Heat Wave

Building a brand identity, mobile app, and line of hot sauces for Heat Wave, a brand that promotes spice exploration. Spice levels are subjective, and flavor profiles vary among spices, so defining your tolerance and preferences can be a challenge, thus making it difficult for some people to explore certain cuisines from around the world. Heat Wave’s mobile app and spice trial kit service make it more accessible and fun to step out of your comfort zone and spice up your life.

Scope

Brand Development
Product Design
UI/UX
Packaging
Design Research

Year

2024

The Problem

Because spice levels are subjective and flavor profiles vary among spices, defining one’s tolerance and preferences can be a challenge. This makes it difficult for some people to branch out of their spice comfort zone and explore certain cuisines from around the world.

The Challenge

Create a solution that inspires and enables people to step out of their comfort zone and explore spice in an accessible and enjoyable way.

Project Map

I kicked off this project with a map to get a better understanding of the problem landscape, potential stakeholders, and initial secondary research that related to my guiding question: How might we promote spice exploration among young adults?

User Interviews

I conducted 12 user interviews with young adults ranging from 18 to 23 years old. My questions ranged from cooking experience and spice preferences to cultural and family influences. I transcribed and coded their responses, selected notable quotes, and created affinity diagrams based on their codes. This process helped me identify common themes among my participants’ responses.

Identifying Needs

The common themes identified in the coding of my interview data helped me identify insights and need statements from my interviews and where those needs stem from.

User Personas

Based on the needs I identified, I created two user personas that fit into my target audience.

Group Brainstorm

Keeping my user personas and their needs in mind, I created a list of HMW questions which helped generate potential solutions and design interventions in a group brainstorm activity.

Concept Development

From there I began to develop my design intervention: Heat Wave, a brand that promotes spice exploration through its mobile app, spice trial kit service, and line of unique hot sauces. I started with a site map and user flows for the mobile app.

Lo-Fidelity
Sketches

I created lo-fidelity sketches of the main screens of the mobile app and tested these with people to receive some initial feedback before moving on to digital wireframes. This round of testing helped me avoid a few pain points, especially with the New Rating flow.

Mid-Fidelity Wireframes

I converted my physical sketches to digital wireframes, making edits based on my first round of user testing. I then created a mid-fidelity prototype and tested with more people. I gave my participants four tasks and watched and took notes as they completed them.

Brand Identity

During my weeks of testing and iterating on my wireframes, I also spent the time to develop Heat Wave’s brand identity. This includes a logotype, an icon, a color palette, typography, and additional supporting graphic elements.

UI Guidelines

Along with the brand identity, I also created UI guidelines to ensure that my visual design within the mobile application is consistent and intuitive.

Hi-Fidelity Wireframes

I applied my visual design system to my wireframes to bring them to a hi-fidelity state.

User Testing

While developing my hi-fidelity wireframes, I placed a large focus on user testing to ensure that the app is intuitive, easy, and enjoyable to use. I tested with around 10 participants and gave them a series of tasks to complete while I took notes.

Final Mobile App

After user testing implementation, the mobile app was complete! This video walks you through all of the main screens and flows.

Final Hot Sauce Packaging

Designing the hot sauce packaging provided an opportunity to apply the brand guidelines in a non-digital context.

Conclusion and Impact

Heat Wave effectively tackles the challenge of the subjective nature of spice levels and varying flavor profiles by offering a mobile app and trial kit service that makes the discovery and rating of spices more accessible and engaging. Through iterative testing and feedback incorporation, the app is intuitive and enjoyable to use. The cohesive brand identity resonates with the target audience, boosting brand recognition and loyalty. Ultimately, the project demonstrates the effectiveness of user-centered design to create an impactful, solution-oriented product.

Heat Wave

The Problem

The Challenge

Project Map

User Interviews

Identifying Needs

User Personas

Group Brainstorm

Concept Development

Lo-Fidelity
Sketches

Mid-Fidelity Wireframes

Brand Identity

UI Guidelines

Hi-Fidelity Wireframes

User Testing

Final Mobile App

Final Hot Sauce Packaging

Conclusion and Impact

Hungry for more?

ReMo

Tatum Robotics

Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Heat Wave

The Problem

The Challenge

Project Map

User Interviews

Identifying Needs

User Personas

Group Brainstorm

Concept Development

Lo-FidelitySketches

Mid-Fidelity Wireframes

Brand Identity

UI Guidelines

Hi-Fidelity Wireframes

User Testing

Final Mobile App

Final Hot Sauce Packaging

Conclusion and Impact

Hungry for more?

ReMo

Tatum Robotics

Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Lo-Fidelity
Sketches