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SocialGrapes: Wine for Everyone

Democratized wine by building a social network and discovery engine that turned casual drinkers into confident connoisseurs.

Wine discovery panels in the SocialGrapes app

Validation

Scale

Secured a strategic partnership with a 110K-member Facebook community (Moms Who Need Wine) to drive early adoption.

Innovation

Featured by Robert Scoble for pioneering the "scan-to-lookup" UX using RedLaser barcode scanning technology.

Real-World Testing

Validated the UX at 2010 SF Vintners Market, facilitating wine discover across 100+ wineries in a high-density, high-distraction environment.

Process

Social Reciprocity

Designed the activity feed to prioritize friend data over "expert" ratings, creating a safe space for users who felt intimidated by traditional wine culture.

Social elements make friends part of the journey

Reducing Data Entry Friction

I advocated for barcode scanning to remove the "manual entry" friction of the wine aisle, moving the user from curiosity to "Check-in" in seconds.

Closing the Commerce Gap

Unlocked significant user and business value by facilitating the immediate purchase of desirable wines with "Nearby Sellers" integration.

Integration with nearby sellers makes interesting wine within reach — asdf

Iterative Gamification

Developed a "Wine Flight" learning experience, taking inspiration from Gowalla and Foursquare to turn wine education into a series of achievable, social "stamps."

Gamified wine flights makes learning about wine accessible

Why It Failed

The Data Bottleneck

Our biggest UX hurdle wasn't the UI; it was the data. We struggled with unstructured wine data, often forcing users into high-friction manual entry that led to drop-off.

Technical Constraints

In 2010, relying on third-party barcode libraries (RedLaser) and early-gen camera hardware meant the "magical" scan often failed in low-light environments.

Strategic Fragmentation

The core product lost momentum when resources were diverted to other initiatives such as bespoke white-label solutions for partners like the SAQ.

Lesson Learned

I realized that UX cannot solve for a lack of product focus. No amount of gamification can save an app if investment in its growth is deprioritized for side ventures.

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