Carafe'd
Drink Pairings Made Easy
Discipline UI, UX, Product Design
Duration 4 weeks
PROMPT
How can we collect data & user preferences to create a better experience for both the customer & the company when pairing beverages and meals?
PROBLEM
Information about meal and beverage pairings can be a confusing space to navigate. Most users do not understand how pairings are done, and could use help with them.
SOLUTION
By creating a catalog of frequent meals from local restaurants and matching them to new or favorite drinks, users can better understand what makes a good pairing.
OBJECTIVES
Our initial design brief identified issues around Tastings & Hosting Parties. Both of these prompts had something in common: pairings.
Contextualizing drinks with users' favorite meals lets them discover pairings on their own. It also opens the door to discovering new drink favorites in the process.
By connecting food from user's favorite delivery services to a beverage, Carafe'd allows the user access to a real-time pairing in this delivery-based economy.
CONNECT
Clearly visualize pairing options in the most streamlined way possible, to minimize any potential confusion.
CATALOG
Organize all the types of food a user frequents, so pairings can be made as quickly as possible.
EXPLORE
While exploring drink pairings with your favorite dishes, you may discover your new favorite drink.
Introducing
An app for foodies to expand their palate and find the perfect pairing for their favorite meals.
Carafe'd creates a simple yet sleek experience allowing users to find the perfect meal match.
MEET
Sarah
Sarah is a working professional in her early 30s. She works long hours, lives in an urban area, and orders a lot of take-out for dinner. She visits a wide range of restaurants and struggles to make successful pairings.
She downloads the app and syncs it with her favorite delivery service. This process identifies her favorite meals.
The app then loads what pairs well with each meal, be it wine, beer, or spirits. She can make a selection based on beverage type. The page will also explain why the pairing is being made based on the flavor profiles.
Get Connected
Connect with your favorite delivery service via an API login.
This launches your favorite delivery service which collects & catalogs all of your favorite meals.
Order
Either through your favorite external platform, or within the app.
You will then be sent back to the selected meal to find their pairing.
Find Your Match
Once the meal has been selected you can then find the perfect match, be it wine, beer or spirit based.
You can also check the favorites section to see if there are any of your previously saved drinks that pair with the meal you are having.
MEET
Stuart
Stuart is in his mid-50s. He enjoys hosting dinner parties for his friends where he cooks his specialty dishes. He considers himself pretty cultured when it comes to wine pairings.
However, some of his favorite dishes are more difficult to pair correctly. He downloads the app, searches, and selects dishes he has struggled to pair previously.
Search
Manually look up any dish your heart desires and save it as a top dish, to keep finding more pairings.
Stored
With all of your collected favorite cuisine organized by culture & course, you can easily find any of your favorite dishes and quickly find the perfect pairing.
Features
RESEARCH & PROCESS
Competitive Analysis
User Flow
Survey Says...
Mood Board
Sophisticated
Refined
Luxurious
Industrial
Contemporary
Style Guide
Since wine pairings is a luxurious and refined experience, I wanted the UI to reflect this. By using a soft charcoal grey along with pops of champaign.
Iterations
Before perfecting the hero screen, it had to go through many passes before it worked, both structurally & visually.
