Project Type
Individual
Timeline
Nov 2019 - Dec 2019
Tools
Adobe Xd & Adobe After Effective
Advisors
Total Wine & Adam Smith
01 Context
Product tastings are generally pretty low-tech and don’t leverage digital well to enhance the event experience. Information about what is being sampled and the attendees’ notes are either communicated verbally or via paper/pencil so there’s a high risk of being forgotten or lost once the event is over.
The Opportunity
Explore ways to leverage digital technology to enhance the tasting experience.
The Problem
How might Total Wine design a new wine tasting method to gather as much user feedback as possible and also enhance participants’ experience?
The Solution
An online wine evaluation sharing platform.
02 Showcase
How do you feel today?
The application will ask about users’ feelings and recommend appropriate wines according to the feelings that are shared, one time a day when users start the application.
Evaluation Notes
Notes include product information, consumer reviews and the ‘evaluation data’ dashboard.  View evaluation notes here and know wines.
Shopping
In addition to wine tasting event tickets, users can buy wine here.  It is especially advantageous for users to read notes, then purchase the wine mentioned in the note.  
Take Notes
Users can scan the barcode on wine bottles and get information about that wine.  Then, they can taste the wine and record their tasting experience here.
Wine Tasting
Finding wine based on appearance, aroma, and palate.  Elements users can evaluate include color, body, aroma, acidity, sweetness, tannin, alcohol.
Wine Book
Generate user wine preference data according to personal tasting history.
03 Research & Analysis
a. Industry Research: What is a traditional wine tasting event like?
  1. Select the wines.
  2. Setting the theme of the event to build excitement and make guests familiar with the event before they come.
  3. Consider bringing in a sommelier, wine educator, or keynote speaker to teach guests how to taste the wine.  Or, run a wine blending competition to make the event partly social, partly educational and totally memorable.
  4. Choose the tasting format: casual walkaround, or sit-down dinner event.
  5. Prepare appropriate food pairing.
Resources from: The sommelier Company

  1. Research the types of wines that will be in the event.
  2. Make a listed plan of which wines you would like to try, then make an order.
  3. Take notes while tasting of the wines’ name and how much you like it.
  4. Talk to winemakers or sommeliers to get more information about the wine you taste. It can make your wine tasting experience more fun and memorable.
  5. The most important thing: Have Fun!
Resources from: Wine Spectator

Corresponding function
Shopping from notes
b. Industry Research: Competitive Analysis  
c. Online Interview  
I did 6 online interviews to ask some questions around these following aspects:
  • Wine tasting event experience
  • Wine picking preferences
  • Wine evaluation experience
# 1
Customers like doing wine research before purchasing, to get other consumer’s reviews and evaluations.
# 2
Customers like taking notes of wine products’ detail information such as region, and grape type, during the wine tasting event.
# 3
Drinking, for most customers is a way to socialize.

# 4
No matter if they are beginners or stagers, customers may not be familiar with professional wine knowledge.

# 5
A beginner may not know how to start drinking.

04 Define & Ideation
a. Solution Definition
An online wine evaluation sharing platform that can satisfy the following traits and aspects:
  • Traditional wine tasting
  • Selling
  • Memorable
  • Social
  • Fun
  • Educational
  • Recommendation
b. Ideation
  • How might we?
  • Mindmap
  • Rough Sketch
c. Workflow 1
d. Workflow 2
e. User Definitions
Christine
23, Student
“ As a beginner, I know little about wine. So I want to know what kinds of wines I should buy. ”
Christine is a student at Rochester Institute of Technology. She had never had a drink before. When she had dinner with her friends recently, she realized that her friends all knew a lot about wine and liked the way that they talked about it happily.  So, she decided that she wanted to try it.  However, she tried the wine recommendations of her friends several times and did not like the taste.  So, she wanted to try to choose some wine by herself.
Eve
30, Designer
“ I love drinking with friends. I like to share my drinking experience with others. ”
Eve is a visual designer at Kodak.  She often invites friends to drink together.  Before her parties, she does research to prepare new drinks for her friends.  During the parties, she would like to be able to share drinking experiences and recommend her favorite wines to friends.  For Eve, it is difficult to describe the exact taste of a wine.  Although she drinks a lot, she is not a professional.  She is concerned that others cannot understand her.
05 Design
a. Design Kit 
b. Flow Annotations  
06 Refinement
a. Color Accessibility
The UX manager of Total Wine put forward that the current interface color does not have a strong contrast. It is difficult for some visually impaired people to distinguish colors. To address this issue, I enhanced the contrast of the interface by adjusting the color and font size.
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