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Overview

Project Type: Academic (February - April 2021)

My Role: UX, UI & Content Designer

Timeline: 10 Weeks

Tools: Figma, Sketch, inVision, Miro, Marvel

Content Inputs

The Problem Space

CloudWine is an iOS app concept, designed to simplify
the process of pairing food & wine from restaurant menus.It focuses on simplifying the process of pairing food & wine by providing personalized recommendations.

 

Since the product was in early stage development, I took the opportunity to design a full UX writing process and deliverables - from initial research, user personas and voice definition, to user experience and final UX copy.

  • Conduct user research

  • Define the product voice

  • Create content for contact points in the user journey

  • Write and edit UI copy

  • Conduct usability testing

  • Make revisions based on feedback

  • Add UI copy to my designs

When was the last time you felt embarrassed and clueless when selecting an ice-cream? 

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Now, how about wine?

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Selecting a good wine is confusing!! Bamboozled by the plethora of options and descriptions with cryptic vocabulary, one decides to pick a bottle a friend mentioned, spend money on it, and look forward to enjoying it, only to find out that the wine inside isn’t as per your taste, and doesn’t even pair well with the food. Such situations and several other versions have made so many of us, especially Gen Z wary of wines. In fact, a study conducted by Wine Business Institute at Sonoma State University shows that the 3rd highest scoring suggestion by Gen Z participants was:

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“Make wine not so scary and intimidating for people who don’t know as much about wine.”

Impact on Business

I dug deeper to check if this perception that Gen Zers have about wines affects wine businesses and found some interesting facts:

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  • Gen Zers are the largest generation - constituting 32% of the global population

 

  • They command a full 40% of consumer spending and are set to change the way we live, shop – and drink.

 

 

So it is quite evident that unless this perception is changed, it will be difficult for wine businesses to sustain. This is why I chose to focus on Gen Z - to provide a win-win solution for both, the users and the businesses.

User Research

In order to understand CloudWine's audience and the touchpoints, I created a user persona and an experience map based on primary and secondary research. This formed the basis for my understanding of CloudWine’s audience - their personality, their needs and expectations, their struggles and probable use cases for the app.

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To further understand our users’ language and context, I probed publicly available tools & resources including social media platforms, research articles, forums, blogs, reviews, comments, Google Trends and Quora to understand the pain-points, frustrations, needs as well as the language used by the target audience. 

I paired this info with my own analysis of the competition and complementary products, and clarified the problems CloudWine should solve and how it should engage with its users.

User Persona

User Persona

User Experience Map

Experience Map

Gen Z Vocab

Gen Z Vocabulary Cheat Sheet.
Credits: James Callahan, Lowell High School in Massachusetts, U.S

Product Voice

The attributes for CloudWine’s voice became clear after the initial research and identification of the core values, mission and personality. I also conducted a market research to identify and study the language used by Gen Z's preferred brands like Netflix, Spotify, Gatorade. Based on these insights, I created a personality for CloudWine. 

 

CloudWine is:

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Reliable
We’re here to help people find the best food & wine pairings that are tailored to their taste.

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Friendly
CloudWine is like a friendly sommelier who helps you elevate your dining experience.

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Straightforward

Decoding complex wine vocabulary is tough as it is. So, I decided to keep our product simple & straightforward. 

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Copy Testing

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To check the effectiveness of the copy, I conducted qualitative research and tested for the following:

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  • How do users feel about Cloudwine's brand promise?

  • How do users feel about the value proposition?

  • How would users would describe the qualities of CloudWine product and brand?

  • How would users describe Cloudwine's voice? (to ensure it matches my intensions)

  • Do users respond well to contextual terms used throughout the UI?

  • Do users see themselves in the terms used to describe them?

Copy testing insights

Adding Copy to UI

After several rounds of testing & iterations, I added the UI copy to the app’s wireframes.


I planned another testing session and created an interactive prototype, to make it easier for our users to go through the CloudWine experience.

Key Learnings

  • It is important to keep an open mind & respond to the insights derived from research through design intervention.

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  • I learnt that establishing a a clear brand personality, values and offerings eases the process of developing UI copy

Next Steps

Since this project was completed in just 10 weeks, there are a few things I would do differently if I had the time and resources:​

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  • Interviewing a larger, more diverse group of wine lovers

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  • Take time to work on CloudWine’s branding

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  • Conduct user testing with more people for more accurate copy and design

The Process Disclaimer

Given the scope of this project, I have left out some of the process work. If you would be interested to see more in-depth breakdown of the process work and the thinking behind my decisions, please feel free to send me an email at apteamruta25@gmail.com. I'd be happy to share the documentation with you.

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