Hidden Gems
Curating personalized bar suggestions based on users' preferences while also encouraging them to try out bars they have never been to.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
It would be a total waste that even though there are so many different and unique bar cultures worth exploring for in San Francisco, yet people still often go to the same ones because most of these people are unaware that other cool places exist.
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Also, biased reviews written by unforgiving customers due to small mistakes made by the bars have often affected the business negatively, regardless how tasty the cocktails they serve are.
SOLUTION
Solve fun riddles and explore!
Hidden Gems will be your guide to new fun bar cultures in the city without any biased reviews so you can have an authentic experience. The gamified process will generate personalized bar suggestions by giving you fun riddles about the bar, earn coupons for discounted drinks and appetizers so that you have the ultimate bar-hopping experience!
Hidden Gems IN ACTION
Personalized bar preferences to generate riddles
Getting direction to the bar
and scan QR code for coupons
Discover bars based on types of coupons
RESEARCH
I was curious to find out whether or not people use other platforms to search for bars. I interviewed 17 people.
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70.58% of them claimed that they use platforms such as Yelp and Foursquare.
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Based on the interview findings, my target audience loves to explore different bars, but they're hoping they would be able to choose which neighborhood they're going to for safety reasons.
GAMIFICATION PROCESS
The goal of the riddle feature in my design is to prevent other customers' biased reviews. Often times there are many bad reviews written online that are subjective and these often hurt the business
pretty badly.
Therefore, the users will be asked fun riddles about the bar and once they answer correctly, they will be given discount coupons that can be redeemed at the bar destination.
I conducted another interview with 17 people of my target user to find out whether or not they like solving riddles.
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70.6% of them claimed that they do like solving riddles.
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After doing user research from the customers point of view, I needed to find out the bars' thoughts on giving away coupons and my design idea.
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INSIGHT
Through user interviews and research, I learned that my target audience would love to explore the variety of unique bars in the city. And knowing that the majority of them like solving riddles, I decided to implement this feature and reward the users with discount coupons on drinks or food.
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This led me to create 2 personas. First, from the customers' point of view and the second one is from the bar managers' point of view.
PAIN POINTS
However, neither the customers' and bar managers' needs were fully satisfied by the services and experiences provided by existing products. Customers do not know about these bars unless they get recommendations from their friends. And bars that serve unique cocktails are not getting many customers because often the reviews written online about them can be biased.
DESIGN CHALLENGE
How might we help the bar goers in the city explore different bars safely without reading biased reviews online while also help the bar owners / managers attract more customers?
CONCEPTS
Discover Hidden Gems
Giving new variety bar suggestions to bar-goers in the city.
Unbiased Reviews
The riddle feature is designed to avoid nit-picking users’ complaints on minor issues.
Expand Social Community
Giving new experiences and making new friends from talking to new people.
COMPETITOR ANALYSIS
Name
Description
Pros
Cons
Nightler
TAABS
Nightler is an app used to discover bars, meet people, and check-in at any places.
TAABS is a mobile application used to find bars in New York City.
Nightler can be used anywhere to collect coupons for drinks and food.
There are plenty of filters so that users can find the perfect bar.
Connectivity issue, unable to log-in because it was not secure.
Unintuitive UI/UX design and looks outdated.
Description
Pros
Cons
TARGET AUDIENCE
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All genders, cocktails enthusiasts around 22-45 years old who love to explore new places.
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Have an open mind to be outside of their comfort zone.
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Regular users of social media who are friendly and outgoing.
PERSONAS
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Answer riddles to get bar recommendations.
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Earn coupons.
Customers
Chris, 28 (He/Him)
Fitness Instructor, San Francisco, CA.
“ I wish I could discover other different bars in the city.“
He just recently moved to San Francisco for his job. In his free time, he likes to explore the nightlife as well as craft cocktails that the city has to offer.
Because he’s fairly new in San Francisco, he does not know which place he would like to visit, so he opened “Hidden Gems” app to let it suggest him new places.
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Edit riddles.
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Keep track on the redeemed coupons.
Managers
Megan, 25 (She/Her)
Bar Manager. San Francisco, CA.
“ If only more people know that my bar has different kinds of delicious and unique cocktails.“
Megan is a manager at one of the nicest bars in San Francisco and she’s very determined and outgoing.
She has been a manager for 3 years now and notices her bar has regular customers that come often. She wonders though, if there’s something the bar could do to attract new customers.
INITIAL IDEAS SKETCHES
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
DESIGN SKETCHES
I started sketching the layout for customers and managers roughly to visualize my ideas.
USER TESTS
MEDIUM FIDELITY WIREFRAMES
Look for a new bar recommendation based on personalized preferences
Task 1 - Customer
Get the direction to the bar to scan the QR code and get the discounted drink
Task 2 - Customer
Change the coupon of the week on the Hidden Gems App
Task 3 - Manager
DESIGN ITERATIONS - CUSTOMERS
To evaluate the success rate and overall user experience, I conducted two rounds of usability testings with my target audience group, and here are some of the key iterations based on their feedback.
On the first version, the arrows are supposed to indicate the users to swipe left for the next category, but it was unclear. So I decided to add the slideshow indicator.
1. Swipe Gesture
Users were having an issue with the direction page. They stated that the layout was a little confusing and the color of the destination is blending in with the map. They also wanted to see more information about the bar.
2. Map
Users wanted to have more liquor options, so in the newer version, I changed it into a dropdown menu.
3. Liquor
In the old version, nothing happens when users write a wrong answer; which can be confusing, so on the newer version a nudging "try again" appears on the screen when the answers are incorrect.
4. Riddle
DESIGN ITERATIONS - MANAGERS / BAR OWNERS
After doing interviews with 10 bar managers / owners, I conducted one round of user testing with 3 managers in the city. In the near future I will make more changes and improvements for my second group of target audience. Here are some design changes so far.
On the first version, the dashboard layout was a little bit unclear and they were having a hard time figuring out the timeframe of the content. So I added dates in order to make it more structured.
1. Dashboard
Initially the coupon system would automatically rotate every week, but after the user test was done, I noticed that it would be a better user experience if managers are able to edit the coupons themselves.
2. Coupons
FINAL DESIGN
Bar recommendation
Chris wants to explore a bar he's never been to in The Mission district with his friends.
TECHNICAL IMPLEMENTATION
The coded prototype was written in SwiftUI using Xcode and the details could be found here.
BRANDING
NAMING
Suggested Names
Final Name
Cryptonic
Guess & Gin
Guess & Tonic
Night gems
Hidden Gem
Pick & Drink
Hidden Gems
LOGO EXPLORATIONS
COLOR AND TYPOGRAPHY
FINAL LOGO
ILLUSTRATIONS
MOVING FORWARD
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I will keep exploring bar cultures here in San Francisco as well as making connections with bar managers / owners to talk about this project.
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I will add more features and improve the overall user experience.
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Last but not least, I will discuss about the data with a back-end engineer.