DRINKWISE

2023

Timeline: 8 weeks

Role: Project Manager & UX Designer

OVERVIEW

Client: Senior Project Start-Up

Product: Alcohol Sensing Patch

The client is a senior project start-up that has developed an innovative product in the form of an alcohol-sensing patch. This patch is designed to be worn on the arm, similar to a band-aid. It utilizes chemical sensing technology to detect and indicate the wearer’s blood alcohol level (BAC) estimated from their sweat. The primary objective of the client is to contribute to the creation of a safer and healthier drinking culture.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

To effectively communicate the DrinkWise mission and enhance its brand image, we focused on these key improvements:

  1. Logo Redesign

  2. Branding (Colors, Graphic Elements, Typeface)

  3. Pitch Deck Presentation Template

  4. Packaging Design

  5. Redesign the landing page of the current website

RESEARCH

To better understand the client’s brand and design needs, a series of questions were posed to gain insights into their product, target audience, values, and desired brand image:

  1. Product Functionality: The client’s product is an alcohol-sensing patch that adheres to the arm, using chemical sensing to detect and indicate the wearer’s blood alcohol level (BAC) estimated from their sweat.

  2. Company Values and Mission Statement: The client’s mission is to create a safer, healthier drinking culture, emphasizing responsibility, transparency, and confidence as their core values.

  3. Target Audience: The primary users of the alcohol-sensing patch are college students. However, the target customers who purchase the product are universities, organizations, and clubs across the country. Initially, the focus is on locations such as SLO (San Luis Obispo), including the Cal Poly Health Center, Cal Poly Safer, and Greek Life, with plans to expand further.

  4. Desired Brand Communication: The client aims to communicate confidence, health, safety, well-being, innovation, and community through their branding. They seek to establish trust and convey a clear vision, showcasing their commitment to solving a societal problem and inspiring support for their mission.

  5. Design Elements and Colors: Specific design elements or colors were not explicitly mentioned, but the client expressed a desire for a professional yet personality-filled brand that evokes conviction and emotional connection.

  6. Adjectives Describing the Brand: The client seeks a brand that is memorable, professional, personable, and conviction-driven.

  7. Admired Brands: The client provided examples of brands they admire, including Nike for its clear messaging, Patagonia for its creative logo and colors, Quickie for its fun branding and vibrant green color, and Castle Innovations for its clean messaging, compelling vision, and team.

  8. Redesign Goals: The client’s overarching goals for the branding and logo redesign are to effectively tell their story, emotionally connect with people, and ensure memorability. They aim for a professional yet personality-filled brand that conveys conviction and aligns with their mission.

IDEATION

Building upon the prior research conducted under the client’s brand, the ideation phase focused on generating creative concepts and design directions for the logo, branding, landing page, and packaging. The following steps guided the ideation process:

LOGO DESIGN

The existing logo, deemed unsuitable for the target audience, served as a starting point.






Logo Ideation

  • A mood board of appealing logo designs was created, incorporating visuals related to cups and alcohol.

  • Ideated keywords captured essential aspects of the business and brand.

BRANDING

  • A mood board explored visual elements, styles, and color schemes.

  • Color: Green and blue colors were incorporated, with an accent color, aligning with the client’s preference.

  • Type: Legible typefaces were considered for effective communication.

  • Graphic elements: A droplet icon symbolizing sweat as a BAC detection method was identified as a significant graphic element.

LANDING PAGE

  • Existing landing pages were studied for inspiration and insights.

  • Solution sketches were created using FigJam, visually representing potential layout and content arrangements.

PACKAGING

  • A mood board explored packaging design ideas.

  • Simple and minimalist design with vibrant colors, inspired by pimple patch packaging, was favored for Drinkwise.

KEYWORD GROUPING

Findings, including mood boards, research insights, and brainstorming results, were organized under keywords to guide the design direction.

By leveraging the prior research, the ideation phase generated creative concepts and design directions for the logo, branding, landing page, and packaging. This approach ensured a concise yet informed ideation process, aligned with the client’s goals and target audience.

DESIGN PROCESS

BRANDING/LOGO DESIGN PROCESS:



Branding and Logo Design

  1. We started Phase One of designing our branding process by ideating different icon designs for DrinkWise. Our client wanted an icon that communicated smart drinking habits, as well as something that would incorporate the medical and health aspects of the company. This is when we began to idealize the symbols of water and heart rate into our icon design, something simple and effective in communicating our product.

  2. As we were ideating icons, we began to look into different typographic styles that would make the brand stand out, as well as keep its professionalism. Our client picked out their top three typography styles, and from there we began to incorporate color.

  3. Our client knew off the bat which colors he wanted to incorporate into his brand. He wanted dark blues paired with lighter greens, to give a sense of trust. We also incorporated a coral shade as an accent color to make the design pop and stand out. At this stage, we also experimented with color contrast, to make sure the colors we picked were accessible to all of our consumers.

FINAL BRANDING:

PACKAGING DESIGN

Here is our final packaging mockup that incorporates our branding guides. We kept in mind our client’s requests for something modern, simple, and clean.

LANDING PAGE PROCESS: LOW-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE

Final branding design with logo, typography, and color styles!

During our low-fidelity phase in creating our landing page, our designers began to experiment with different layouts and how to implement the information in a way that would engage viewers into purchasing the product.

LANDING PAGE PROCESS: MID-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE

Moving into the mid-fidelity stage, our client picked out their favorite layouts from our low-fidelity samples. From there, we began to experiment with color and typography. We began to create different components that would further our design system.

LANDING PAGE PROCESS: HIGH-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE

Here is the final prototype of our landing page, which includes a simple and helpful animation of how DrinkWise’s patch works! The landing page provides all the necessary information that proves DrinkWise is a company that has a safe, effective, and reliable product!

CHALLENGES & LESSONS LEARNED

  • Client Work: Our team learned to think outside of the box and outside of our perspectives and collaborate with our client on decisions that our design team and their business team would be satisfied with and still have the brand communicate everything from an artistic and business point of view.

  • Figma and Webflow: As we moved into our later stages of design, we tried to work with WebFlow by utilizing their Figma plug-in tool. This was one of our greatest challenges, as the plugin could not read our prototype properly. Moving forward, DrinkWise will be adding a coder to their team to efficiently implement our prototype.

Thanks for reading!

Check out our Figma prototype here.