Soda Poppin’

Mobile App

In Utah, the dominant religion does not drink alcohol, coffee, or tea. In its place, a number of soda shops selling mixed-sodas or “Dirty Sodas” have sprung up as a non-alcoholic, non-”hot drink” parallel to Starbucks or bars. These drinks cover a wide variety of combinations of flavor syrups, purées, creams, and fruit.

Meet Our Stakeholder

KARL

PROVO, UTAH

Karl is a Soda mixing enthusiast who wants to share his hobby and build a community around “dirty sodas”.

Process Flow

I worked with Karl, keeping him involved in the process to define his goals according to his vision and our research. As the project progressed I kept our developers in the loop to effectively communicate deliverables, constantly testing and updating prototypes as we moved forward.

How do you create

a community around a newly budding local phenomenon?

While there is no shortage of cocktail apps and a huge alcohol and cocktail culture in the US, the ‘Dirty Soda’ culture is still relatively new and niche. Finding people who already make Dirty Sodas at home was a challenge.

Empathize with users

Initially, I searched, found, and visited a number of soda shops in the area. I interviewed their customers and employees and found it to be an easy place to meet up with friends. I also learned from the workers that more people use the drive-through than walk into the store. Many of the patrons of these shops expressed an interest in trying their friend's drinks, switching up their usual order, but rarely making their own drinks at home.

“It’s fun to experiment with different sodas just like how it’s fun to take up a culinary class with some friends!”
— Sarah

“We have the Tanori syrup bottles and make Italian cream sodas at parties.”
— Addie

Consumers who consider getting mixed sodas to be a social activity:

Consumers who would consider mixing sodas themselves:

Definitely

Maybe

Probably not

Sarah

OGDEN, UTAH

THINKING & FEELING

Enjoy getting sodas. Alternative to an alcoholic bar.
Easy way to meet up with people without too much planning. 
Wants to sit and have conversations. 
Feels like its a “light consumption”.

PAINS

Feels like its an expensive upfront cost to buy all the ingredients.  
Doesn’t know where or how to start. 
Too much sugar and caffeine in the house.

SEEING

Laughing. 
Socializing. 
Coming in with their family. 
90% of customers using drive through. 
People meeting at the shop and leaving after they’ve gotten their soda.

SAYING & DOING

Good alternative to alcohol that has similar social dynamic. 
Easy place to meet up.  Likes to see other people’s tastes. 
Similar to going out to eat. 
”You go with your girlfriends and it's the best thing ever.” 
Never gets turned down when I mention it to friends. 
"I don’t have to eat to feel entertained."

GAINS

Something to do. Outings with friends. It’s fun.
Everyone like trying each others drinks. Quick/convenient social activity.

HEARING

Laughing. 
Socializing. 
Coming in with their family. 
Mostly women, all ages. 90% of customers using drive through.

User Story Map

I used a story map to brainstorm features that would cater towards a community around dirty sodas. The scope of this project quickly ballooned in multiple directions from event planning, recipe books, social-networking, matching users inventories, recipe sorting, forums, and rating drinks. We decided to simplify the different social features to basic 1-on-1 sharing and focus the app around the exploration and creation of the drinks themselves.

Rapid Ideation and Prototyping

From the story map, I started with some rough sketches and began translating them into paper prototypes. This would speed up our ability to prototype, test our ideas, and cut out bad ideas as we worked through them. Ultimately, an overlying structure started to form from the features we wanted to keep and we began designing the app.

User Testing

After narrowing down the features for the MVP and choosing a design direction, I did several rounds of usability testing our UI and found I needed to restructure some of the features from the original design.

The results of our test prompted me to rethink our user journey. Some fixes were as simple as revising the copy writing and others were more complicated problems to solve. For instance, I found that users wanted a way to see what they could make with only the ingredients they had on hand. This required designing a new experience around cataloging and managing inventory lists.

Architecture and Flow

After rounds of testing and meeting with developers, we began to reorganize and refine our MVP, taking out features based on what was feasible within our scope of work and what users were telling us.

Pre-User Testing Non-MVP Sitemap

Post-User Testing Non-MVP Sitemap

Work

Medical Financing Company

Web Product

Revamped design and feature expansion for the client's public facing product. Aimed at their consumers and partnering care providers with mobile optimization.

Wodify Technologies

Business Management Dashboard

An overhaul of multiple end to end experiences and restructuring of a design library.