sommelier

Gamified Wine Shop Platform

Client:

Academic Project (HIT)

Scope:

Web Design

Year:

2024

Overview

Overview

Overview

The Sommelier Exhibition

The Sommelier Exhibition

The Great Wine Exhibition in Israel, held annually for the past 20 years, connects restaurant and bar professionals, wine shops, hotels and more with wineries, importers, and distributors. Visitors can taste wines from Israel and abroad and deepen their professional knowledge. Entrance is free for industry professionals and paid for private visitors during designated hours.

The Opportunity

The Opportunity

The Opportunity

Wine culture in Israel is growing rapidly, with new wine bars, curious drinkers, and a genuine passion for discovery. Yet most people still find wine hard to understand or describe. Choosing a bottle often depends on a waiter’s advice or just how it looks.

The opportunity lies in bridging the gap between this rich wine culture and today’s digital world, using technology to make wine more approachable, engaging, and fun.

Connecting timeless tradition to the modern wine lover.

Connecting timeless tradition to the modern wine lover.

Connecting timeless tradition to the modern wine lover.

The Problem

The Problem

The Problem

The Problem

Research

Research

Research

The Language of Taste

The Language of Taste

Before creating a new way to communicate wine flavors, I explored how taste is currently described in the industry.
The research revealed a fragmented visual and verbal system, flavor wheels, charts, and descriptive spectrums, each offering a different approach to describing aroma, acidity, sweetness, and body.

Before creating a new way to communicate wine flavors,
I explored how taste is currently described in the industry.
The research revealed a fragmented visual and verbal system, flavor wheels, charts, and descriptive spectrums, each offering a different approach to describing aroma, acidity, sweetness, and body.

Before creating a new way to communicate wine flavors, I explored how taste is currently described in the industry.
The research revealed a fragmented visual and verbal system, flavor wheels, charts, and descriptive spectrums, each offering a different approach to describing aroma, acidity, sweetness, and body.

Talking to the People Behind the Bottles

Talking to the People
Behind the Bottles

To understand what Sommelier really needs to solve, I interviewed 10 wine business owners - winery owners, importers, and wine bar/shop owners.
They shared how they present their wines today, how hard it is to describe taste without a real tasting, and how many visitors they lose once the festival ends.

To understand what Sommelier really needs
to solve, I interviewed 10 wine business
owners - winery owners, importers, and
wine bar/shop owners.
They shared how they present their wines today, how hard it is to describe taste without a real tasting, and how many visitors they lose once the festival ends.

Insights

Insights

Insights

The Solution

The Solution

The Solution

The Vision

To create an innovative digital and 

visual language
for the world of wine. 


To strengthen and establish the wine community in Israel in the spirit 

of art and creativity.

The Goal

A platform for creating an innovative digital store to match customers with wine. 

The platform also allows tracking 

of orders, customer relations, and exposure, and creates a community for wine professionals.

The Promise

A smooth and valuable experience, expanding connections and elevating their brands in the wine industry.

Wine Meter
Turning Taste into a Clear Scale

Before creating a new way to communicate wine flavors,
I explored how taste is currently described in the industry.
The research revealed a fragmented visual and verbal system, flavor wheels, charts, and descriptive spectrums, each offering a different approach to describing aroma, acidity, sweetness, and body.

Before creating a new way to communicate wine flavors,
I explored how taste is currently described in the industry.
The research revealed a fragmented visual and verbal system, flavor wheels, charts, and descriptive spectrums, each offering a different approach to describing aroma, acidity, sweetness, and body.

Wireframe

Wireframe

Wireframe

Low-Fidelity Exploration

I explored multiple wireframe directions to find the clearest way to present the wine meter, suppliers’ needs, and the visitor journey before refining the final layout.

Site Map

Site Map

Site Map

Design

Design

Design

Main Features

Main Features

Main Features

Wine Playground, Discovering Flavors

Wine Playground, Discovering Flavors

The Playground is the playful side of Sommelier, designed for both wine suppliers and visitors.
Here, users can experiment with the Wine Meter – adjusting the four taste parameters and immediately seeing how the visual composition changes on screen. When a value goes up (for example, astringency from 2/10 to 8/10), more related shapes appear, creating a clear visual interpretation of how the wine feels.

The Playground is the playful side of Sommelier, designed for both wine suppliers and visitors.
Here, users can experiment with the Wine Meter – adjusting the four taste parameters and immediately seeing how the visual composition changes on screen. When a value goes up (for example, astringency from 2/10 to 8/10), more related shapes appear, creating a clear visual interpretation of how the wine feels.

Users can also browse the full wine catalog from all digital shops on Sommelier, view each wine’s visual profile, and discover new bottles and flavor combinations in an intuitive, interactive way.

Managing the Digital Wine Shop

Managing the Digital Wine Shop

The dashboard gives each wine shop owner a clear view of what’s happening in their digital store. They can track bottle sales trends, revenue and profit, recent orders, and top-rated wines - all in one place.
This helps them quickly understand what sells best, how the shop is performing over time, and which wines deserve more promotion.

The dashboard gives each wine shop owner a clear view of what’s happening in their digital store. They can track bottle sales trends, revenue and profit, recent orders, and top-rated wines - all in one place.
This helps them quickly understand what sells best, how the shop is performing over time, and which wines deserve more promotion.

Tracking Every Step of the Purchase

Tracking Every Step of the Purchase

Sommelier’s order management system brings all wine orders together in one clear, trackable space.

Sommelier’s order management system brings all wine orders together in one clear, trackable space.

My Digital Wine Shop

My Digital Wine Shop

Digital Wine Shop – Giving Each Supplier Their Own Stage

In Sommelier, every wine supplier can open a digital shop that feels like their own brand: upload their wines, choose how the page looks, and tell their story in a clear, visual way.

When adding a new wine, the supplier doesn’t just fill in the basics,
They also define its taste through the Sommelier Wine Meter:

  1. Basic details - name, price, bottle image

  2. Wine profile - wine type, grape variety, region and country of origin

  3. Taste metrics - numeric values for Body, Astringency, Complexity and Minerality.

  4. Flavor notes - key descriptors like nuts, oak, herbs, spices, etc.

Growing Together

Growing Together

Sommelier’s community space was created for the people behind the bottles - the wineries, importers, and wine shop owners who shape the new wine scene in Israel.

It gives them a shared place to meet, share knowledge, and stay updated with professional content about wine, business, and the industry.

In a field that is still small but rapidly growing, many wine professionals felt they were working alone.

In a field that is still small but rapidly growing, many wine professionals felt they were working alone.
The community responds to that need: it helps them build real relationships, discover collaboration opportunities, and feel part of something bigger than their own brand.


Through events, discussions, and learning materials, Sommelier turns individual suppliers into a connected network, stronger together than on their own.

In a field that is still small but rapidly growing, many wine professionals felt they were working alone.
The community responds to that need: it helps them build real relationships, discover collaboration opportunities, and feel part of something bigger than their own brand.


Through events, discussions, and learning materials, Sommelier turns individual suppliers into a connected network, stronger together than on their own.

Looking Back — and Ahead

Looking Back - and Ahead

What I Learned

What I Learned

Working on Sommelier taught me a lot about designing for something that is sensory and emotional, not just functional.

I learned how hard it is to communicate taste with words alone - and how powerful a clear, visual language can be when trying to make an abstract experience more accessible.

Next Steps

Next Steps

If I continued developing Sommelier, I would focus on evolving the Wine Meter.
Using today’s AI tools, it would be possible to create richer, animated visuals that react to each wine’s taste profile. Instead of only shapes, every wine could have its own short visual “moment” that combines its parameters and flavors into a unique, memorable experience.