When brainstorming concepts that fit into the assignment theme of gratitude, we began thinking about how communities have been able to connect, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted user interviews with business owners, artists, customers, and other community members in order to gain a wide range of insights. In addition to general demographic information, we asked customers to walk through the process of how they find new shops and other businesses. When interviewing business owners, we asked how they currently reach their target audiences and interact with the community.

After conducting in-depth interviews for both types of users, we began to look for patterns in our results. We found that many customers use Google Search and Google Maps to find new places, but pain points included only being shown large chain businesses, and difficulty finding relevant, updated information. Because of this, many people relied on recommendations from people they already knew. For business owners, we found that they often relied on social media to reach customers, but that those platforms made it difficult or impersonal to communicate with customers.

Once our interview process was concluded, we decided to make our app one that would allow a more direct, personal connection between local businesses and community members. We created personas and user journey maps for both the business owner and community member, which are the two types of users that Gratify is targeted to. After establishing our design requirements, we developed a low-fidelity prototype in Adobe XD, conducted user testing, and finalized our concept with a high-fidelity prototype.