Speakeasy: Virtual Happy Hour

Concept

I developed the concept for Speakeasy during the peak of quarantine in 2020. I wanted to develop a website that users could go to in order to experience all that happy hour has to offer, from the comfort of their homes. I took inspiration from the speakeasies from the prohibition era, because of the shared inability to go out to a local bar and have a drink with friends quarantine regulated. With Speakeasy, users can chat with friends, meet new people, access drink recipes, and much more!

Personas

Two personas were developed to represent users that would exist in the target audience. Each has different personalities, goals and tasks, personal experiences, likes and dislikes.. ‘Ava’ (21) is looking to spend time with friends and make the most out of her college years, even though COVID had called for separation. ‘Tommy’ (24) was missing out on happy hour, and wanted to meet up with some of his friends virtually. The personas were frequently referenced to ensure the project scope matched the goals and motivations of the target audience.

Information Architecture

An information architecture was developed to understand the best method of organizing information within the app. It was important to keep the personas in mind when developing this phase to understand the method of organization that would be easiest for ideal users to move throughout the app. Information was organized into different categories such as About Us, Content, Open Bar, and Profile.

Wireframe

A general wireframe was developed to understand the general layout that the final site design would have. The wireframe was developed in InVision and would later be used to generate user flows according to specific tasks. The wireframe proved to be a fairly quick and easy resource to assess the general functionality of the site.

Final Design

The final design was developed in Adobe XD and prototyped in Invision. It provides users with a ‘one-stop shop’ of sorts when looking for some excitement in the locked-down times of COVID! Random rooms with common hobbies and interests were also available for the users who were interested in meeting new people!

Lessons Learned

The design of this site was my very first experience with UX and UI, and I included it in my portfolio to establish a baseline to see how far I have come since the creation of this site during the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown. There are a lot of things that I have learned from it including making sure a design would fit browser sizes, light color on dark background effects on readability, and just overall UX and UI best practices. From the creation of this site, I had a lot of learning to do. But we all have to start somewhere!