Donna Vino

Creating the UX foundation of a new e-commerce platform

Research Led Design · Experience Architecture · Product Strategy

Project Overview

Donna Vino is an e-commerce platform focused on online wine sales.
I worked on the project from early design stages to MVP release, contributing to both UX design and product coordination within a multidisciplinary team.

My role

Ux Design
User research, prototyping, UI design
Built the product from zero

When I joined the project, the e-commerce was still in an early phase. Only a few pages had been designed, and many decisions were still open.

The goal was build a solid UX foundation from the start.

I focused on understanding user needs, clarifying the structure of the platform, and supporting the team in making consistent design decisions as the product evolved. This approach allowed the project to grow in a more structured way, while keeping design, business needs, and development aligned.

Research goals & Setup

The team already had a rough draft of a design system and a few incomplete screens, but no real UX research had been done yet.
There was no defined color palette, typography, spacing, or UI consistency. Everything felt temporary and disconnected.

After a few weeks, I was promoted to UX Coordinator and took on more responsibilities.

One of my first actions in this new role was to organize the first user research activity.

Since our users were selected clients with limited availability, it would have been difficult to schedule interviews with each of them individually.

That’s why I chose to start with an online questionnaire, which we sent via email to the existing customer base.

The main goal of the research was to understand:

how users discover and choose wines online
what information they rely on when making a purchase
which parts of the experience create uncertainty or friction

Although this method gave us mostly quantitative feedback, it allowed us to quickly collect structured insights and identify recurring user needs and pain points.

Key Insights

From insights to structure

Research showed that users needed clarity to avoid wasting time and getting lost during product selection and navigation.

Before working on individual features, it was necessary to define a clearer information structure.

Before:

Mixed categories (e.g. wines + events)
Duplicated items
Flat and unclear hierarchy
Utility features mixed with main content

After:

Clear content grouping
Logical, scalable structure
Redundancies removed
Better alignment with user expectations

Navigation, filters, and search were aligned with the new architecture to make product discovery more intuitive.

Key information such as availability, pricing, and shipping was surfaced earlier to reduce uncertainty.

The internal structure of the e-commerce wasn’t working well.

Navigation was unclear, and categories were overlapping.

I redesigned the site architecture and presented a new layout that made the structure easier to follow for both users and the team.

Events and tastings were integrated into the main experience, reinforcing their role within the overall journey rather than as secondary content.

Coordinating Design work

As the project progressed, the growing number of flows and features required more structure in how the team worked.

I introduced a clearer way of organizing design flows in Figma, making them easier to read, review, and share across the team
Work was divided into focused design sprints, with clear priorities and ownership.
To support alignment with development, I coordinated tasks and priorities across designers and developers, helping the team move forward with fewer blockers and clearer handoffs.

Design System

At this stage, it became necessary to create a consistent design system aligned with Donna Vino’s brand identity.

The visual language needed to convey a sense of authenticity and craftsmanship, while remaining elegant and approachable.
The brand draws strongly from Italian wine culture, combining tradition with a more contemporary and curated experience.

The design system was built around a balance between: sophistication and warmth, exclusivity and accessibility, storytelling and clarity.

Its purpose was to support a refined experience without overwhelming users, reinforcing trust, quality, and a sense of community across the platform.