Order, pay, and pick up. It’s that Simpol
Introducing a new way to order drinks directly from your phone
Company
Simpol
Services
Startup, iOS app design, product design, user research, workshopping, UX & wireframing, prototyping, product launch
Overview
At Simpol, we aimed to revolutionize the way people order drinks at bars, using a seamless mobile app experience that enhances convenience for customers and operational efficiency for bars. The current bar-ordering system can be slow and cumbersome, especially during peak hours, leading to long wait times, customer frustration, and missed revenue opportunities for establishments. Simpol tackled these challenges by offering an intuitive mobile app that allows patrons to order and pay for drinks directly from their phones, eliminating the need to wait at the bar
Roles & Responsibilities
From the ground up, I began with an idea that eventually lead to the launching of an app. Alongside my partner we developed and communicated the overall vision and strategy for the company, designed and developed a product from 0 to 1 ensuring we aligned with customer needs as well as business goals, hired a small team of developers and created a roadmap to launching the MVP product, oversaw the entire product design and development, and successfully launched the app.
Problem Statement
Long wait times and crowded bars frustrate customers and limit sales. Current ordering methods slow service and create bottlenecks, especially during peak hours. Our app aims to introduce a mobile solution for fast, easy drink ordering, boosting efficiency, sales, and customer satisfaction.
Opportunity
A mobile drink-ordering app offers bars a chance to streamline service, reduce wait times, and enhance customer satisfaction.
Patrons can browse menus, customize drinks, and pay directly from their phones, avoiding the crowds at bars. This solution improves overall bar experience, creating a modern, efficient solution.
From 0 to 1
Disrupting an industry is no easy task. Starting from 0, we had to not only define the brand and it’s presence in this ecosystem, but we had to design an experience worth disruption.
What is Simpol?
At the time of this app’s conception (2017) there weren’t any apps on the market that allowed you to order and pay for drinks on your phone while at a bar. We had no competitors or best practices to adhere to, so we started from the beginning just talking to customers and quickly realized how the simple act of ordering a drink on your phone could benefit a great majority of patrons.
How does this benefit the bar?
While we immediately saw the benefits for patrons, it was difficult to convince bars to host our app. Bartending is an industry as old as time, and disrupting that is difficult especially when bars we initially targeted didn’t care about their patrons.
How simple is it?
Designing a seamless experience that allows someone to order and pay for a drink on their phone is straightforward. Designing a seamless bar-patron-bartender ecosystem within a hectic environment was borderline impossible.
Where does Simpol thrive?
In order to find the ideal environment for Simpol to start out, we walked around to different establishments, interviewed bartenders, patrons and owners, and gathered data on why or why not it would work there
Patrons
Dive bar / Lounge
Because these places are rarely too crowded and wait times aren’t absurd, there’s no real need for “fast and easy” ordering.
Bars
Dive bar / Lounge
Too intimate - owners and bartenders have a special relationship with their customers. They feared phones would remove that connection.
Night club
Almost everyone we talked to said night clubs have the longest wait times for drinks and that it was the one thing they were most annoyed by.
Night club
While patrons have consistently rated these establishments as having the longest wait times, owners cared the least about their patrons.
Brewery / Beergarden
Similar to dive bars and speakeasies, breweries and beergardens are usually large enough to avoid overcrowding.
Brewery / Beergarden
Unfortunately these lacked the diverse rotation of drinks in order to further sell our app as a valuable addition to other bars.
Sports bar
While crowds never get as bad as night clubs, patrons don’t want to wait at the bar while they’re either watching a game or playing a game.
Sports bar
The combination of crowd, extra activities, and menu items made this the ideal target for us to launch our app.
Research findings
What we heard from our interviews on things to consider for our app, the ecosystem, and what both Patrons and Bars are expecting.
Patrons
Don’t want to be pulled away
Patrons can focus on intense games, such as hockey or football, instead of trying to flag down a bartender.
Don’t want to hit pause
Patrons don’t have to leave the game their playing, such as pool or darts, just to wait at the bar to order a drink.
Want to be with their friends
We kept hearing there’s nothing worse than leaving your friends to go wait for a drink at the bar.
Bars
Deciding factor for patrons
Because patrons choose sports bars for what the bar offers (TVs, games, etc.) having Simpol can be the deciding factor.
Don’t disrupt their flow
Bartenders are used to a certain way of placing drink orders so we have to account for their current system of working.
Tips are pooled
Most places pool their tips and split at the end of the night. We also had to account for tips on the app and how they combine with cash tips and credit/debit tips.
Service blueprint
Anatomy overview: Patrons
Simpol was designed to be easily accessible, allowing you to seamlessly browse a bar’s menu to find what you want. Providing someone with an efficient drink ordering system allows Simpol to thrive throughout a customer’s journey as it causes the least disruption of flow.
Feature prioritization
We interviewed our target audience, both while at the bar and on our own time, with the goal to understand what they would be looking for in an app.
Ordering a drink
Pay & Pick up
What we learned
After we designed and developed an MVP version of our app, we had the opportunity to host a couple “research parties” at a sports bar to observe how everyone was utilizing Simpol.
It doesn’t have to be an app
There were barriers of entry with creating an account. People just wanted to see the menu and order.
It only works if there’s one bar
There also might be multiple bars in one establishment. People also might want to order at their table vs having to walk up to the bar.
Pick up area gets blurred
We initially thought we could have a single pick up area, but even with the proper signage, everyone kept walking up to any bartender with their receipt.
You have to be prepared
There were times when people’s phones were on silent, or they didn’t hear their notification go off.
Can’t write in cocktails
If you have a favorite cocktail that isn’t on the menu, and you don’t know the ingredients (Cosmo, Paper Plane, etc) you can’t order it on our app.
Anatomy overview: Bars
Simpol is a very different experience for bar owners and bartenders where speed, efficiency, and clarity are the most important characteristics. Bartenders need to see incoming orders, assign themselves, and verify the customer picking up their drinks is the correct person.
Feature prioritization
We interviewed a few target bars, both bartenders and owners, with the goal to understand what they would be looking for in an app.
Dashboard
Bartenders
Backend
What we learned
After we designed and developed an MVP version of our app, we had the opportunity to host a couple “research parties” at a sports bar to observe how everyone was utilizing Simpol.
Categorization
Trying to categorize all types of drinks on the backend was difficult since they all don’t fall into similar buckets. We could only provide the bar with a recommendation as to how they want to categorize items, but they technically had free range.
Liquor limits
Many states have a 2 drink limit when ordering, so we had to limit some tabs to only 2 drinks. These settings had to be added to an establishment’s settings.
Out of stock items
While our app is connected directly to their POS system, tapped kegs and recently out of stock items aren’t reported digitally. An owner has to rely on the bartenders to update the system.
It doesn’t save that much time for bartenders
While we eliminated mishearing orders and spending time opening/closing tabs, since this is a new way of taking orders, the amount of time we saved the bar was not noticeable.
Final thoughts
People are often set in their ways and don’t want to change anything, having a good idea is barely the beginning, designing something simple is extremely complicated.
