Case Study

Soft Drinking: Designing for Mindful Alcohol Consumption

A multi-modal iOS app combining breathalyzer feedback with AI conversation for real-time support

UX Researcher, Product Designer

What is it? A mobile app in iOS. Can be adapted for other devices.
Methods Surveys, Interviews, Protoype Development, Usability Testing
Original prototype to code I'm now using the original prototype build in Figma to general a live app with AI support for code. Happy to walk through the original prototype on a call.

Onboarding

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Soft drinking

Let's start with a few questions

1 of 6

What's your goal with alcohol?

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Soft drinking

Let's start with a few questions

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Connect your data

By default, your data only stays within Soft Drinking.

Options to connect

Connect to AI source

You can connect to a service for generative AI connections to the chat feature.

Connect to Apple Health

Connect to Apple Health biometrics and see overlaps.

Connect breathalyzer
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Soft drinking

Thanks for registering!

Where to next?

What goal do you want to set?

Track your drinking

Chat to the Soft Drinking buddy to track your drinks and find alternatives to alcohol.

Personal breathalyzer

Use your personal breathalyzer to track blood alcohol concentration.

Resources and support

Get details about drinking recipes, tips to reduce, and more.

The Problem

Most digital tools for reducing alcohol use take a sobriety-first approach. While more controlled drinking applications are in the market, there's still a priority for sobriety first appraoches.

Existing solutions rely heavily on manual self-reporting after drinking episodes. While this helpful, it's a reflective tool rather than addressing the need to drink in the moment. What could a wolution look like that builds a concious decision? For LGBTQ+ populations, who experience higher rates of alcohol use linked to minority stress, there's a need for inclusive, judgment-free tools that account for diverse gender identities and don't assume biological sex equals gender.

Role & Impact

Conducted the full research and design process:

  • Literature review of neurobiology and minority stress theory
  • Heuristic analysis of 8+ competitor applications
  • Surveys with 192+ participants
  • Structured interviews with 9 users including LGBTQ+ individuals

Breathalyzer

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Soft drinking

Check your breath

Get your current blood alcohol levels through your breathalyzer

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Soft drinking

Check your breath

0.01%

You're currently at low risk.

Remember to drink water.

No alcohol Higher BAC

Outcomes and Solutions

The Solution

To think through controlled drinking in the moment, I created Soft Drinking, a multi-modal iOS app that combines a portable breathalyzer with a conversational interface to provide real-time blood alcohol concentration (BAC) feedback. Unlike traditional sobriety apps that count days since last drink, Soft Drinking tracks BAC trends over time through interactive graphs (day/week/month views) and offers in-the-moment support through a chat buddy.

The design prioritizes inclusive onboarding with gender-neutral options, opt-in data sharing for privacy, and supportive messaging.

Outcomes

  • Identified Market Gap: Research confirmed that 50% of people seeking alcohol interventions drop out of abstinence-only programs, validating need for controlled drinking tools
  • Inclusive Design Framework: Created replicable approach for collecting biometric data that doesn't conflate biological sex with gender identity
  • Privacy Guidelines: Established opt-in data sharing model that addresses heightened privacy concerns among LGBTQ+ users
  • Prototype Validation: 7 of 7 usability testing participants confirmed the interface was clear, non-judgmental, and filled an unmet need

Reflection

This project deepened my understanding of designing for populations who aren't often central to research about alcohol use. By centering LGBTQ+ experiences — particularly bisexual and lesbian users who showed lower trust in AI tools with sensitive data — I created a more inclusive solution that benefits all users through enhanced privacy controls and flexible goal-setting.

If I continued this work, I'd explore integration with wearables like smartwatches for passive BAC tracking via sweat sensors, and conduct longitudinal studies to understand how users' relationships with the app evolve over 6-12 months of use.

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