Craft Notes
Challenge
Craft Notes approached my team with the goal of identifying solutions to help grow their customer base, with a focus on increasing digital engagement as they begin to scale the organization.
Solution
I proposed a redesign of the website and app that leverages Craft Notes existing platforms and expertise in curating exceptional local experiences. This solution provides a consistent brand identity across digital touchpoints, dynamically incentivizes users to explore their local craft community, and facilities easy, enjoyable, and personalized engagement with the app and between its members.
Methodology
Stakeholder Interview
Secondary Research
Design Strategy
Proto-Persona
Multi-Touchpoint Strategy Map
Wireframing
Prototyping
The Client
Get to Know Craft Notes
Craft Notes is a local organization that curates an experience designed to support local businesses, encourage exploration, and create an all-inclusive community of craft lovers. Specifically, they are focused on connecting craft breweries, distilleries, and restaurants with local consumers, in order to allow them to find something new and exceptional to explore in their neighborhood(s). Craft Notes facilitates these connections with the use of several passports, a website, and their app.
RESEARCHING THE PROBLEM SPACE
Taking a Deep Dive
Following the stakeholder interview, I began conducting secondary research within the industry, audience segments, and the competitive landscape to gain a deeper understanding of the problem space. My 5-person design team divided and conquered, each learning answers to questions around what currently exists in the space, what works, what doesn’t work, and what’s important to users, etc. I dove into research specifically on strategies around improving community engagement, loyalty programs, and app-based paid subscription models.
After debriefing and synthesizing our research, I learned that Craft Notes occupies a unique niche: existing in a space between the lines of community-based social media and deal-based apps. A unique mix of an organization deserves a unique mix of an approach, which led to the guiding design strategy:
All user experience touchpoints for Craft Notes will help curious Twin Cities residents wanting to find local breweries, distilleries, cafes, and restaurants to feel adventurous and connected so that they are able to explore and support local communities. We will do this by focusing on rewards and incentives and creating consistency and clarity of brand mission across touchpoints.
Consistent Branding & Clarity of Mission
Overarching goal: initial engagement, sign-up
Establishing design consistency and brand differentiation across all digital touchpoints would bolster Craft Notes’ credibility and accessibility.
Rewards and Incentives
Overarching goal: repeated engagement
The first of this two-pronged approach: incentivizing participation via member profiles. Successful social platforms are user-based. Psychologically, users are incentivized to engage more when they have opportunities to easily convey their identity, personalizing their digital fingerprints and feeling that they are part of the Craft Notes community.
The second prong: rewards. Incorporating an element of gamification by accruing points for attending a special event, going to X new places, sending a drink to a friend, etc., would offer users continued motivation to keep exploring and sharing.
TOUCHPOINT STRATEGY TIME
Having defined the framework, my team collaborated on the following touchpoint strategy map, showing a users’ journey from Awareness ⇨ Evaluation ⇨ Purchase ⇨ Loyalty, pinpointing strategies for improving engagement via (1) rewards and incentives and (2) consistency and clarity of brand mission.
Our user is an adventurous craft lover, someone who wants to feel like a contributing member of a community, and has a desire to get the most value out of their experience.
PREPARING THE PROTOTYPES
Armed with this high-level view of the problem space, I dove into individual prototyping, designing the onboarding, member subscription plan, and membership profile sections. My team sketched through several iterations of wireframes for our respective touchpoints before finalizing high-fidelity prototypes to present to stakeholders.
CONCLUSION
By providing users with clear and consistent branding across touchpoints, a customizable Profile hub to establish their identity, a rewards system motivating engagement and exploration of local events and venues, Craft Notes affords users a personal connection to the community while reinforcing its own brand identity.