There comes a point in life when you’re presented with a task that you feel entirely ill-equipped for and self-doubt creeps in.  I have prided myself on being a strong writer for a long time. Visual communication and the study of user-centered design was a later addition to my arsenal. This document is the beginning of that journey.

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Dutch Bros is a regional coffee chain centered in the Western US. They are fast, tasty, and convenient and have a fun and friendly brand identity. Their website is good, but it lacks in a few crucial areas when it comes to user experience.

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In the leadup to the creation of these prototypes, a team composed of myself and two other students graded the website using a heuristic analysis, created a usability test and survey, administered these tests, compiled the data, and created a list of recommendations. These  are the culmination of that 6 weeks of work and are specifically created to solve the problems uncovered in our testing like the lack of a search bar and UI elements without borders.

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The most challenging part of the assignment came when it was time to put it all together into a prototype. At this point, I had no visual design experience. I spent time doing research and looking at various other websites for inspiration. My final design is a product of a lot of trial and error and testing different ideas to make it work.

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Before this assignment, I had never even touched any prototyping software. These prototypes were painstakingly created using Figma. They demonstrate an ability to learn new techniques and software, a growing understanding of User-centered design, and ability to understand and stay true to a brand’s image.