Kombrew: Kombucha Homebrewing App

App concept designed for homebrewers to simplify their process by tracking brews and connecting with fellow brewers.

ROLE & TEAM

I worked as a UX/UI Designer (Research, Experience Strategy, Interaction Design, Prototyping, Testing) with a UX/UI Designer mentor. I presented and defended my designs to groups of other designers in weekly design critiques as part of a UX boot camp each week.

TOOLS

Figma, Google Forms, Miro, Coda, Otter.ai, Zoom, Maze

DURATION

4 weeks

PROBLEM AND CHALLENGE

With so many factors and risks to consider, kombucha homebrewers need a simple way to learn how to brew their perfect batch of kombucha.

There are a variety of homebrewing techniques and recipes online — How can homebrewers know which process is right for them? Plus, homebrewing is an offline activity – Can this process can be improved with an app?

SOLUTION

Kombrew is a mobile app that simplifies the homebrewer process with brew tracking, troubleshooting, and community learning.

Features like the brew log, forums, and the SCOBY Scanner help homebrewers with brewing their perfect kombucha.

Preview of final prototype (Left: Brew Log, Right: Scoby/Pellicle forum page)

Open prototype in new tab

RESEARCH

What is important to homebrewers and what are their challenges?

Filling in the gap with homebrewing education

To discover possible homebrewer problems, I reviewed the top three rated kombucha-related apps. I found competitors didn’t provide educational or introductory information for homebrewers and just allowed users to track kombucha brews.

Homebrewers value community (and not so much tracking their brews)

To ensure the app concept met user needs, I asked 5 homebrewers with 5 months to 2 years of experience questions about their brewing experience and process, their learning process, and their challenges. I mapped my findings on an affinity map and found the following patterns.

3/5 homebrewers wish they had a community to learn and share with.

Homebrewers learned about the brewing process through online resources and wished they had personal connections to learn from.

5/5 agree that kombucha is a communal hobby.

Sharing kombucha brewing knowledge and sharing kombucha with others is important to homebrewers.

3/4 homebrewers who’ve tracked their brews in the past don’t track anymore.

Homebrewers didn’t see tracking information as necessary after they learn certain sensory cues.

But wait — Why are there kombucha tracking apps if interviews revealed that people aren’t tracking their brews? — Let’s dive deeper:

To gain more insight, I conducted a survey that had a response rate of 22 participants, 72% of which had less than a year to less than 3 years of experience. These insights helped validate the need for a tracking feature on the app.

01.

Temperature, flavoring/taste, and timing are important factors to consider when homebrewing.

02.

Important features to include are: logging flavoring/recipes, tracking time, and logging measurements.

Empathizing with homebrewers

I created an empathy map as a guide to remember what is important to homebrewers while designing the app.

INTERACTION DESIGN AND INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE

How might we help kombucha homebrewers improve their homebrewing process?

Tracking brews and connecting with community

I used a mindmap to brainstorm features that would best help homebrewers learn about the process. After reevaluating my research, I decided the app needs to have features that allowed homebrewers to track their brews and connect with a homebrewing community.

View mindmap in a new tab

Mindmap includes a mix of my own ideas and some features that were mentioned in the empathy interviews and survey.

Organizing UI requirements

I created a site map to organize the information architecture of the app and plan the UI requirements:

Brew log
Homebrewers need to track the dates and times of their brews and log measurements.
Learning Community
Homebrewers need to learn about kombucha by connecting with a community by browsing/searching forums and creating posts.

Mapping how to incorporate tech into the homebrewing process

I wanted to ensure that the app would accompany the homebrewing process with minimal friction, especially since homebrewing is done offline. I created task flows and a user flow to plan how the user would add brews, browse the Learning tab, add posts, and use the SCOBY scanner. After user testing, I updated the user flow to match the revisions.

Open user flow in a new tab

PROTOTYPING

How can the app be designed so it can seamlessly accompany a homebrewer’s process?

Sketching and designing logging and forum/blog design patterns to reduce user friction.

I reviewed design patterns of apps with similar features and sketched different versions of screens — For logging and tracking design patterns, I reviewed recipe and kombucha apps. For forum and blog design patterns, I reviewed Medium’s and Reddit’s apps.

View sketches

Prototyping brew tracking and community features

I designed a lo-fi prototype that allowed users to track their brews, learn how to determine if their SCOBY has mold, and browse and contribute to forums.

Customizing how users log and track brews

Determining if SCOBY has mold with a SCOBY Scanner

USABILITY TESTING AND ITERATIONS

How can user feedback inform design revisions?

The moment of truth for homebrewers and designers alike: Testing the product

I conducted usability testing of a lo-fi prototype to ensure usability issues are addressed and resolved early on to save time and resources in the future. Five homebrewers with 1 to 5 years of experience tested the prototype and were asked questions to measure usability and collect feedback to further improve the design. Although homebrewers were able to complete tasks without being prompted, there were some instances participants had multiple misclicks and spent over 18-27 seconds to complete some tasks.

01.

Redesigning how homebrewers add a post to a forum

I moved the button to create a post to each forum page to match the task flow participants were expecting during testing. The button is renamed “Create post” for clarity.

Potential impact: A clearer task flow

Users select a forum topic and if they cannot find what they need from the results, they can contribute to the forum by tapping the “Create Post” button".

(Maze data for the first iteration: 100% misclick average, 26.48 second average time spent.)

02.

Adding a second fermentation to an existing brew

I redesigned and renamed the button to add a second fermentation to be the primary CTA because users were having difficulty finding it. Secondary buttons are redesigned and the first fermentation preview information is non-interactive to draw more attention to the “Add a fermentation” button.

Potential impact: Establishing better visual hierarchy

Homebrewers can quickly add a 2nd fermentation now that it is the primary CTA.

(Maze data for the first iteration: 77.8% misclick average, 18.43 second average time spent)

03.

Reorganizing Learning topics

I categorized the forum topics under a “Forums” category because users were confused about the meaning of the cards and how they were organized. All cards have icons and are now under one fold.

Potential Impact: Increased Scannability

Now that icons are added and all elements are above the fold and are specifically categorized, homebrewers can quickly glance at their options to learn about kombucha.

(Usability test feedback from first iteration: 60% asked for clarification on cards under ‘Popular’ and were confused about the Scanner being grouped with the others.)