The (Theoretical) Educational Bartending Helper App
Intro
I have a quite a few hobbies, so I have a lot to pull from. The ones I came up with were games (physical and digital), bartending, and travel (world perspective). I chose bartending as a subject because someone who has recently been professionally bartending, I’ve been unsatisfied with the way bartending is being taught and the tools to teach it.
One of the primary problems I hear from people who want to try bartending is that they can’t memorize all the drinks. I think a culture of media displaying bartenders as infallible encyclopedias of drink knowledge has deterred people from trying. An immediately solution to this would be cocktail books, but in reality, those are clunky, hard to navigate, and water soluble. As a bartender you need to be quick to pull up information as often you are encumbered by a large amount of varying orders and can’t rely on a physical interface.
Pest Analysis
Political
Not much to note here. Legally drinking/bartending age in most states in 21+. This restricts our target demographic.
Economic
Again, not much to note. I think the target demographic needs to have some form of disposable income. Notably in certain regions
Social
Socially I think the image of bartending is favorable. Between James Bond’s stirred not shaken and the marketing of drinks as being high class craftwork, offering an app that lets you become some of that imagery is enticing.
Technological
Largest advent being the accessibility of the smartphone. That and being able to stream videos to your phone is much more accessible. So educational media on an app is more flexible.
Market Analysis
There are already a few other apps that serve as a helper app to bartending that already do a great job. The specific part of that market I would like to try to tap into is the educational side of it. I don’t want an app that would help someone who already wants to learn, but rather attract people who are on the fence into understanding and easing them into the world of liquor and mixed drinks.
A few things that are important for figuring out
It’s important to note that currently we mostly only have bartending apps for two specific audiences, those which are highly functional, and those which are under functional but just there to serve as a replacement for cocktail books. There are only a few apps which strike balance between the two. I would like to list and analyze some of the apps:
Cocktail Guru:
Specifically only Android market. Lots of functionality but only works if you’re already invested in the hobby/profession. It does in no way make itself readily accessible to those who don’t understand jargon or preexisting processes aside from small videos in an extra tab that show certain techniques (which is a feature I would like to incorporate).
Lush Cocktails:
Specifically iPhone only market. Decent amount of functionality but nothing more than other apps offer aside from the ability to sort by taste palate. Incredibly useful for people who know what the like but don’t know where to start for drinks (a feature to look into including).
Highball:
A specifically iPhone only market. A beautiful looking app that sadly has minimal functionality. Provides intuitive UI (a standard I would like to keep in my own app) but only serves to provide recipe sheets for a minimal amount of classic cocktails.
User Interviews
User Interview Question Templating
How long have you been bartending for?
How did you learn?
What did you think are the largest barriers of entry for you learning bartending?
Do you ever use a reference or a guide? If so when and how often?
Would you feel comfortable using your phone during the job? If not why?
Response Notes
Bartenders make more money than other positions.
Job is perceived as relaxed
Some trained by head bartender.
Bar book (laminated) used for obscure drinks they don’t have memorized
Lessons for signature cocktail
Some service people can’t use phones
Analysis
As a social analysis bartending jobs are (as predicted) seen as a higher position in the food service industry. For one, it can be an easier job, it pays better, and it’s overall more relaxed. This is important because we’ve established a demand for people to train in this field.
It seemed most of those I interviewed were trained by a senior bartender. Having an app that doesn’t take the senior bartenders time could be enticing.
As far as references go bars seem to have a book that allows them to do the more obscure drinks outside of the signature cocktails the bar might offer.
The largest concern is that in some establishments the service people aren’t allowed to use phones. This is a concern but it’s hard to tell seriousness of the rule, if exceptions can be made, and how wide-spread this rule is.
Retrospect
Notably the issue of bias does come up and is a true concern. In my case I intentionally staged the questions so the interviewee shouldn’t notice what I’m building until the end of the interview.
I start my interview with a general probe question which gets an idea of what type of bartender we’re dealing with. Here, I will take the opportunity to ask what type of bartender they are or where they usually bartend. Then the big question is asking what the biggest barriers to entry were for their learning. This is important because we gain an idea of what they struggled with, and if they didn’t struggle what allowed them to not struggle. In many of the cases they were taught by a senior bartender when given the opportunity which allowed many of them to learn.
Finally I ask about their work environment and how my app can slot into it. Specifically, I don’t mention that I’m building anything but I ask how they are about to work with all the recipes. I asked by asking if they use a reference or a guide. I don’t hint that I’m building anything to supplement or replace it. The final question I do finally give away what I’m building but hopefully it’s late enough in the interview that it shouldn’t influence any answers.
Product Idea
This app will help aspiring bartender (professional or personal) self-teach themselves how to make drinks through the use of an interactive, low barrier to entry, phone app.
I would be lying to say that I’m the first bartending helper app to exist. However I wouldn’t be lying to say that I’m the first with the intent to teach people, be accessible, and actually look good.
The fundamental idea is at the surface level to be a customizable drink book that allows for quick access to signature drinks of the user’s choice as soon as the app starts. Then, for extended use, has a search bar to find more specific drinks and recipes that might otherwise be hard to memorize.
Pass this surface level I want to provide an ingredient list for most of the signature drinks. The ingredient list should extend to reveal and actual instruction set (similar to a cook book) for beginners. In the event the beginner doesn’t know how to follow a specific instruction, I want there to be an embedded animation or extended video that instructs the user how to do that mechanic. This can be as simple as stirring or shaking, or as complicated as lemon twirling or other garnishing.
User Stories
“As a user I want an app that accessible, easy to use and learn drinks that I might have heard of or tried at a bar before that I can do at home.”
“As a user I want an app that functions well as a bar book that can replace the (physical) bar book we have at work.”
Design Document
So here we have 2 primary screens.
The main screen (on the left) provides a search bar with resources the user might want access to. And on the right side of that screen we have tabs (inspired by my own bar book) which the user can bookmark cocktails they want to come back to, denoted by a symbol on the tab.
The drink screen (on the right) provide a a small image with the drink and a list of ingredients and a button to denote expanding the process of making the drink (which is otherwise hidden). When the process is expanded I would like steps in which the app has instructory videos for to be highlighted (such as lemon twisting, etc. etc.). Notably the right side of the app still has all tabs visible and accessible.
Final Words
My primary inspiration for this design was my own bar notebook I used while I was working as a bartender over the summer. It was incredibly helpful as a reference as someone who was hopping from job to job and needed a source of a truth that I could tote. I think the overall design would easily replace my own bar book.
My ending concerns on the success of this app is really about the market. I can only really guess that this market exists because I was one of them. I don’t think there’s any substantial data I can pull to help but I feel the best way to test it would be to build a rudimentary version of it and let people try it. I would already have a few people in mind that could give feedback. In the end this is the type of app that if the market is big enough, any version of it would be better than what currently exists and I think that’s its biggest strength.
