Tailor Made Apothecary by Bittercube- Digital Hosting Tool
Digital + Physical Experience Design
Methods & Tools: Contextual Inquiry and Immersion Research, Content Audit, Secondary Research, Journey and Ecosystem Mapping, User Personas, Flow Diagrams, Sketching, Wireframes, High Fidelity Prototyping.
The Challenge
The Tailor Made Apothecary by Bittercube is a program that facilitates the creation of custom beverage ingredients for bars and restaurants. In the current program structure, an ambassador team travels around the world hosting creation labs in a one-on-one session. with a bar manager or decision maker. Time and resource limits are compromising the potential reach and growth of the program. In order to meet growing program demands, the tailor made team is looking to deploy a digital platform that will host creation labs without the involvement of an expert or ambassador.
The Goals
1. Perform an extensive content audit on the current Tailor Made lab session\
2. Construct visual aids, diagrams, and instructions of lab tools and processes
3. Create a web application to facilitate the Tailor Made creation lab, formula generation, and product ordering
Discovery
Investigation into the Tailor Made Program began with emersion research. Two live lab sessions, hosted by Ambassador Nick were observed and documented. I also participated in a live Tailor Made Lab. These contextual walkthroughs greatly assisted in my understanding of the problem space. A key priority of this investigative research was to gain a complete and comprehensive picture of the content that would transpose into its new digital host.
Experience mapping in combination with user personas contributed to identifying the key pain points and opportunity areas for the Tailor Made support tool.
Program Cost Analysis
This graph is showing the current program costs that are facilitated by an ambassador in comparison with the potential program costs after the introduction of a digital platform. The program costs are dramatically decreased. This will result in greater profit margins and new opportunities program expansion without dependence on ambassador involvement/availability.
Tailor Made Apothecary Digital Platform Implementation
Key Findings
There are many ways the Tailor made program will benefit from creating a digital lab facilitation tool.
- Lower Program Costs
- Allow the program to reach more markets and accounts
- There is increased flexibly for the User and Client
- The pacing and timing of the lab may be determined by the user instead of the current time constrains that are quite harsh on the palette
- This longer Learning and Experimentation Time will promote the creating of more meaningful, intentional and informed products
The Solution
To begin the user is presented with quick, simple, and straightforward entry permissions that are legally required by alcohol industry standards. Any of age user can access this home screen here, it provides a brief program overview and simply explains what your can expect from the Tailor Made Apothecary Experience. When you have received a kit, there is a log in at the top of the screen to enter your code kit and prompt the correct creating lab.
Challenges
- Mimicking Ambassador Expertise can be tricky
- Clear and Simple Instructions must be created to support User Understanding
- Tech Considerations and Design Responses
“The Sapphire Tonic Program was a great experience for my staff and I. Tasting through the botanical extracts provided a real sense of how different flavors compliment or contrast with one another. We’ve used the Tonic Syrup to not only make a unique gin and tonic for our guests, but on our house cocktail menu as well. We would jump at the chance to create another unique recipe.”
“Designing a custom tonic within an hour is almost impossible - the Bittercube experience allowed me to really understand the botanicals in Bombay and achieve a perfect tonic for my palate within an hour. They take out the guessing work and create an easy to use concentrate - we just dilute with water and charge with CO2 in a siphon.
We currently run both tonics we designed, it gives the guests the option for the different experience on what tonic can be. I look forward to working with Bittercube, and I would love to evolve my guests’ palates with a new tonic paired with Bombay.”
The Kit and Instructions
The kit of extracts and tools is sent to the user prior to entering the lab. The clarity of the physical experience in tandem with the digital platform is essential to the programs success.
So, to begin the user is first presented with simple instructions and diagrams for the creation lab.
Botanical Tasting Room
After program introduction and instruction, the user enters the botanical tasting room. The benefit of this approach is that my user can approach the lab at their own pace reducing the stress on the palette. This pacing opportunity leads to higher quality and informed botanical choices for their custom product. This botanical slider on the left previews all off the flavors and extracts included in the users kit. In going through each slide and tasting, the user may mark which items have been tasted as well as signify favorites in a collection.
Component Selection
After the user has walked through the botanical tasting, the bar manager will elect 3-6 flavors that resonated with them in order to create a small test batch of the product.
Here the user is selecting their botanical blend as well as a hierarchy of flavors among them. This diagram and drag and drop tool will assist in botanical selection and will display previously defined ratios that best support each ingredients intensity and profile. Here, the user may play and tweak their creation to fit their desired flavors. These sliders ratios will help the user create a balanced product.
Tech Considerations
The complex interactions between user and the formulation tool are integral to the success of the Tailor Made Program. For this reason, additional input was requested from the development team. This tool has many components and variable inputs. Each botanical has a unique guideline of ranges of for various levels of intensity. Also, the botanical collections vary between kit programs. Our collaboration resulted in the creation of this drag and drop system that allows the user to experiment with their formula and receive the correct botanical inputs for that unit. There is a direct connection between the user motions and the data presented on the screen. It was also noted during this meeting that this code would be written to allow for simple changes to be made to the botanical collection.
Also, initial design concepts contained an internal communication tool between the Tailor Made Apothecary and the creation lab participant. After the dev team consult, it was determined that the cost and complexity of creating internal communications was not within the scope of the project. In response, e-mail hosted communications are linked throughout the app that allow the user send their final formulas and communicate directly with the Tailor Made Apothecary.
Review, Send and Participant Thank you
Next, the formula is tasted and reviewed by the creator. Once the custom formula had been decided on, it is submitted to the Bittercube Apothecary in Milwaukee, WI where it is scaled up and produced to be used within weeks
If something changes or for any reason, user may submit a request directly to the Tailor Made Apothecary.
Next Steps:
1. Manufacture Sample Run of Mini Test Kits
2. User Test the Physical and Digital Interaction to verify process clarity and formula creation success
3. Additional Features:
Brand Sponsor Product Tasting and Recipe Guide
Social Media Sharing
Cheers!