Swipe Drinks

• Agency: Orbix Studio
• Client: Swipe Drinks
• Category: App Design — Finance
• Location: New York City, New York, United States
• Project Brief: Design a mobile app that enhances cashless event payments with intuitive navigation, social token sharing, and parental control features.

Event payments have a context problem. The user is standing in a crowd, possibly in low light, and probably impatient. Most fintech app designs solve for the screen. Swipe Drinks solves for the venue by replacing slow cash transactions with a playful, token-based ecosystem.

The token system drives every interaction. Users arrive at an event with a preloaded balance and spend by swiping, not by entering card details or handling cash. Orbix Studio made the swipe mechanic the app's core gesture, keeping transaction speed closer to tapping a transit card than to checking out online.

At festivals and events, buying a round isn't a solo activity. "Swipe to friends" lets users transfer tokens to their group in one action, turning a payment feature into a social one. The design treats spending as a shared behavior rather than an individual task.

Parental controls run as a separate layer. Parents load tokens, set spending limits, and monitor transactions for underage users. Orbix Studio kept this layer visible but non-intrusive, so the child's experience feels independent while the parent retains oversight. 

The event browser uses large photo cards with token counts and location tags, making it easy to scan and bookmark upcoming events. Search and filtering stay minimal, which fits the use case: users aren't browsing hundreds of options, they're finding the one event they're already going to.

Swipe Drinks works because it is designed for the venue, not the screen. Every decision, from token preloading to one-tap sharing to oversized drink visuals, assumes a user who has three seconds and one free hand.