Inter Rice Asia
Introduction
Inter Rice Asia (IRA) approached Reassemble to redesign their website with a focus on B2C sales, so they could reach a larger pool of customers online. The Inter Rice team possessed a rich knowledge of sake, which could be imparted to their customers offline. They were passionate about sake and engaging educators. But a website did not allow for this sort of in-person engagement. Our challenge was clear: we would have to build a bridge between Inter Rice Asia and sake lovers online, by simplifying and refining how they presented their knowledge. We had to distill Inter Rice’s expertise, into information that was understandable and actionable for its customers.
Industry
E-commerce, Sake
Scope
User flows, User Interface Design
Revamped Navigation
The revamped top navigation allows visitors to zoom in quickly on a preferred category, grade or flavour profile of sake, direct from the home page.
Presenting Actionable Information
Our effort to present the most actionable information hit a snag when it came to the SMV. At its most basic, Sake is normally defined as dry or sweet. This is measured using the Sake Meter Value (SMV), which measures the density of sake relative to water, and therefore the proportion of sugar in the rice that is converted into alcohol. The experts at Inter Rice Asia know the Sake Meter Value, as part of their work. The problem was that this technical information has no meaning to the average drinker. There was no obvious link between a number (say, -10.0) and how a sake actually tastes. Our task, then, was to come up with a way of displaying sweetness/dryness that was friendlier and more meaningful. We avoided just stating numbers, and came up with this: