Sweetspot
An app that makes finding a place to study or work remotely easy
My Role
UX Designer
Timeline
September 2025 - November 2025
Skills
Interviews, Visual Design, Hi-fi frames, User Personas
Background
This was my team and I's project for University of Michigan Ross Business + Tech's, +Tech Innovation Jam. This jam is 6-week challenge with a team of 4-5 students designed to mimic a real-world Tech team of product managers, technical architects, UX/UI designers, project managers, and business analysts.
My role within my team was the UX designer, but I also aided in the research aspect.
My role within my team was the UX designer, but I also aided in the research aspect.
Problem
Finding a place to work remotely or study is time consuming and stressful, affecting productivity and efficiency
Finding a place to work remotely or study is time consuming and stressful, affecting productivity and efficiency
User Personas
Our user personas helped our understanding of who we want to build this product for.
We started off with two main personas, U-M students and cafe staff, as shown below. However, we later added a third persona: remote office workers. They were an important addition because similar to students, they are also affected with the lack of clarity around spots to work from (however this was not included in our initial user persona).
We started off with two main personas, U-M students and cafe staff, as shown below. However, we later added a third persona: remote office workers. They were an important addition because similar to students, they are also affected with the lack of clarity around spots to work from (however this was not included in our initial user persona).
Pain Points from Research
After curating the personas, we conducted surveys and interviews with university students, remote office workers, and cafe employees to understand their perspective regading this problem.
There were three main pain points we found:
There were three main pain points we found:
Many university students report experiencing difficulty when finding a study spot, making them feel as though they are wasting precious study time.
As remote work rises in popularity, more professionals are outsourcing remote work spots that meet their daily goals. This process is difficult and stressful.
Students and remote workers struggle to find spaces which meet their particular needs such as lighting, noise level, seating availability, etc.
Solution to Relieve Pain Points
Based on the pain points, we came up with four features we wanted our app to have to relieve user concern:
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Reliable Work Spot Environment Finder
AI analyzes each user’s preferences, study habits, and priorities to suggest work spots that best fit their needs
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Dynamic Ranking System
Users can rate study spots across multiple factors giving users transparent, data-driven insights to make decisions
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Social Study Features
Users can create study groups, find new people to study with, and share feedback about spots
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Cafe Collaboration and Rewards
Partnerships with local cafes provide discounts, specials, and incentives for consistent frequency to businesses
Competitor Analysis
To see what other apps on the market targeted work/study spot finding, we did a competitive analysis with four other apps: Waitz, Muggerino, Nook When2Meet
We chose these apps because they were all used by students or working professionals to find environments to work in or schedule a time slot to work.
We set Criteria A-E based on the solutions that relieved user pain points.
As shown, Sweetspot relieves checks all the boxes, especially when it comes to personalized recommendations, connection with community/social feature, collaboration with small businesses, and being able to rate the work/study spots.
We chose these apps because they were all used by students or working professionals to find environments to work in or schedule a time slot to work.
We set Criteria A-E based on the solutions that relieved user pain points.
As shown, Sweetspot relieves checks all the boxes, especially when it comes to personalized recommendations, connection with community/social feature, collaboration with small businesses, and being able to rate the work/study spots.
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Hi-fidelity Wireframes
High fidelity frames were created in order to show our features. I designed the wireframes below that contain the following features:
Homepage: contains cafe partnerships, rewards, and discounts; as shown, the top cafe has a discount when they partner with us.
Onboarding: when a user first opens the app, there will be an AI assessment quiz that takes into account their work environment preferences such as lighting, outlet quantity, noise level, etc.
Personalized Recommendations: based on the onboarding quiz, Sweetspot will recommend the user local places in the area that meet their needs.
Homepage: contains cafe partnerships, rewards, and discounts; as shown, the top cafe has a discount when they partner with us.
Onboarding: when a user first opens the app, there will be an AI assessment quiz that takes into account their work environment preferences such as lighting, outlet quantity, noise level, etc.
Personalized Recommendations: based on the onboarding quiz, Sweetspot will recommend the user local places in the area that meet their needs.
Market Opportunity & Pricing Strategy
We focused on market opportunity to show the plausibility of this app:
Our Total Addressable Market (TAM) for Sweetspot is $80B includes all of our users: working professionals, students, and business in the United States.
Our Serviceable Available Market (SAM) is 55% of working professionals, 30% of students and 70% of businesses— making it around $18B.
Our Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM) is $30M— 1.5% of the SAM working professionals and students and 5% of SAM businesses.
Our Total Addressable Market (TAM) for Sweetspot is $80B includes all of our users: working professionals, students, and business in the United States.
Our Serviceable Available Market (SAM) is 55% of working professionals, 30% of students and 70% of businesses— making it around $18B.
Our Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM) is $30M— 1.5% of the SAM working professionals and students and 5% of SAM businesses.
Alongside market opportunity, our team came up with a pricing model that we believe best fits the needs oof our users while supporting Sweetspot as a business.
It is a freemium model— starting off free for new users, however if those users want access to exclusive features, they can subscribe to the premium models. This premium model comes with additional social features as well as exclusive discounts on cafe purchases.
For the businesses/cafe owners interested, the Business subscription will include promotion and marketing on Sweetspot as well as analytics on how much money and timer users typically will spend at their business.
It is a freemium model— starting off free for new users, however if those users want access to exclusive features, they can subscribe to the premium models. This premium model comes with additional social features as well as exclusive discounts on cafe purchases.
For the businesses/cafe owners interested, the Business subscription will include promotion and marketing on Sweetspot as well as analytics on how much money and timer users typically will spend at their business.
Reflection
This 6-week process was fast-paced and required us to think outside the box. My team and I really enjoyed the process of creating a product out of a real life pain point we, as college students at U-M, all have— finding a work/study spot that fits our needs.
If there was more time, I would create a working prototype of Sweetspot, and run usability tests to ensure the design is intuitive.
If there was more time, I would create a working prototype of Sweetspot, and run usability tests to ensure the design is intuitive.
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