<span data-metadata=""><span data-buffer="">Transforming Malts.com for Diageo

Homepage banner image from Malts.com showing a woman and man enjoying whisky together.

<span data-metadata=""><span data-buffer="">Crafting a Premium Digital Experience for Whisky Lovers

Malts.com, part of Diageo’s portfolio, needed more than a visual refresh. It needed a reimagined digital experience that reflected the craftsmanship of Scotch whisky. The goal? To create a luxurious, user-friendly platform backed by strategy, structure, and testing.

<span data-metadata=""><span data-metadata=""><span data-buffer="">My Role

As Lead UX Designer on this project, I was responsible for:

  • Leading a user testing–heavy process, including card sorting, tree testing, and moderated prototype testing
  • Creating and refining key user journeys across the site
  • Improving the search and navigation experience to make product discovery more intuitive
  • Redesigning the site’s information architecture
  • Collaborating with UI designers to develop a design system and a more luxurious visual experience

<span data-metadata=""><span data-metadata=""><span data-buffer="">Our Approach

We worked in sprint-based phases, starting with UX foundations before moving into detailed journey design.

<span data-metadata=""><span data-buffer="">Phase 1: Foundations

The team began with a series of foundational sprints focused on defining the site’s structure and navigation model through a user-centred lens. This included:

  • A site-wide UX/UI audit to assess the current experience, using updated personas and key user journeys to evaluate how well the site supported real customer needs.
  • Content audit
  • Running card sorting sessions with users and stakeholders to understand how they mentally group and label information, helping us shape a navigation structure that felt intuitive and aligned with user expectations.
  • Using insights to build a revised UX sitemap and navigation
  • Validating the new structure through tree testing to ensure users could find what they needed
Visual overview of foundational UX activities, including sitemap mapping, card sorting, navigation redesign, tree testing, and early search design.
Foundations in action: Key activities that shaped the new site structure — from sitemap mapping and card sorting to navigation redesign, tree testing, and early search design.

<span data-metadata=""><span data-buffer="">Phase 2: Journey Design

With strong foundations in place, we moved into journey-based sprints, each focused on a user journey:

  • Product & Purchase 
  • Brand experiences
  • Search & Filtering
  • Gifting
  • Distillery & Experience booking
  • Loyalty & Membership

We designed, prototyped, and tested each journey in moderated sessions across three key markets: the UK, Germany, and the US. Testing internationally gave us valuable insights into how cultural context and familiarity with Scotch whisky shaped expectations and navigation behaviours.

Screens from user-tested prototypes designed to explore immersive brand experiences within a cohesive, premium platform.
Prototyping & testing: Screens from user-tested prototypes focused on delivering immersive brand experiences within a cohesive, premium platform.

<span data-metadata=""><span data-metadata=""><span data-buffer="">A Unique Challenge

Malts.com had to function as both a luxury brand platform and a home for individual whisky brands.

We introduced a layered branding model, where the Malts.com brand gently stepped back to let individual brands shine without compromising the overall user experience.

<span data-metadata=""><span data-metadata=""><span data-buffer="">The Outcome

The redesigned Malts.com launched in June 2024, offering a refined, immersive, and intuitive whisky discovery experience, shaped by deep research, user testing, and thoughtful UX design.

While I left the agency shortly before release and don’t have access to performance data, my role covered UX design and testing from improving information architecture and creating new user journeys to running extensive user testing across three markets. I handed off validated prototypes and detailed UX flows for final implementation. The work laid the foundation for a scalable design system and a premium experience aligned with both user needs and brand goals.

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<span data-metadata=""><span data-buffer="">What to expect

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