Project: A brewing companion app concept which helps homebrewers throughout every step of the brewing process from inventory management through packaging of finished beer.

Scope: Competitor analysis, conversation mining, user surveys, expert interviews, a functional Figma prototype including notifications, user testing

Contributors: I performed all research and created all finished products.

Problem: There are many tools and specific calculators required for homebrewing beer, but many users currently resort to tools across multiple sources to formulate their recipes on paper or in a spreadsheet. The only solutions that offer all tools in one place have poor UI and do not offer an explanation about how the tools and calculators work.

Goals:

• Find how homebrewers speak and where their current pain points are
• Evaluate all similar apps to see what they do well and where improvements can be made
• Create a prototype of a homebrewing companion app that homebrewers can understand and use easily
• Evaluate the effectiveness of the prototype and address concerns identified

Solution: I began by performing conversation mining on my intended users. I searched through homebrewing groups on Reddit and Facebook to identify common phrases and pain points as well as creating a user persona. I then performed a competitor analysis on all competitors in which I identified areas in which competitors were performing well and where they could be improved. I used my research findings to create an application with a more user-friendly interface that allowed the user to know what was happening behind the scenes. I then performed user testing to identify confusing aspects of my application prototype and addressed them.

Results: Feedback has been positive for the user interface of my prototype. There are limitations in testing as the prototype is not a fully functional application. I have made changes to the user interface and wording throughout the prototype based on feedback received.