Behind The Scenes Of The Asheville Beer Week App: Not Your Average Event App

We just got back from an amazing weekend celebrating craft beer, in one of the best beer cities in America. And since we designed and built the Asheville Beer Week website and mobile app, we also got to peek behind the scenes.

When we set out to make the Asheville Beer Week app, we didn’t want to make just another event app. Because let’s be honest; almost every event or festival app is pretty much the same.

There’s not much to really engage users or anything that sets one apart from the countless other apps you install just for the event. We wanted to do something different.

Now that isn’t to say that we didn’t cover the basics. Of course we included:

• Event Calendar

• Map of Event Venues

• List of Asheville Brewers Alliance Members
• BeerCity Festival Brewer Participants

But we had two features that I think really set the Asheville Beer Week App apart. 

We included a Social Timeline. Now, most event apps have some type of social tie. Allowing you to follow the hashtag on Twitter or get a feed from the official Twitter account is pretty par for the course. But we understand how important social is for app users, so we took the social integration a step further.

We built the Asheville Beer Week social timeline. It aggregated data from Twitter, Instagram, and Untappd and allowed users to see this data on one screen. All social feeds were in one handy location. Users could also update Untappd, Twitter, Foursquare, and Facebook from right inside the app.

We also wanted to include some pretty sweet camera effects. After all, what’s hotter right now than retro camera effects? We wanted to leverage that to create a unique photo experience for people using the Asheville Beer Week app.

We went through hundreds of overlays and saturation levels and combinations of all of the above to create what turned out to be some really cool effects. Harnessing the power of the iOS version of Core Image (new to iOS 5+), we were able to perform these photo effects and manipulations in real time.

The additions we made weren’t added just for the sake of adding features. Instead, we wanted to include features that would enhance the user experience. Because there’s nothing craft beer lovers want to do more than share the experiences (and the brews) that are part of the event.

What other unique features have you seen in event apps?