CASE STUDY:
Grip Start-Up Concepting

Project: Website & Portal Design

Project Duration: Sep 2019 - Dec 2020

Company: Grip Places

My Role: Lead UX Designer

WHAT I DID

I collaborated with the co-founders to flush out their native mobile app idea. We partnered through everything from company name and branding to designing their initial informational website and back-end client portal.

THE LOWDOWN

Background

Grip Places started as a fresh way for users to find the right restaurant or bar experience. The goal of this application was to prove how star ratings and other review systems have failed because that system assumes that the star rating is the right rating for everyone. People are unique and this algorithm can personalize a user’s experience. Grip will get to know a user’s style and vibe and make recommendations based on you and your preferences.

The Problem

There were two types of users in this mobile app idea. The first being the consumer (i.e. the people looking for the right restaurant or bar experience). But before the user could search on the application, we needed to gain a list of clients (i.e. the business owners of the restaurants and bars). The first problem to solve was to get the business on the web. Start spreading the word to new potential clients. An information website was needed.

As clients were getting on-boarded we needed to have a portal ready for the businesses to start inputting in their information. Everything from location, to setting up their vibes, to creating users, etc. The native app would feature digital menus, stream live video, connect with Lyft and Uber, etc. This portal also needed to sync this information to the iOS and Android app.

Discovery

We held weekly on-going discovery sessions to talk through the evolving goals, pain points and new ideas that came up with the mobile app. With this application being so new, we were constantly looking at similar companies for inspiration but also ways to stand out in the industry.

Prototyping

I quickly mocked up an informational website. I worked directly with the developer to provide build assets and requirements. The portal design was based off the software NGX-Admin. I had to become familiar with the building constraints and worked with the developer on the build. I provided style guidelines and layouts of each page along with functionality/interaction requirements. The portal was ever evolving and growing as new businesses signed up, so I needed to make sure we stayed on top of new functionality requests.

CONCLUSION

The result was an effective information website and a fully functional client portal that served as a gateway to our native mobile app. This project was an all-hands-on deck collaboration. Everyone played a crucial role in being able to iterate quickly, test often, fail quickly, be the user and share designs frequently. It was a rewarding project to be a part of.