Website Design, 2019

Designing destiny with Prophecy Wines

Prophecy Wines captivate the senses with unique artwork, intricate layers of meaning and exceptional taste.

Problem

Prophecy's former website was unable to draw in customers with its limited and outdated content. Its high bounce rate suggested consumers were finding the site unappealing, while its single landing page provided no opportunity for further exploration. Without interesting visuals or interactivity, Prophecy's previous website simply could not convert visitors into customers.

Solution

In order to craft an engaging and effective online presence for Prophecy, I developed high-level concepts that celebrated the winery's unique tarot-inspired artwork while also introducing a modern and youthful twist. My ideas were informed by consumer research and data analysis to ensure maximum engagement with their target audience.

My Role

Designing the website and social post concepts, working closely with market researchers to make data-informed recommendations

The Team

Tools Used

I acted as Solo Designer with guidance from a Creative Director, 1 Project Manager, 2 Content Writers, and several Market Researchers.

Sketch, Adobe Suite, Principle, Wordpress, Basecamp

Research

Our research combined with Google Analytics data revealed the target demographic for site visitors to be women aged 25-34, making up over 35% of total users and 40% of returning users. These demographics were found to be passionate about being active, informed, and the arts; value shoppers who love fashion and beauty products. Additionally, we found them to be spiritual, interested in yoga, environmentally conscious, liberal, feeling less connected without social media, and interested in international travel.

Audience Profile

Through research using Google Analytics, Prophecy's previous website was found to have an average session duration of 11 seconds and an average time spent on page of 2 minutes and 27 seconds. Its high bounce rate of 93.7% further indicated a lack of engagement from visitors. Such low audience engagement numbers were indicative that the site lacked interactive and visually appealing content to keep users interested.

Engagement Metrics

Ideation

With the user journey map, we sought to plot the ideal path for both existing and potential Prophecy consumers. It encompassed inviting users with interesting content and beautiful design, engaging them with tailored messaging, converting purchases, and inspiring brand advocacy. We wanted to ensure that visitors would be captivated by Prophecy's presence and develop a long-term relationship with the company.

User Journey Map

Key Takeaways

Create an immediately rich, immersive experience, even with age gates present.
Design a seamless user flow to encourage conversions on site and social media.
Inspire advocacy and loyalty through interactions promoting Prophecy sharing.

To provide an engaging experience with the uniqueness of the Prophecy brand, we recommended users be presented with a customized wine recommendation as soon as they landed on the homepage. Users also had the opportunity to further customize their “Prophecy” if they wished. Wine-related blog content helped keep users engaged on the website, as well as drove more traffic from social media channels.

Architecture & User Flow

Visual Design

I began by designing two high-level concepts for Prophecy's website in order to align on the proposed shift in brand experience and tone. These designs were kept intentionally sparse since we planned to return to detailed wireframes once the client had aligned on visual direction.

Concepts

Age Gate

Leaning into Prophecy’s tarot-inspired artwork, I designed an age gate that emulated a horoscope reading by revealing a specific wine product page according to the user’s birthdate (i.e., “Prophecy”).

Immersive Experiences

Prophecy takes a huge amount of pride in their stunning bottle designs, so I made a point to allow the artwork to shine. Bespoke “Prophecies” were written for each wine to enhance a sense of discovery and ownership for the user.

Known Interests

Since we knew Prophecy’s audience was notably interested in travel as well as spirituality, I designed a second concept that created a feeling of escapism through destination imagery.

Shareable Moments

By combining beautiful vignettes with personalized Prophecies, I created the kind of shareable content that this audience was sure to post and re-post.

Evaluation

Although neither of the design concepts were ultimately chosen, our team received high praise from all but one stakeholder at Prophecy. Overall, the concepts leaned too heavily on tarot, which wasn’t in the cards for the client. In retrospect, while we couldn’t have perfectly foreseen that feedback (at the time, Prophecy’s entire brand hung on their tarot-inspired illustrations), I felt my designs provided a user experience that would have delighted Prophecy’s target audience and boosted engagement.

Client Feedback