, full-fledged platform.
Mockups used to test two possibilities of personalization: choosing the final characteristics of the beer or choosing the amount of key ingredients.
Low fidelity of the key elements of the beer personalization screen: recipe sliders, drink visualization, outputs values and descriptions.
Methodology:
With these goals in mind, we embarked on an 4-week journey, immersing ourselves in the world of beer and user experience:
Week 1: Deep Dive into Users: We conducted in-depth interviews and workshops with both target groups, uncovering their aspirations, apprehensions, and ideal brewing experience.
Week 2: Building the User Journey: We translated user insights into personas, crafting detailed profiles that guided our design decisions. These personas became our constant companions, reminding us who we were designing for.
Week 2-3: Prototyping and Testing: We created low-fidelity prototypes, testing them with real users to identify usability issues and gather initial feedback. It was an iterative process, constantly refining the design based on user interactions.
Week 4: Refining the MVP: Based on testing results and user feedback, we polished the platform, ensuring a seamless and intuitive experience for all.
The definition of the site map and user journey were critical to focus energy on needed screens and steps to be able to meet the deadline.
Some of the input elements tested to create the personalization screen: the key was to convey the idea that the recipes were infinite for the user, although they were not.
Design Solutions:
The final MVP platform was designed to be both user-friendly and engaging:
Intuitive Interface: We replaced complex brewing terminology with simple, understandable language. Users could easily adjust key beer characteristics like color, bitterness, and alcohol content through sliders, providing a sense of control over the brewing process.
Tailored Experience: Pre-made recipes offered familiar flavor profiles for beginners, while customization options allowed experienced users to delve deeper and create truly unique brews.
Guided Discovery: A fun and interactive quiz helped users with limited beer knowledge define their preferred taste preferences, guiding them towards recipes they would enjoy.
Visualizations: Users could see real-time changes in their beer’s characteristics as they adjusted sliders, building excitement and anticipation.
Transparency: The platform displayed final measurements and estimated taste profiles, empowering users to make informed decisions and feel confident in their creations.
Screens of the product MVP built in 4 weeks.
Apart from the product itself, we also had to create the branding and other visuals elements needed for the test on those 4 weeks.
Looking Forward:
This project is still under development, even so, it was a rewarding journey, demonstrating the power of user-centric design and iterative development. Engaging with users directly and iterating based on their feedback was pivotal in steering the project towards success.
