UNCORKING A NEW APP | BIRMINGHAM WINE WEEKEND

We began the process with a series of workshops, designed to give us a taste of what the organisers were looking for. This included a design consultation, content planning consultation, and a user journey mapping session, all of which gave us a foundation to build the best app we could. 

During this process, we discussed how Birmingham Wine Weekend typically has a more mature and so there was some concern that an app would be too hard to use.

Keeping this in mind, we prioritised a low-key and mature style, kept the sign up process as streamlined as possible, and made sure that the app had enough information so that users weren’t left asking questions about how the event worked. 

Some of the added features we built in to the app included:

• A Wine Pass - A personalised profile page that gave a user entry to the event and all of its locations.
• Personalised tasting notes - A featured space for people to rate the different wines as they visited venues, creating a more engaging experience. 
• Pre-Wine Weekend journal - People could use the app to create a Birmingham Wine Weekend Journal, which functioned like a wishlist for wines, venues, offers, and events. This helped attendees keep track of everything they wanted to experience.
• Wine Weekend map - The app also included a map with all included venues, meaning that attendees didn’t even need to exit the app to see where they were heading next.
• Exclusive offers & wines - The  app also made the extra incentives clear, motivating people to check in at venues to receive exclusive discounts on vintage wines and food pairings (e.g. 10% off your steak). - This was vital information to the organisers, as it let them see which venues, dishes, and offers attracted the most attention.

Learnings for the next Birmingham Wine Weekend

By seeing how this app performed during the 2022 event, we were able to recommend additional functionality that improved the experience during the next Birmingham Wine Weekend, this included :

• Improved options for sharing where you’ve been and what you’ve tasted, directly from the app to social media.
• Increased search functionality for included wines, venues, events, and offers.
• A unique digital stamp that can be collected at each venue.
• The ability to add photos to their personal Wine Weekend Journal.
• An expanded rating system for wines.