MK Beverage is a Coca-Cola subcontractor that services high-tech soda dispensers for restaurant franchise locations across multiple U.S. territories. Operating at high volume and speed, their business depends on accurate, centralized information to track each repair from intake to completion.

Although the platform was built in close partnership with MK Beverage, it was intentionally designed as a standalone SaaS product. Ownership of the application remained independent after delivery, enabling it to be licensed to other subcontractors within the same industry. This product-first approach is reflected in the name Avail, rather than a client-branded solution.

Hundreds of monthly work orders. 40 different spreadsheets. No single system.

The client currently relied on over 40 different spreadsheets to manage work orders across multiple territories throughout their lifecycle. Information was spread across documents owned by different roles, requiring constant manual updates and cross-checking to understand the true status of a job. While this approach technically worked, it created fragmentation, limited visibility, and increased the risk of errors as volume and complexity grew.

Couldn’t this be solved with more organized spreadsheets?

At a glance, the problem appeared to be a collection of messy spreadsheets. But the underlying issue ran deeper. The workflow relied heavily on manual coordination, company knowledge, and constant context-switching across disconnected tools.

Incremental improvements, such as reorganizing spreadsheets or adding stricter conventions, would have reduced surface-level friction but failed to address the core risk: there was no single system responsible for maintaining clarity, accuracy, and continuity across the operation.

The challenge wasn’t replacing spreadsheets. It was replacing the invisible work happening between them.

End Result: Unified platform everyone understands and trusts

What are the core user needs?

After some initial workshopping with the business owner, we landed on 4 core needs for the MVP version of the app.

Time to chat – who are the users?

The founders had a pre-launch email list, and I sent out a survey to that list to find a good sample size of users to speak to. After analyzing the survey data and speaking with several users, I was able to form the user personas.

Surprising insight – the most common persona had ZERO investing experience.

Shockingly, this was news to the founders. They had originally been targeting more seasoned investors as their main audience. The main takeaway from this insight is that “content > financial stats.” Being able to offer music rights for beloved and popular songs just might be a lot more valuable to Harmoney than being able to load up their marketplace with more obscure songs that delivered better dividend returns.

How do you design an investment app for “groovy noobies” while also appealing to more seasoned investors?

Go with the flow – Time to craft the user flows

Biggest Insight – There is a lot of information that we need to gather from the users

It’s going to be important to figure out how to obtain all of the user information necessary for them to use the app while also not inundating the users with an endless barrage of information to give us. I have some ideas, and they’ll need to get fleshed out in the wireframing stage.

A quick sitemap to establish the IA

Time to Wireframe

I created a first draft of wireframes and when that was ready, I quickly put it in front of some users to see what was working and what needed refinement.

User Testing Insights

Primary Insight – Simply the Purchase Screen to reduce overwhelm and elicit action

Additional Insights

Now, how do we make it feel trusted, sleek, and innovative?

Moodboard showcasing the chosen visual direction, featuring a dark color theme, gradients to add a dynamic feel, and a blue color palette to allude to fintech.

Putting the creative direction into action

App Walkthrough

What I learned

This was a rather unique project for me, as I was working as a solo freelancer directly with the client. Normally I work in conjunction with a design studio or agency. It was a challenge to not have another set of eyes on the project, or anyone to bounce ideas off of, but it was also an opportunity to step into other roles that I don’t spend as much time in, like creative direction.

One crucial learning for me was that it was very important for me to understand, in very granular detail, exactly how the financial and trading aspects of the marketplace worked. As I started on wireframes, I realized that I had some misunderstandings about the functionality, which caused me to have to backtrack and refactor some of the pages. Overall it was a minor setback, but it gave me a deeper desire to make a point of understanding the client’s business in detail in the beginning of the process, rather than making assumptions and asking questions later.

Credits

Jackson Montgomery (Development Feasibility Advisor)