Top Up Wines | WA Wine Awards

Top Up Wines was delivered under tight timelines, with a brief to design and develop a public voting platform that felt engaging and visually distinct. The key challenge was the absence of imagery - common in early-stage startups - leaving only text-based content to work with. With no existing visual assets, the team created all design elements from scratch, including custom 3D models and original illustrations. These components established a strong visual identity while solving for the lack of photography. The final solution needed to appeal to both casual users and industry partners, balancing standout design with a clear, intuitive user experience.

Top Up Wines was built around an efficient database structure designed to streamline vote counting, user submissions, and administrative data management, enabling sorting and export within seconds. With user engagement a priority, the platform was engineered for responsiveness, recognising that even brief delays could lead to drop-off. The design process balanced creating a visually striking homepage that captured Top Up’s distinctive identity while maintaining a level of professionalism needed to appeal to traditional wineries and industry partners. This approach ensured the site could engage a younger, digitally native audience while remaining accessible and credible within the established wine community.

This platform disrupts traditional wine judging by putting consumers at the centre of the conversation. By creating Western Australia's first people's choice wine vote, the project democratises wine culture, shifting authority from critics to everyday enthusiasts. The system's intuitive interface allows users to discover and vote for wines using familiar categories, automatically managing their experience through to completion. Beyond serving Top Up Wines' business objectives, the site creates meaningful connections between wineries and consumers. This website truly celebrates regional wine appreciation while challenging conventional industry hierarchies, giving wine lovers "a seat at the table" in determining WA's favourite wines.

Top Up Wines combines playful brand elements with a clean user experience. The homepage introduces the brand through micro-animations - like a rotating 3D wine bottle, floating grapes, and cursor-tracking stickers - designed to capture attention and encourage interaction. While the homepage is expressive, internal pages prioritise structure and usability. Key information is easy to locate, and the voting process is clear from start to finish. Users can filter wines by name, region, category and more, with the system automatically guiding them once the maximum number of selections has been reached - either to confirm or adjust their vote. The voting interface functions as a single-page application with custom state handling, ensuring the process is fast and uninterrupted. This approach eliminates page reloads, making the experience feel immediate and intuitive. Users can also suggest wines not yet listed, with a built-in approval flow and automated notifications once their suggestion is live to encourage continued engagement. Despite launching without product photography, the site uses a strong visual identity and interactive features to create a distinctive, functional platform. The result balances energy and clarity, building a memorable user journey while meeting real performance and engagement goals.