Design lessons in a wine bar

There they are, in a hangout. The faces on screen furrow their brows in unison. Acronyms float along after buzz words from the presenter's mouth in a jargon parade.

The audience is confused. Questions follow: Am I misunderstanding or are they miscommunicating?

This quickly turns them off.

This experience is lame.

Most of us have been there — overwhelmed by unfamiliar language when exploring a new thing, or alienating an audience while attempting to convince them how smart we are by filling a room with fancy words.

I’ve witnessed it throughout my career in advertising. My appreciation deepened during an extended side hustle as a wine bar owner in Berkeley, California.

When it comes to touting the virtues of either wine or design the potential pitfall is the same; despite our best intentions we can end up pushing folks away instead of drawing them in.

Showing understanding, appreciation and compassion is a disarming TKO.

The rest of this post outlines five things doable TODAY. Design lessons from four years as a wine bar owner.

1. Ask, “How’s your day going?"

Did someone rush over at the end of the day from the latest in a block of back-to-back meetings, none of which began or ended on time. Their body is overloaded with cortisol. Their battery is at 6%. They’re feeling stressed and drained.

Well that’s certainly different from someone who breezed in from breakfast, feeling fresh, inspired by a podcast they just heard or a concert they just saw.

One could be grumpy and benefit from some time to transition. The other could be feeling frisky and ready to try on new approaches. In both instances, being able to read the room will help us to offer up something immediately relevant vs something more abstract.

When we ask, “How’s your day going?” we have to actually listen. Generously. It’s not only essential in the process of meeting people where they are, but also a great tactic for getting out of our own head and dropping our ego. It’s immediately clear this meeting is about them, not you.

2. Ask, “What do you like?"

This question, this inquiry can take on all sorts of forms. What are examples of good work? What does success look like? The aim is to get folks to use words and examples familiar to them to define the goal. It not only helps us understand their sensibilities and their level of expertise, but is also clarifying for both parties. With that in mind, pay attention to words and phrases. How much language do they already have available? Is there an opportunity to educate and arm them with some key concepts? Or can we use words pulled straight from their own lexicon? This is an important first step in connecting challenges with solutions.

In the wine world this might mean tart raspberry flavors over sweet, syrupy cherry, or something that dries the tongue like tea versus something light and refreshing like citrus. In the design world it could mean a clean, simple layout with lots of negative space, or a vibrant composition layered with texture and detail.

These first two points are about who we’re talking to. The next three are about how we might best help them (and ourselves) understand.

3. Explain it like we would to a 4 year old

This third point isn’t about talking down to anyone. This whole post is about making audiences feel included. This third point is about breaking things down into layman's terms. The truth is no one cares how smart we are if they can’t understand us.

Academic
This Olympics campaign will be visceral, transporting people into the mind and body of the world’s most elite athletes.

4 yr old
You like to have fun?
Imagine if you could fly

When I think about my own two parents it’s incredible how different they are. My dad is dyslexic. If you want him to really understand something, you should probably draw a picture. I’m not that different. My mom on the other hand is a writer. She teaches writing and literature, so she’s happy to explore language with people to find the perfect phrase. Her vocabulary is astounding. For her words are like fine spices giving each utterance it’s own signature flavor. Dialing our language in for our audience increases the odds of capturing their imagination.

4.  Try before you buy

At the wine bar oftentimes despite all of the breaking down we did with terminology, concepts and wines, there is still no replacement for a taste. Even if something technically ticks all the right boxes it can still most definitely taste awful. Sometimes a patron will be like, “Wow! That’s amazing! Pour me a glass please.” Sometimes at the end of a short flight they may have still not found something they like. Which is fine. Great even. At the least, they will have begun connecting ideas with tastes and probably started paying even more attention then they ever have before. And we keep on tasting until they find something they like. Sometimes that something is a beer.

What this did was build even deeper trust and repeat business. Our sincerity was clear. We were just that friend who wanted you to try something new that we were pumped on. No ulterior motive. Folks felt safe to say “no,” without guilt and without venom.

5. Follow up

The fifth lesson from the wine bar is about the importance of checking in, seeing how it’s going. The first level of this is obvious. After you’ve served someone it’s common, natural even, to wonder how they like it. Is it working out? The bigger version of that question, “is it working out,” came after finalizing all our branding, all our marketing materials, and having to make it perform for our business. In the past as a designer, once I handed off my files my work was kinda done. That included everything from a print mechanical to a commercial to the entire service blueprint and interior design for a brick-and-mortar restaurant. But as a wine bar owner I came to appreciate how marketing was just a part of my brand and my business, not all of it.

It cemented what had been recommended by prior bosses for a while — learn the other parts of the business in order to create smarter solutions. AND continue to support, refine and optimize. Show care. About the business health, not just about the ability to design and sell a solution. Because for everyone else design deliverables are usually the beginning of a project, not the end.