The Cheese Geek
Helping people feel confident buying specialist food online.
The Cheese Geek is a specialist food brand built around curated cheese boxes, discovery and subscription buying. The app needed to work for very different types of users, from someone picking a gift to someone who just wants their monthly box without thinking about it. The UX challenge was helping people feel confident making decisions in a category where taste, trust, freshness and personal preference all play a role.
From confidence-building wireframes to final ecommerce UI.
This board replaces the large scattered assets with one clear story: browsing, filtering, product detail, basket, checkout and subscription management, followed by final UI highlights.
Buying specialist food online isn't like buying a book or a phone.
People aren't always sure what they want. They might be getting it as a gift, they might be new to cheese entirely, or they might just want their usual box delivered without friction.
- ·Users not knowing which box is right for them
- ·Gift buyers needing confidence without having to be experts
- ·Subscribers wanting to pause, change or personalise without it feeling complicated
- ·Product pages that actually answer the questions people have before they buy
- ·Discovery that feels helpful rather than overwhelming
Four mindsets, one app.
I mapped purchase motivations to four core personas, each with distinct goals and frustrations. Every flow had to hold up against all four, not optimise for one and break another.
- ·Gift buyer, needs reassurance, clear delivery dates and easy product comparison
- ·Foodie explorer, wants discovery, pairings, tasting notes and recommendations
- ·Regular subscriber, needs flexibility, control and easy subscription management
- ·Cautious first-time buyer, needs reviews, trust signals and simple explanations
From journey mapping to a UI system.
I analysed the full ecommerce and subscription journey, prioritised features around confidence, flexibility and repeat purchase, and designed flows for browsing, product detail and checkout. Subscription management, pause, frequency change, reorder, was treated as a first-class feature rather than an account-page afterthought.
- ·Created personas based on goals, needs and frustrations
- ·Mapped key journeys for gifting, discovery and subscription
- ·Designed content patterns for tasting notes, pairings, ratings and recommendations
- ·Prepared a UI system for consistency across product cards, filters, PDPs and account
Designed for scanning, trust and discovery.
Each pattern was a deliberate response to a research insight, not a visual preference.
- ·Product cards, quick scanning with flavour cues, price and rating
- ·PDPs, structured around what people need before buying: taste, origin, pairing, allergens, delivery, gifting suitability
- ·Recommendations, reduce paralysis from too much choice
- ·Ratings & reviews, trust signals for first-time specialist buyers
- ·Subscription controls, pause, change frequency, reorder, with no support contact required
- ·Pairings, add value, help people feel they're creating an experience
Commercial wanted an upsell. Product pushed back. The user broke the tie.
Partway through, the commercial team wanted a subscription upsell prompt immediately after the PDP, before anyone had added to basket. Their thinking was conversion volume. The product lead pushed back: the page already felt cluttered and he wasn't adding UI without evidence.
Rather than escalate or pick a side, I went back to the user journey. A first-time buyer at that point is still deciding whether they trust the brand at all, they're not ready to commit to a subscription. An upsell there would likely push people away, not convert them.
I ran a quick guerrilla test with five people. The result was clear: people who hit the early upsell called it pushy, and two of the five abandoned the flow entirely. That gave both teams something concrete to work from.
We moved the subscription prompt to the post-purchase confirmation screen, where people had already committed and were in a more receptive headspace. Product got the cleaner page, commercial kept the upsell, at a point where it could actually land.
Designed to move the metrics that matter.
The concept was built to create a clearer path through product discovery, gifting and subscription management, with UX patterns focused on building confidence and reducing the friction that causes drop-off and cancellation.
- ·Conversion rate from product page to checkout
- ·Subscription pause rate instead of cancellation
- ·Repeat purchase rate
- ·Product detail page engagement
- ·Task success in usability testing
Design for uncertainty, not just usability.
Buying specialist food online is more personal than most ecommerce. People aren't just picking a product, they're trying to imagine how it will taste, whether it will arrive on time, whether it's right for a gift. They need to feel something before they commit.
This project pushed me to design for uncertainty: giving people enough reassurance at the right moment, not overloading them with information. The subscription piece especially made me think differently about retention, flexibility isn't just a feature, it's what keeps people from leaving.