Viniant

In order to collect quantitative and qualitative data, I created an online survey and interview script. I recruited participants based on the diversity criterion of including as many age groups and levels of wine expertise as possible.
The survey questions were grouped into 4 sections - Demographics, General relation to wine, Using wine apps, and Buying wine through wine apps - with exclusion criteria placed at the end of each section -, and were answered by 48 wine consumers.
I then conducted 5 semi-structured interviews aimed at gathering general feedback as well as further exploring the main topics that had emerged from the survey.

KEY INSIGHTS

1. Participants were not overly bothered by being redirected to external vendors (this is an example of the importance of user research, since I initially assumed the opposite).

2. Although no / limited wine knowledge was prevalent, a fair amount of participants were wine connoisseurs to be catered to with expert content and advanced search filters.

3. Label scanning was popular, but not directly linked to buying wine. This functionality could therefore be strategic in attracting users and turn them into customers.

4. While ratings and reviews were highly appreciated, most participants did not feel the need for extensive social media functionalities like sharing or inviting friends.

5. A need for a streamlined, easy-to-use search emerged, but participants also named a wide range of search criteria they used/wished they could use. This was a challenging insight that I addressed in the prototyping and usability testing phase of the project.

After defining the features to be included in the Minimum Viable Product (I excluded external merchants), I created 2 landing page variants and submitted them to 22 users. Five-Second, First-Click and A/B tests were carried out online to gauge the landing page’s ability to convey the general purpose of the app and the impact of its elements.

KEY INSIGHTS
The working name ‘Whirero’ (from white, red, rosé) proved hard to remember. ‘Viniant’ - which combines ‘vino’ and ‘brilliant’ - performed significantly better in later testing.
The word ‘sommelier’ resonated with users and was included in the app tagline ‘Your digital sommelier’.
A light design was clearly favored over a more serious dark red and black version.

Next, I prepared an online card sorting study with a hybrid design, where participants were shown predefined categories but could also add their own. 40 cards detailing various actions that users might carry out in the app were created and participants were asked to assign them to the most relevant category. The results shaped the interaction structure of the app.

KEY INSIGHTS
A majority preference could be established in 90% of the cases. In the remaining 10%, no decisive card/category combination emerged and I relied on subsequent usability testing to identify the best location.
The ‘Info center’ category (indicating an informational area about wine) was misinterpreted by the participants. So it was renamed ‘Learn’ in an iteration, with better results.

In order to shape the interaction design of the app and determine the screens I needed to design, I drew the specific user flow of each persona and a general user flow for the app.

For the visual design of the app, I took into consideration all the insights from my previous research. Drawing inspiration from a moodboard I defined the app’s visual style and designed all of the app’s UI elements.
I chose shades of blue for a fresh, reassuring feel and complemented them with a vibrant red, which is the color most commonly associated with wine. I used orange as a negative semantic color to keep it apart from the accent red color.
The elegant sans-serif Raleway typeface is reminiscent of the classic style of wine labels and is complemented by Open Sans for better readability at small sizes.

Viniant is an e-commerce app, so it would be vital to measure the viability of this hypothetical project against the resources and objectives of a real business.

For the time being, I enjoyed enormously designing this product by focusing purely on the user experience.