Beer Exploration Log
Making the beer discovery process fun and rewarding.
Role
I worked as an interaction/experience designer on this project, creating journey maps, researching personas, running participant workshops and ideating design solutions.
Outcome
A exploration journal for new and frequent beer enthusiasts to learn about the different types of beer.
Client
Mariner Brewing
Project Team
Ben Kwok, Catelyn Sue,
Erika Wang, Bryan To
Duration
3 months (Jan – Apr 2021)
Tools
Figma, Zoom, Miro, Adobe CC
Context
Worked alongside a local brewery, Mariner Brewing, to create this product proposal
The project was conducted as part of a senior-level interaction design course at Simon Fraser University.
A solution that encourages users to explore the wide range of beer that Mariner Brewing offers.
Process
Basing design solutions on user touchpoints
The COVID-19 pandemic took a toll on many small local businesses, as part of our project, we wanted to find places that could benefit from a design solution tailored to their customers needs.
To learn more about how to meet their customer needs, we applied methods like design ethnography, personas, storyboarding, journey frameworks, participatory workshops, and concept generation.
Initial Research
50+ quantitative surveys, 2 qualitative interviews, 1 in-depth interview with a Mariner representative.
The quantitative survey was used to learn the frequency of drinking beer and draws to a given craft beer/brewery. The qualitative survey data allowed us to get an in-depth look of impressions and concerns about Mariner. Through our discussions with the Mariner representative, we learned areas of their operation that were needing intervention.
A screenshot of the initial survey that was sent out to 50+ participants.
Personas
Using data from our initial research, we created 3 personas to represent Mariner's diverse customer base.
By creating personas and mapping out their behaviours, we can learn where to drive our ideation process to best suit the needs of our users.
Jordan
Occupation: Real Estate Agent
Age: 54
Main Motivation: Seeking to maintain meaningful connections with the people in his life.
Taylor
Occupation: Marketing Manager
Age: 41
Main Motivation: Seeking to maintain a more balanced, healthier lifestyle.
Dakota
Occupation: Software Developer
Age: 27
Main Motivation: Seeking to explore the local food scene in his community
Problem Space
Through our research, we narrowed down on two main problem spaces.
Lacking Product Marketing
Mariner’s “Low Gravity” keto-friendly beer series, which is aiming to get on the Weight Watchers list, is not reaching the key target audiences due to a lack of print marketing.
Lacking Brand Awareness
Although Mariner has many customers from different age groups, older audiences are not being reached due to their current emphasis on online marketing which primarily reaches younger audiences through digital platforms.
Opportunity
<span data-buffer="">To encourage customers to explore Mariner’s beer options by bridging the gaps in the company’s beer education. <span data-metadata="">
User Journey
Mapping out the existing experiences to find an area for intervention.
We mapped out both the experience that customers receive from being in a tasting room and in the liquor store. There is a heavy focus on the emotional impact that each step puts on and areas where there is opportunity for intervention.
A journey map for customers purchasing from the tasting room at Mariner Brewing.
A journey map for customers purchasing from a liquor store that stocks Mariner.
Participatory Workshops
We conducted a participatory workshops with 8 consumers within Mariner's target demographic.
We ran through different activities on Miro with our participants during an hour-long Zoom call.
An idea sprint was conducted to see what kind of marketing was popular amongst our target demographic.
A visual collage activity was used to learn what kinds of elements would attract customers to visit a brewery or buy their beers.
We provided some reflective questions to our participants to give us insight into what services are actually valuable to beer drinkers, and how they can be improved.
And lastly, a word association activity was conducted to provide us with insight into what kind of vocabulary is associated with beer flavours.
An overview of the Miro board where the participatory workshop was held.
Through these workshops, we discovered three major themes:
Lack of awareness and information from Mariner about their beer lineup.
Community events and engagement could help to build brand recognition.
Availability and consistency are lacking making it hard to find their beers.
Internal Interviews
Understanding where things are going from an employees point of view.
A web survey for employees was conducted to understand how they thought about aspects of the operation we are interested in.
Through this survey, it was clear that employees were noticing that customers only gravitated toward more traditional types of beer, and skipping out on the explorative varieties.
We do a lot of exploration with all things beer, but they don't always gain much traction.
We’re lacking the awareness from our customers to explore beyond our flagship beer.
– Response from a Mariner employee
Ideation
Using feedback and research data to generate ideas.
Through the insights found from our workshop, surveys, interviews and external research, we ideated on three possible directions that the project could go in: education through beer coasters, beer passports, and a beer-matching quiz. With each idea, we created a storyboard to show how our personas would go through each experience.
The Beer Exploration Log
A detailed version of the storyboard for the Explanation Log.
A physical component to Mariner's beer exploration journey.
After completing our ideation process, and consulting with the Mariner team on what they need the most we decided to refine the beer passport to become the beer exploration log.
Discovery
At Mariner’s tasting room, a staff offers Jordan and his friends an exploration log. Jordan agrees when offered rewards for filling it up. He receives a Mariner branded booklet to fill in beer details.
Usage
Jordan reads the menu, orders, and takes notes on the beers he tries. At the register, he shows his notes for a sticker. Collecting stickers earns rewards like gift cards or discounts.
Retention
Jordan reviews his notebook and finds a personalized list of Mariner’s beers. This boosts his confidence to try new beers and add them to his journal.
Reflection
I learned the importance of using user research to guide ideation and design decisions.
The outcome of the project was relatively well received by both our course instructor and the representatives at Mariner.
This was one of the first times I completed a project with such an in-depth emphasis on user studies and behaviours, and it was quite a learning experience. Throughout the project, I slowly got used to interacting with user participants and altering questions to fit the person receiving them. Overall, this project taught me how to design for a target audience and how important it is to guide design decisions by data.