IGLOO “MY COOLER” APP // UX DESIGN & TESTING

I met the Igloo team at a product development brainstorming session in Bend, Oregon, during the spring of 2022. Together with respective heads of product development and production departments, we joined forces, put our heads together, and brainstormed until we reached several clear objectives. The Igloo team was exploring the possibility of incorporating modern technology into their coolers and wanted to create a compatible app to monitor, control, and track the end users' coolers.

My main focus on prototyping this was, as always, on the end user. Who would use this? How would they incorporate this tech into their existing routine? What could this do to make life easier and more fun for them? These questions made me think seriously about the types of customers Igloo serves and the situations they find themselves in with their Igloo coolers. I refined the list, and each feature I kept on would benefit each user and appeal to all.

I laid out a prioritized framework with each bucketed feature group organized according to potentially most or least used. I wanted to allow users to create a personalized character based on Igloo's mascot "Chilly" when they sign up for the app. This feature would give them a customized avatar that will be used to represent them in the event they share info within the app with other app users and make the app feel like their own. Aside from personalization, temperature settings, and monitoring were first on my list of priority features due to the lack of visible thermometer or temperature gauge on the coolers themselves and the ever-present need to ensure safety for users who are storing things in their coolers like raw meat, cheeses, and other temperature-dependent perishables. This specific feature would allow users to also pre-set their cooler's temperature based on recommendations for particular food items or customize their settings for their preferred pre-set settings.

Next, I wanted to focus on this app's less technical, more fun potential features. These features include Find My Cooler, a grocery list, one-touch ordering options for delivery services, social media connectivity, and music playlist integration. These features allow users to share with and interact with other app users to create an Igloo community that would share locations, grocery lists, ingredients, beverages, and music with other users.

Finally, the team at Igloo agreed that there would be an obvious need to drive users to the Igloo website through in-app promotions, sales, and members-only events.

Next, I shared the prioritized framework with the product development team. After agreeing on the structure and flow in the wireframe, we began designing the app according to the brand's guidelines and design standards. From here, I was able to deploy a testable prototype of the app that garnered more in-depth feedback from users inside and outside of the organization. This feedback helped me hone in on subtle improvements and significant updates that improved the user's experiences, like action and button size, placement, and legibility. There were some issues with intuitive navigation and misdirection, which also received improvement upgrades.

Unfortunately, Igloo only made it through this stage in the development process before they put this project on the back burner. One day, this groundwork and prototyping will lead to a user-friendly cooler upgrade via the Igloo Cooler Application.