I realized I have never posted a single thing in regards to my process of coming up with the idea for SpotiBeer - one of my projects during my WDI course. This was definitely one of those ideas when you are having a beer at a bar, getting slightly tipsy and be like, "This is the best idea ever" but in reality, it might not be. Not even close.

The most basic wireframe just so get the idea rolling.

Here is the description I have written for my own portfolio site. Check it out here if you haven't already. The site itself was coded and designed by me. It's about the most simple static site you can ever see. It is also hosted at BitBalloon. How much more basic can that be?

SpotiBeer was created because I was interested in craft beers and music. It also reminded me of the good ol' college days when we were all stuck with holding a red cup drinking PBR or Rainier. If we're lucky, we'll get our hands on some Rolling Rock.

The finished project. It provides a description of the beer and of course, the generated playlist to the right.

It was an idea that I thought I could develop further more - beyond the tight one-week timeline I had to deliver the MVP. And damn right I do still have the intention to develop it into something more. Whereas I haven't been spending a whole lot of time coding or even looking for inspiration elsewhere, I have indeed been particularly intrigued by this app my friend was using while we pretended to be fancy wandering from one winery to another to do some wine tasting. The concept was simple. You scan the label of the wine and it generates a list of reviews and rating and where to purchase the wine. What is interesting is the app also compares the current price with lower prices found elsewhere or perhaps it generated an 'average' price for the bottle of wine.

For me, I want to implement it into the already existing app I have created. Right now, all SpotiBeer does is to generate a playlist based on a beer you have searched. It's simple and doesn't do much. I did use the EchoNest and Spotify APIs in order to generate a playlist of music. But it has no functionality to save the playlist or let alone give it a name so that you can save it for further use. What if the playlist generated really connected to your heart and mind and you want to show it off at future parties?

Nah, it doesn't do that quite yet. Since I have already figured out all that authentication stuff (don't ask me about it now though, it's probably time for me to revisit some good old JavaScript). But here's the thing, I have been wanting to look for freelance work or even land an internship at an actual workplace. I think my best bet right now might be to revisit the app and do something about it. My GitHub account has literally been dead. I have been so afraid to even log on to my account because I have been so comfortable with my current situation that I hardly have enough motivation to face my fears.

I think I'm about to change that. Perhaps I can also transform this into a project where I could apply some of my UX skills. #keepthosedreamsalive

Beer and Tunes Equates Magic.