TASTING NOTES:
Expanding the App Experience for a Loyal Customer Base
Client
Total Wine & More
Date
Summer 2021 - Spring 2022
My Role
Lead Product Designer for the new Tasting Notes Feature on the Total Wine & More mobile app. Developed through multiple rounds of concept ideation, omni-channel collaboration with in-store teams, research, concept ideation, aligning key stakeholders, user flows, visual design, prototyping, user testing, incorporating user feedback into design iterations, developer collaboration, and quality assurance.
Project Overview
With an Apple App Store rating of 4.8 stars and over a million active monthly users, Total Wine & More has an extremely loyal customer base who faithfully use the mobile app. These app customers are extremely engaged, and our team constantly looks for ways to improve that app experience to keep that engagement high.
We decided to launch a Tasting Notes feature within the app to expand upon the ways in which customers can interact with their favorite products. The project and development went through multiple rounds of logistical and operational iterations before becoming the feature seen today. Tasting notes have proved a massive success for the app customer base, with over 50,000 notes created in the first six months post-launch. The customers utilizing the new feature are engaged, opening the app more, placing more orders per month, and have a higher spend per order than other customers.
Tasting notes have proved a massive success for the app customer base, with over 50,000 notes created in the first six months post-launch.
The Challenge
Logistics, in-store tastings, and COVID all played a key role in the way this feature developed. The project was initially born out of a desire to provide an in-app experience while customers were visiting tastings in store. But the lack of tastings during 2021 and 2022 really meant we needed to think of this differently, and what was once a Tasting Events-specific feature eventually morphed into a Tasting Notes experience accessible throughout the app.
Should we develop this feature for store tastings only, or can we provide a way for customers to access these anytime?
What types of data will our customers want to input, without feeling lost or overwhelmed with options?
How might we ensure that this new feature lets customers engage throughout the app experience, beyond just the second a bottle is opened?
What type of impact can this new input have on customer analytics?
User Flows and Customer Experience
The initial part of the design process involved establishing and iterating on user flows through wireframes. This allowed a view of the entire process and helped us envision the use case for what would become tasting notes.
At first, the feature started as a way for customers to track tastings during in-store events and tastings.
Iterations and Access Points
Are customers accessing these through an in-store event? If not, what does the flow look like? Several iterations were created and re-done to emphasize the beginning and end of the experience.
This point in the process resulted in the light bulb moment - why not create a tasting notes feature that worked in every scenario?
We could allow customers to utilize this feature not only in-store during tastings and events, but also wherever (and whenever) they may be engaging with the app.
The Tasting Notes Experience
The design, along with the customer experience, went through several rounds of iterations and testing based on user testing and customer feedback. The experience that resulted allows App customers to engage with the Tasting Notes feature at numerous touch points throughout the App.
![Tasting notes slide 18[27].png](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6431bc14599b2b1b7fdd442e/bbddedfc-5be9-47eb-816b-2740d28a88a9/Tasting+notes+slide+18%5B27%5D.png)
Results
The tasting notes feature launched on iOS and Android platforms in mid-2022 to huge success. Customers input over 50,000 tasting notes within the first six months! The feature provides an engaging way for loyal Total Wine App users to utilize the app in ways they previously hadn’t thought of. The experience has been live since 2022 in the Total Wine & More mobile application.