WINE FIX | UX/UI CASE STUDY

Wine Fix is an intuitive app designed for wine lovers who crave community and discovery. The goal was to create a single destination where exploration feels personal, social, and seamless. Role: UX/UI designer. Duration: 24 weeks. Tools: Balsamiq, Figma, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, and Microsoft Word.

Problem Statement

There’s no single platform that helps wine enthusiasts find local events easily or connect with others who share their interests. Existing information is fragmented, making exploration and community building challenging.

Possible Solution

Design a user-centered mobile experience that brings together wine events, venues, and communities into one intuitive platform.

The Design Process

My process followed a user-centered approach, uncovering insights and defining needs to shape a seamless experience, from concept to final interface.

A black silhouette of a person's head with gears at the top.
Black silhouette of a magnifying glass with gears in the middle.

Discover

User Research & Interviews

Define

Personas & Requirements

A black silhouette of a light bulb against a white background.
A black and white illustration of a webpage and a pointing hand.

Ideate

Concept Sketches & Storyboard

Design

Interface & Interaction Design

Black silhouette of a profile picture and a mobile phone against a light background.

Test

Usability Feedback

Discover Phase

User Research

To better understand how wine enthusiasts discover new events and connect with others, I conducted one-on-one contextual interviews with three participants. The goal was to identify common motivations, behaviors, and frustrations in their discovery process.

User Interviews

I interviewed five participants who regularly enjoy wine in social settings to understand how they find and engage with wine-related events. Sample Questions:

Can you tell me about your experience with wine and what aspects of it you enjoy the most?

What are some of the biggest challenges you face when trying to discover new wine experiences?

If you could design the perfect platform or service for wine enthusiasts like yourself, what features would it include?

Key Interview Insights

Wine enhances social connection.

Discovery often happens through word of mouth.

Convenience drives participation.

Food pairings elevate the experience.

Local exploration feels more accessible than travel.

Define Phase

Affinity Diagram

After reviewing interview transcripts, notes, and observations, I created an affinity diagram to identify recurring themes in user behaviors and pain points. By clustering related insights, I uncovered key patterns around how wine enthusiasts find events, connect socially, and what factors influence their participation. These clusters helped define the foundation for my user persona and informed design priorities moving forward.

A wall with colorful sticky notes arranged under a handwritten sign that says 'Engagement.' The notes include messages about wine, social interaction, and personal experiences, with some notes hand-corrected or crossed out.
A white poster with the title 'Venues' in yellow at the top and multiple colorful sticky notes in green, yellow, and pink arranged on it with handwritten tips and advice about wine venues.
A whiteboard with colorful sticky notes about travel and wine. The notes mention Napa Valley, Temecula, California wines, and Google Maps for wine-related inquiries.
A whiteboard with a large handwritten sign reading 'Incentive' at the top and several pink and yellow sticky notes with handwritten text attached below.

User Personas

Based on the insights gathered from my interviews, I developed a persona representing the typical Wine Fix user. This helped translate qualitative data into a relatable character, clarifying user goals, frustrations, and motivations to guide design decisions throughout the project.

Ava Robertson

Age: 35 | Gender: Female | Occupation: Marketing Manager | Location: San Francisco, CA

Ava is a 35-year-old marketing manager from San Francisco who thrives on connection and shared experiences. She loves discovering new restaurants and wineries, often organizing wine tastings and dinners with friends. While she enjoys wine, her real passion lies in the social and cultural moments surrounding it.

Tech-savvy and resourceful, Ava uses Google and social media to find new wine spots, but often feels frustrated by scattered and unreliable information. She values convenience, authenticity, and deals that make her outings more accessible. Ava envisions a platform that helps her discover new venues, plan effortlessly with friends, and make every glass of wine part of a memorable shared experience.

Goals:

  • Discover new and interesting wine venues and events

  • Have seamless and enjoyable experiences when planning wine outings

  • Create memorable social experiences around wine

Frustrations:

  • Difficulty finding reliable and comprehensive info about local wine venues

  • Challenges in organizing group outings and aligning schedules

  • Frustration with the lack of personalized recommendations and deals

User Requirements

From Ava’s goals and frustrations, I defined key user requirements to guide the app’s design. These requirements focus on usability, personalization, and social connection, ensuring Wine Fix is easy-to-use and engaging for all.

Seamless Navigation

Integrated Event Calendar

Detailed Venue Insight

Personalized Recommendations

User Reviews & Ratings

Ideate Phase

With user insights and requirements defined, I began brainstorming how Wine Fix could bring together exploration, personalization, and community in one cohesive platform. Through quick sketches and concept exploration, I merged several early ideas, including the homepage, map view, and personalized recommendations, into a single intuitive flow.

User feedback reinforced this direction, showing that combining profile customization with real-time venue discovery created a more personal and engaging journey.

Early Sketches

Drawing of two smiling people in a coffee shop. One person is sitting at a table with a laptop and a coffee. The other person is behind the counter with a coffee cup, and the sign reads "Coffee Shop". A speech bubble with a cracked phone screen says "Your Peds Are Ready! Swipe to unlock."
Sketch of a mobile app interface showing a user profile with avatar, name, and location. The right side displays a map with three location pins connected by routes, and an icon of a glass or drink at the top.
A simple black-and-white drawing of a woman with shoulder-length dark hair, smiling and looking at her phone. She is standing in front of a coffee shop with a sign that says 'COFFEE SHOP.' Above her, there is a speech bubble showing her phone screen with social media notifications and a message from a friend. The background includes a brick wall, window, and door.
A hand-drawn sketch of a mobile app interface showcasing various events and activities, including 'Your Daily Recs,' 'Bobs Wings,' 'May 5 The Winfeest,' and 'Hike & Sip.'

To visualize the user’s interaction with the app, I developed task scenarios and a storyboard based on my persona, Ava Robertson. These outlined how Ava would explore nearby wine venues, receive tailored recommendations, and update her preferences.

A hand-drawn sketch of a phone with a message screen displaying 'Highest Rated' and 'Venus Near', connected to a person with a wristwatch.

Storyboard

A six-panel hand-drawn comic illustrating the process of receiving and reviewing personalized recommendations. The first panel shows a girl with a bun taking a photo of a screen labeled 'Recs'. The second panel shows her looking at a screen with location markers and labels 'Tasting' and 'Wine Bar'. The third panel shows her standing in front of a calendar with a tasting event, holding a glass. The fourth panel depicts her looking at her phone, which displays a tasting review with star ratings, a comment, a $19.99 price, and a buy button. The fifth panel shows her happily giving a thumbs-up and holding her phone with a heart on the screen. The sixth panel shows her holding a large 'Buy' button, smiling.
A hand-drawn comic strip about exploring nearby wine venues and events, with six panels showing a person researching wine bars on a device, locating and visiting a local wine spot, and celebrating success with wine and a phone.

Based on the storyboard and user feedback, I began shaping the initial interface sketches, focusing on how each screen would guide users through discovery and personalization with minimal friction. These early concepts formed the foundation for the UI development phase.

Comic-style drawing illustrating managing user profile and preferences on a mobile device, including selecting wine preferences, browsing account history, and favorite wine bar.

Design Phase

With a clear concept defined, I moved into visualizing and refining the Wine Fix experience. This phase focused on translating sketches into tangible interfaces, shaping structure, interaction, and aesthetic flow through iterative prototyping and feedback.

Medium Fidelity Prototype

Building on the refined sketches, I developed a paper prototype to test basic navigation and task flow. Insights from this quick, low-fidelity round helped shape the medium-fidelity digital prototype, where layout and functionality began to take clearer form.

Home Screen

Nearby Events Screens

A smartphone displaying a map with several location markers, a search bar, and a navigation menu at the bottom with icons for home, location, drink, event, and profile.
Black and white sketch of a smartphone screen displaying a nearby events app, with listings for two events, each with images, descriptions, and 'More Info' buttons, and icons for navigation at the bottom.
Black background with a hand-drawn red arrow pointing to the right.
A smartphone screen displaying a user profile with profile image placeholder, name, and menu options for account information, preferences, account history, and notifications. Navigation icons at the bottom include home, location, glass, gift, and user icons.
A mobile app interface displaying details for an event named 'Event One', including a large image placeholder, event details, a star rating, description, quantity selector, a 'Buy Now' button, a heart icon for favorites, and navigation icons at the bottom for home, location, drinks, gifts, and profile.
Dark red arrow pointing upward
A vertical arrow pointing downward.

User Profile Screens

A smartphone screen displaying an online event or product page with a sketch-style interface. The screen shows a header with the time 09:52 AM, and icons for signal, Wi-Fi, and battery. The main content includes a large placeholder image labeled 'Event/Venue Images,' a distance indicator of 0.2 miles, and details about 'Event One' with a 4-star rating. There is placeholder text, quantity selector for two items, a 'Buy Now' button, a heart icon, and a navigation menu with icons for home, location, wine glass, organizer, and user profile at the bottom.
A black and white illustration of a smartphone displaying a user profile screen with a profile picture placeholder, name, and preferences for wine and venue locations, along with a navigation menu at the bottom.
A downward pointing arrow with a curved tail.

Payment Screens

Sketch of a smartphone displaying a user profile page with a profile image, name, preferences for wine type and venue options, and navigation icons at the bottom.

Daily Recommendations Screens

Mobile payment options screen showing Visa, Amex, and PayPal logos with selection checkboxes and a confirmation button. Navigation bar icons include home, location, coffee, calendar, and profile.
A wireframe sketch of a mobile app screen titled "Daily Recs" featuring event listings, ratings, and images, with a navigation bar at the bottom.
Smartphone screen displaying a purchase confirmation with a checkmark icon, the text 'Purchase Complete!', and a navigation bar with icons for home, location, drink, gift, and profile.
Black arrow pointing to the right on a white background.
Mobile app screen showing event details with a map at the top, event name 'Event A', a star rating, placeholder text, quantity selector, 'Buy Now' button, favorite heart icon, and a navigation menu at the bottom.

A heuristic evaluation helped identify usability gaps before finalizing the interface. Common issues included minor labeling inconsistencies and overly dense event listings. Refinements focused on clarity, consistent feedback, and reducing cognitive load during navigation.

Hi Fidelity Prototype

The final high-fidelity prototype captures the full Wine Fix experience, blending navigation with a clean, modern interface that celebrates community and discovery. Designed in Figma, the prototype reflects the journey from concept to execution, with a focus on clarity, warmth, and usability.

Map view of a mobile app called 'Wine Fix' with a search bar and two location markers in a city, a stylized wine bottle and glass logo at the top, and menu icons for Home, Explore, Daily Recs, Favorites, and Profile at the bottom.
Close-up of three glasses of red wine being clinked together during a toast.
Mobile app screen showing Win Fix app's payment methods page with options for credit cards and PayPal, and confirm and cancel buttons at the bottom.
Mobile app screen with a profile page for Ava Robertson, featuring a profile picture, welcome message, and menu options for account details, login, and help, with icons at the bottom for navigation.
View Prototype

Test Phase

To evaluate the effectiveness of the Wine Fix prototype, I conducted usability testing to understand how users interacted with the core flows, finding venues, reviewing recommendations, and saving favorites. The goal was to assess clarity, ease of use, and overall satisfaction.

Usability Test Plan

Defined objectives, target users, and key tasks to evaluate overall navigation and clarity.

Testing Script

Created structured prompts guiding participants through core actions such as exploring events and managing preferences.

Results & Insights

Observed that users responded positively to the visual layout and navigation flow, noting particular appreciation for the event map and personalized recommendations. Minor feedback included requests for clearer labeling and more visible event filters, which informed final refinements.

Final Thoughts: Overall, the usability feedback validated the app’s core structure and confirmed its potential to make wine exploration more intuitive and community-driven.

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