Designing a companion iOS app for a connected appliance.

The Context

Zip Water products are designed to disappear into the background. When they work well, people don’t think about them. When something goes wrong, it matters immediately.

That dynamic created a fundamental tension for the app. If it only reflected basic system status, it risked becoming something users checked once, then forgot. For a digital experience to justify its existence alongside a highly reliable physical product, it needed a reason to be returned to over time.

The audience was also varied. Facilities managers, office managers, and service technicians each interacted with the system differently, with different responsibilities and levels of technical confidence. Any digital experience needed to respect that reality while remaining calm, legible, and non-intrusive.

My Role

I worked as the lead product designer on the companion app concept, responsible for shaping the experience model across hardware, software, and operational touchpoints.

The work involved understanding the full lifecycle of a Zip Water system, from installation through daily use to servicing and maintenance, and translating that into a digital experience that complemented the physical product rather than competing with it.

This was a concept-to-prototype engagement, focused on defining a clear and extensible experience model rather than shipping a production app.

Understanding the Real Problem

Early exploration made one thing clear. The challenge wasn’t connectivity or access to data. Zip systems already generated plenty of information.

The challenge was meaning.

Status information, alerts, servicing history, and configuration details existed, but on their own they didn’t create a compelling reason for ongoing engagement. Without a clearer sense of purpose, the app risked becoming a set-and-forget utility rather than a genuinely useful extension of the product.

To address this, we explored future-oriented scenarios that could give the digital experience a clearer role over time. These included ideas such as beverage-specific temperature profiles, hydration-related insights, and more intentional control over system behaviour. While these capabilities were not supported by the existing hardware, they acted as design probes to test whether the experience could support more considered, ongoing use.

The goal wasn’t to promise features. It was to understand what kind of value would make a companion app worth returning to, without undermining the simplicity and trust of the physical product.

Approach

The design approach focused on making the system easier to reason about, while also allowing space for future expansion.

Rather than exposing raw data or technical controls, the experience surfaced meaningful signals in human terms. System health, maintenance state, and issues were communicated clearly and consistently, reducing uncertainty and unnecessary escalation.

Future concepts such as beverage profiles or hydration awareness were explored as progressive layers rather than upfront complexity. This helped define how additional capability could be introduced gradually, giving the app a sense of direction and longevity without overwhelming users or overstepping the hardware’s current capabilities.

Throughout, the experience remained deliberately restrained. Calm, minimal, and aligned with the character of Zip’s hardware. The app was designed to feel like a quiet extension of the system, not a destination competing for attention.

Outcomes

The resulting concept created a clearer relationship between the physical system and its digital representation.

Users could more easily understand system state, anticipate servicing needs, and contextualise issues when they arose. Service interactions became more informed, and routine questions were reduced through better visibility and explanation.

Just as importantly, the experience model established a rationale for how the app could grow over time, avoiding the trap of becoming a static utility and instead supporting evolving use cases as the product ecosystem matured.

Reflection

This project reinforced an important lesson about designing for connected products in high-trust environments.

A companion app doesn’t earn its place by existing. It earns it by offering meaning over time.

Forward-thinking design in this space isn’t about showcasing features before they exist. It’s about defining a trajectory that gives the digital layer purpose, while preserving the reliability and predictability people already trust in the physical product.

Good companion experiences don’t demand attention. They reduce uncertainty, support understanding, and quietly justify their presence as the system evolves.

Please note: Images are forthcoming; the project is still in production, so no working screens can be shown at this time.