First, some context…

Coca-Cola wanted to establish an integrated flagship mobile app experience by incorporating the existing Freestyle app into the main Coca-Cola North America app.

The core challenge of this project was defining a structured strategy for integrating the two existing apps. Despite both apps living under the same umbrella brand, they each delivered uniquely different experiences and values to their users:

• The Coca-Cola North America app provided a personalized mobile experience to Coke lovers that highlighted seasonal Coke affiliate events, delightful games, and rewarding brand engagement.

• The Freestyle app interfaces between customers and the Freestyle machines (touch-screen drink dispensers seen in fast food locations, movie theaters, etc). It allowed users to create, save, and share their favorite drink mixes. The key feature was using the app to connect to the dispenser to load and dispense the user’s chosen drink mix. This made the user’s life easier as it minimized the time they would have to spend standing in the of the dispenser and making their drink mix manually.

With a defined timeline and scope, we knew that our focus had to be on key features that were absolutely necessary for a successful minimum viable product launch as well as developing a future-state "North Star" that we would continue to iterate toward. We also had to keep a strong pulse on technical constraints, business requirements, and user expectations.

Here’s how we worked through this problem

Through a series of cross-disciplinary workshop sessions and consistent creative reviews with key stakeholders, we sustained team alignment as we gradually evolved from product requierments to final design.

The below sitemap details the sitemap hierarchy that would drive the user through different experience hubs in the app.

We aligned on a streamlined, integrated sitemap and a list of prioritized Freestyle user flows to use as our guide and proceeded to create wireframe user flows to fully flush out the screen designs.

The prioritized user flows were:

• Accessing the scan feature on the Home screen to scan Coke products for rewards

• Creating new drink mixes

• Adding new drink options

• Connecting the app with a Freestyle dispenser so the dispenser can pour the user’s chosen drink mix

• Finding a dispenser

Opportunities to drive additional business value

My team saw a smart opportunity to revise the existing home screen experience to realize two key product goals:

• Improved navigation - The revised experience would allow the user to seamlessly navigate through all functionality in the merged app.

• Personalized content - Content would be surfaced that is relevant to the user’s interests and location, including local events and seasonal promotions related to their favorite beverages.

What we defined was a home page feed of personalized content:

1. The Home screen shows a personalized welcome message to the user with the primary CTA (Coke’s Sip n Scan feature) located in the bottom center. This lets the user scan Coke products to unlock discounts and accumulate points

2. The second screen below shows a carousel of Coke Experiences (promotions and events) personalized to the user’s geo-location and/or past preferences

3. The third screen is where the user can select their saved Coke Freestyle drink mixes and connect with the dispenser to pour their drink. They can also dive deeper into the Freestyle “laboratory” where they can create new drink mixes, curate them, or view popular drink mixes created by other users.

4. Finally, the last screen displays and tracks the user’s Coke Rewards points and progress, keeping them informed of any expiring rewards that they may want to act on before they disappear.

Takeaways and learnings from this experience

This was a great opportunity to work on such a high visibility project with a Fortune 200 brand like Coca-Cola. I was exposed to the inner workings of our client’s business roadmaps and priorities and learned how UX can deliver value towards those goals.

I learned quickly to stand my ground and be a clear voice in the room when it came to supporting my design decisions. I learned the importance of “speaking the language of my audience” and often articulated how my decisions would benefit my engineering and product partners.

This was also my first time as a solo UX designer, and I found myself in not only the role of a contributor but also an educator. I shared, taught, and evangelized different research and design methodlogies to my team and provided recommendations of how designers should have a higher seat at the table alongisde leadership.