Blood, sweat & beers

BrewDog

Trailblazers in the world of craft beer, BrewDog wanted to bring their punk spirit online

BrewDog moves at a fast pace. After ten years of incredible growth, crazy stunts and building a huge catalogue of fine beer, they had outgrown their digital platform. So they set us the challenge of not just redesigning and rebuilding their website but reimagining the online shopping experience and making it easier for customers to see the incredible stories behind the brand and the beers.

Ellon... where the magic happens

To get started we travelled to Ellon, north of Aberdeen, on a voyage of discovery and met the BrewDog crew at their state-of-the-art brewery. This exciting brand has a unique way of doing things, so we got to know as many people across the business as we could, learnt some things about how to brew great craft beer and drank quite a few in the process. Then we headed back down to London to start our experience design work. 

For those that know and those that don't

We had to make BrewDog's huge catalogue of products easy to browse for die hard craft beer fans and people who would normally feel out of place in a BrewDog bar. We built a simple and bold navigation which directed users by shop or discover. We mapped out a new site architecture in terms both audiences could understand with a slick new visual language, complete with side bar navigation. 

Punk as F**k

Craft beer fans want to find their favourite special edition quickly. For those that need a bit more help, we created product pages that made it easier to find beer based on their individual tastes. The page templates had to cater for a huge range of products in a variety of formats but staying true to the punk values, each part was carefully pieced together to balance convenience, diversity and individuality at the start of the purchase journey. It was only fitting we began our pilot designs with the flagship beer that started it all, Punk IPA.  

Heading down to the bar

After building a number of core user journeys and setting the new visual direction we took a series of prototypes into the BrewDog bars and events. The positive feedback from new and existing audiences gave us the additional insight we needed to provide BrewDog an industry leading ecommerce experience that stayed true to their punk ethos of never following convention.  

A whole new shopping experience

We designed a brand new grid layout for the shop supported by a series of templates including category landing pages and product search. This new framework, complete with animations, gave the the headliners and guest beers the chance to take over the whole shop window.  

More of the offline experience online

The previous website lacked the dynamism, excitement and attention to detail of the BrewDog bars. We wanted online to better reflect the offline experience by raising the profile of the beers and shouting about the unique features of each location. This included replicating the specialist knowledge of the bartenders with live information around what's hot, what's in and what's out.  

Part of a craft beer revolution

As well as a place to shop and find local bars, the website had to support BrewDog's mission to revolutionise the beer industry and redefine beer-drinking culture. The website is now a place better equipped to launch new products, shared techniques for brewing beer and supporting a community of people who are passionate about craft beer. 

BrewDog in your pocket

Away from the main website, customers can also log in to a series of apps designed to compliment the beer drinking and bar visiting experience. The main BrewDog app allows users to find bars, access discounts and collect beer visas. The batch app gives users the chance to find and rate the beers.