INTRODUCTION

A client I was able to work very closely with was the Illinois-based restaurant and winery chain, Cooper's Hawk. In multiple recurring engagements, my team and I worked to improve their existing membership web-app and online ordering experience, as well as designing and developing their first native mobile application. Over the course of about two years I was able to collaborate with senior executives, stakeholders, and IT managers at Cooper's Hawk to implement cohesive and visually engaging user experience across their platforms.

  ONLINE ORDERING & MEMBER SERVICES

My first engagement with the Cooper's Hawk team included revamping their online ordering process, as well as improving the Wine Club Member web experience. My team and I worked through an agile process which included an audit of the existing experience, competitor analysis, user flows, and wireframes leading to the final high fidelity mockups.

  FINAL DESIGNS

Over the course of about three months, my team and I closely collaborated with the team at Cooper's Hawk to deliver and implement the updated online ordering system, and improvements to the existing Wine Club membership portal. The final designs drew visuals and brand details from the Cooper's Hawk brand, while also introducing an enhanced user experience and structured layout.

  CREATION OF A MOBILE APP

Shortly after our initial engagement with the Cooper's Hawk team, they signed on for a significantly larger scope of work — the design and development of their own native mobile app. Throughout the discovery and design phase, my team and I again collaborated with the various Cooper's Hawk stakeholders to create a polished and accessible app that would enhance their existing platforms and users' experiences.

To begin the process, I conducted a comprehensive competitive analysis. In addition to anaylzing competitors in the restaurant space, I also researched companies across different domains. This included companies that engaged in alcohol delivery — something that Cooper's Hawk was interested in exploring — as well as companies that have a dedicated Member Services platform. From this research and our conversations with the Cooper's Hawk team and a few of their existing users, my team and I were able to build feature and requirements documentation to guide us through the design process and piecing together the app.

  BUILDING THE APP

As we continued to work out requirements and app features, I also began to experiment with visuals and UI treatments that would complement Cooper's Hawk's existing brand while attracting new customers and potential members. After compiling a collection of inspiration visuals, the Cooper's Hawk team and I began to iterate on the main dashboard of the app, where we felt we could best showcase multiple UI elements and make the best impression on users when they first enter the app.

  FEEDBACK & ITERATIONS

As we completed the discovery and design phase and began development, we worked with a research firm to conduct a focus group. We were able to observe through a two-way mirror as the research lead held two sessions with existing Cooper's Hawk members and walked them through a prototype of the app. We were able to gather a lot of great feedback from the participants and implement updates as we were preparing to launch the app.

  FINAL DESIGNS

After launching in the Fall of 2022, the Cooper's Hawk app has been well received by existing members, and has led to a considerable increase in new Wine Club memberships. Currently, the app has over 13,000 ratings for an average rating of 4.9 stars. Below, you can find a summary of features and a selection of the final app designs.

The Cooper's Hawk mobile app is available on the App Store and Google Play Store.