DRINKWORKS COMPANION APP
Designing a connected experience for at-home cocktails
OVERVIEW
Bedford Systems partnered with Intrepid to explore and define a companion app experience for the Drinkworks Home Bar—connecting users to their machine via Bluetooth while enhancing the overall drinking ritual.
Over a focused 4-week sprint, we facilitated structured workshops to uncover user needs and prioritized features like a conversational interface, loyalty rewards, and smart pairing suggestions. These concepts were validated through research and testing to inform an MVP direction and go-to-market strategy.
APPROACH
A 4-week sprint focused on identifying and testing key app features with users. Research revealed that in-store kiosks could drive awareness and app downloads, validated through concept testing.
Core outputs included:
Competitive and market research
User interviews and concept validation
Golden-path user journey
Product flow and roadmap
Feature prioritization
Mid–high fidelity wireframes
ROLE
Role: Embedded Design Director, leading cross-functional teams across product, strategy, and marketing to drive the go-to-market experience.
Services: Experience strategy, DTC journey design, rapid MVP definition, UX flows, high-fidelity UI, and cross-team alignment.
IMPACT
In less than 4 weeks, followed by a 2-week extension, the team landed on a viable and validated UX experience with full stakeholder alignment. The app was released 6 months later to coincide with the product launch.
Approach
The project was kicked off with a 2 week sprint, modeled off of the Google Sprint method to confirm project and business goals, and co-create concepts at a high level.
IDEATE
SYNTHESIZE
CONCEPTUALIZE
Outlining the foundation
After completing the initial 2 day workshop with our key stakeholders, we documented the hero path with more detail and additional feature ideation.
Testing app concepts with beta customers
Once we landed on core ideas to test that would meet both user needs and business goals, we quickly mocked up some key screens for further discussion with beta customers.
Wireframes
We took the concepts to the next level with hi-fidelity wireframes
These visuals were used in 1:1 user interviews to test the concept and overall experience with beta customers.
A closer look at the details…
CHAT COMMANDS
Tapping this icon or swiping the screen right to left would reveal a chat feature to initiate machine commands to adjust their settings and create a cocktail on demand.
MACHINE DIAGNOSTICS
Users are provided a realistic and interactive diagram to indicate the functional aspects of their machine. Tapping on the pulsing dots would give users clear instructions with a path to interact.
REAL-TIME DATA
This section would highlight key data insights in a compact grid, giving the user a clear view of important information and direct access to actions that control their physical machine.
REDEEM REWARDS
Users are able to view and redeem rewards after purchasing pods, encouraging customers to visit the app regularly to track rewards.
DEALS UNLOCKED
As customers reach new tiers of pod purchases, they are able to access badges in the app, which unlock exclusive deals and discounts.
POD DETAILS
Customers can easily purchase new pods and discover new garnishes, recipes, and other cocktail pod details through the ‘Shop’ menu and other flows throughout the app.
Outcome
The client team took the UX work in-house, where the internal creative team members leveraged our high fidelity wireframes and user flows to put the finishing touches on the final output.
Though Drinkworks has since discontinued their appliance, the left visual is of the companion app which was closely based off the wireframes during this discovery effort.