App Homepage & Discovery
Main interface showing venue discovery with geo-location, smart search filters, and curated selections by category
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Mobile AppsFood Tech
SipUp – A Native Food & Drink Discovery App Built for the UK Market
The UK had no hyper-localized food and bar discovery app built specifically for how UK users actually search, explore, and order. We built SipUp from scratch — native iOS and Android apps with real-time listings, geo-fencing, venue management tools, and a UI that Gen Z wouldn't uninstall after 2 minutes.
- Launched
- 2023
- Duration
- 6 months
- Team
- 6 — 2 mobile devs, 1 backend, 1 UI/UX, 1 PM, 1 QA
- Budget
- £40,000 – £50,000
Project Gallery
Visual showcase of key deliverables across the engagement
Venue Detail Page
Individual venue showcase with real-time menus, ratings, reviews, and direct booking and ordering options
Order & Cart Management
Seamless ordering experience with cart functionality, payment integration, and real-time promo campaigns
The Challenge
SipUp needed native mobile apps with lightning-fast performance and real-time listings for bars, cafés, and food joints across the UK. The platform also required geo-fencing for location-based discovery, event-based visibility for venues, and a comprehensive admin dashboard for merchants to manage menus, offers, and analytics. Most critically, the UX needed to be engaging enough that Gen Z users would actually keep using it beyond the first session.
Our Solution
We built SipUp on native tech stacks — Kotlin for Android and Swift for iOS — to guarantee maximum performance and full system-level access for location services and push notifications. A Laravel-powered backend dashboard gave venues complete control over onboarding, menu management, and real-time promo campaigns. We integrated Firebase for live data sync and OneSignal for targeted push notifications and event alerts. The entire UI was designed around a swipeable card-based system with dark mode support to match Gen Z usage patterns.
Key Features
Every content element was designed with a specific growth or trust-building objective in mind.
Smart geo-location and venue listing
Real-time menus, ratings, and reviews
Swipeable card-based UI for UX simplicity
Push notifications for deals and events
Live event tracker with RSVP functionality
Admin CMS for vendors with multi-role access
iOS and Android dark mode support
Dynamic venue onboarding with verification
QR code linking for venues
Cross-platform API architecture
Real-time promo campaign management
Advanced analytics and insights dashboard
Tools & methods
Technology Stack
Kotlin (Android)Swift (iOS)Laravel (PHP)MySQLFirebaseOneSignalGoogle Places APIAWS S3Google AnalyticsHotjar
Results & Impact
Measurable growth delivered within 3 months of engagement — all organic, zero paid ads.
20K+
Downloads
20,000+ downloads achieved within the first 90 days of launch
41%
30-Day Retention
Exceptional 41% user retention rate after 30 days — well above industry average
4.6★
App Store Rating
Maintained 4.6-star average rating across both iOS and Android stores
<2s
Load Time
Sub-2 second load times achieved consistently across all devices
80+
Active Venues
80+ venues actively managing their listings through the admin panel
65%
Daily Active Users
65% of total users returning to the app every single day
Challenges & Solutions
Key obstacles we navigated and how we solved each one.
Fragmented Data & Venue Onboarding
Challenge
Every venue had different data formats, menu structures, and onboarding requirements — making a standardized flow difficult to build.
Solution
Developed a dynamic onboarding flow with a flexible data schema, built-in verification system, and QR code linking for instant venue activation.
Geo-location Accuracy
Challenge
Precise location-based discovery was critical — inaccurate results even by a few hundred metres would break the core user experience.
Solution
Integrated Google Places API as the primary location engine with a native GPS fallback to ensure maximum accuracy in all network conditions.
Cross-platform Scalability
Challenge
Building native apps for both iOS and Android while keeping a shared backend that could eventually support a web app version too.
Solution
Built a reusable REST API module architecture in Laravel, designed from day one to support future web app expansion without re-engineering the backend.
Gen Z User Experience
Challenge
Creating an interface engaging enough to retain young users beyond their initial download — a notoriously difficult audience to hold.
Solution
Implemented a swipeable card-based UI inspired by discovery apps Gen Z already uses daily, combined with dark mode support and near-instant navigation throughout.
More work
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