Design Challenge and Design Ideas

Founded by New Era Spirits, Element Irish Whiskey was the world’s first open innovation whiskey company. The founders wished to develop an exceptional website to bring their brand to life online. The team at Element Irish Whiskey do not want a website solely to hero and sell whiskey. It had to capture the brand essence to present and position Element as an adventurous lifestyle brand through use of premium content and video. More than just incredible aesthetics, the website needed to offer a seamless user experience and allow consumers to purchase whiskey online. Their target audience are digital natives and we are on a journey to modernise Irish whiskey. The website must deliver fast loading speed, be cross device compatible and built for mobile. The site needed to cherish each element needed to make whiskey the grain, the water, the still, the casks.

How the brief was fulfilled

Concept

Picture this: You find yourself deep in the realm of a vibrant and captivating website, a digital portal that beckons you to embark on an exciting journey. As you begin to scroll downward, your eyes are instantly drawn to a mesmerising sight—an animated whiskey bottle gracefully spinning, defying gravity, and casting fleeting glimmers of golden light that dance across the screen.

To inspire adventure: With each rotation, the whiskey bottle becomes an emblematic guide, leading you on a virtual expedition that transcends the boundaries of the ordinary. Its spinning motion signifies the exhilarating whirlwind of experiences awaiting those who dare to break free from the mundane.

UX
The site needed to be as functionally impressive as it was beautiful. This is and remains to be a e-commerce site, despite having a breathtaking appearance the site needed to be familiar and easy to navigate for users. The site contains a strong navigation bar with clear routes. On the right hand side of the page there is a numbered progress bar allowing users to orient themselves on the page in place of a traditional scroll bar allowing for a more impressive and immersive experience. Each product page contains hidden hover state images to delight users, stunning full screen videos as well as clear CTAs to guide the user.

Benefits
To users the benefits of the site were an immersive and infectious experience that delights them by exceeding any possible expectations. For the brand it was the delivery of a best in class website that accurately and fully captures who they are and what they want to achieve all while driving their business aims and objectives forward across the globe.

Impact
While the site is only live for a few months and was a new build having no data to compare against, it has been a vital selling point to the team. It has allowed them to constantly impress and has been at the core of their business expansion. In only a few months the site has had over 41,000 users across 6 global markets from over 56 countries.