My Role and Responsibilities
Lead UX designer/researcher for the app dev and responsive website design.
User Interviews
Competitive Audit
Visual Design
Personas
User Flows
Branding
User Journeys
User Empathy Maps
Wireframing
Usability Testing
Baked Goods For the Soul
Taste of Heaven Bakery
welcome to
About the Project
With the ease of ordering any item desired from the convenience of your phone naturally people want to be able to send floral gifts to family and friends. Our competitors offer high-end designer bouquets, but their online browsing and checkout experience did not match their floral quality or vice versa. Five Star Flora app was created to allow the purchase of high-quality AND high-end designed floral products, and provide customers with an exceptional customer experience. Five Star Flora will integrate features online shoppers desire such as knowing available products from the beginning of the shopping experience and not at the end, multiple recipient orders, a variety of online payments options, a quick and few step add to cart checkout process, and photos and delivery notifications to ensure orders resemble bouquets purchased.
Project Goal
Pinnacle to this project was creating a simple and easy way to search for a variety of high-end floral products matched with an equally efficient checkout process and delivery.
My Responsibilites and Tasks
Lead UX/UI for mobile app.
3 months
Project Duration
Competitors
A user-centered design process was incorporated into the research and design.
Design Process
Empathize
User research
User interviews
Competitive Audit
Define
Personas
Empathy Map
Emotional Map
Ideate
User Flow
Card Sorting
Information Architecture
Design
Wireframe
Visual Design
Branding
Test
Usability Study
Implement Feedback
Empathize
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large selection of bouquets
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details very specifically about delivery time frames
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sustainable and fair trade
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address pops up when typing
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good user flow and good website/app design
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can only send to one recipient
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too many pop up ads
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at checkout got stuck with delivery location and couldn’t finalize purchase
User Research
Competitive Audit
Branding and Stylize
Interviews and Surveys
User Flow
Usability Testing
Personas
Emotional Map
Converting Feedback
Empathy Map
Wireframing
Presentation
The competitive audit illustrated that many online floral companies either have beautiful flowers and a subpar user experience, or are very large companies with mainstream floral options and a solid user experience. No floral company had both. The competitive audit confirmed many of the users’ pain points such as bouquets not available once you get to checkout and the ability to only send to one recipient per order.
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shabby chic style reinforced with branding
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clean and straightforward design
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flowers had lots of details
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guaranteed bouquets looked like pictures
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information wasn't well organized in drop down menu
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when you get to checkout it says the bouquet isn't available
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small selection
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delivery service is vague
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a very large selection of numerous floral products
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nice user flow and adds on as you proceed
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clear delivery service options
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checkout is simple and clear
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flowers are standard quality
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can be overwhelming with such a large selection
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drop down menus are too active and cover products
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not engaging images
Qualitative User Research
A series of five phone interviews were conducted about online shopping and sending flowers online. Surprisingly, the users were very familiar with the online floral shopping process and quickly identified several major pain points from past experiences.
Key Insights from Interviews
Secondary Research
Quantitative User Research
An online survey was conducted to obtain insights from users who shop online, purchase flowers, and or want to send flowers to people far away.
Do you buy flowers online?
Are you shopping for someone local or far away?
Do you use delivery notifications?
Would you purchase a floral subscription?
Do you like to send to multiple recipients?
75%
63%
87%
50%
75%
The Top 5 Flowers and Countries
They Come From
Roses
Educador
Tulips
Holland
Carnations
Colombia
Orchids
Thailand
Peonies
Holland
Confirmation Call
When ordered onine users want to receive a call to ensure their order is correct
Gluten-free AND Organic
It is difficult to find both gluten-free and organic cakes so users want to have both criteria.
How Much Cake Needed
When ordered online users want to receive a call to ensure their order is correct
Variety of Products
While cake may be the centerpiece, users want to purchase additional baked good items as well.
Delivery
Users want to have their products delivered to their home.
75%
Floral
Industry Statistics
online flower merchants since 2014
production of cut flowers over 20 years
worldwide flower market expected growth
supermarket average floral sales growth
11%
6.3%
7.5%
6%
70%
Valentine's
biggest holiday
Valentine's, Christmas, Hanukah, and Mother's Day account for all floral sales
of floral purchases are for special occasions.
77%
20%
of flowers are purchased for someone else
60%
of special occasion are birthdays and anniversaries
24%
of flowers are purchased for weddings and funeral and an sequel percentage for home and office
Floral
Industry Statistics
The Top 3 Countries by Export Revenues in 2019
1) Netherlands $41.6 B
2) Colombia $1.4 B
3) Ecuador $879.4 M
DEFINE
Personas
Based on insights gathered during the empathize stage, personas are created to match user stories and force and solve problems, optimizing the user experience.
Empathy Map
The data illustrated on the empathy map was based on interviews. We wanted to gain a much better understanding of their needs, feeling, and desired actions. There are several online vendors but we wanted to find and refine the pain points and create an optimal experience.
Says
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I want the flowers to look like the picture I paid for.
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Too many times the deliveries are late, past the event.
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I don't like when I get to checkout and it tells me my bouquet isn't available.
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I sent to multiple people and I want to do it in one order.
Does
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Works a lot and wants to easily send holiday and special occasion gifts to multiple people.
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Frequently takes bouquets to people in town and orders arrangements to be sent far away.
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Always asks for notifications for delivery. Would like a photo of it.
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Has a lot of family far away so online purchases that deliver nationwide would be ideal.
Thinks
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Some type of floral subscription would interest me.
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I want to be able to search a variety of floral products like wreaths, table center pieces, plants, and holiday decor.
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I think with delivery services today, like Uber and DoorDash, floral deliveries should be faster and more convenient.
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Too many times hen ordering online no one wants to be accountable when there is a problem.
Feels
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Relief when the floral delivery arrives on time and looks like the picture.
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Frustrated when I try to contact customer service and they blame t on the vendor but I can't contact them because its through the site.
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Happy when the person loves the flowers and feels special.
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Like a valued customer when the company notifies me about changes to the purchased product.
"When I order flowers online I want the vendor to have premade bouquets to select from. I don't know enough about flowers to put together a beautiful bouquet for a specific occasion."
--Julie, a busy professional who frequently shops online
"I don't want to get to the checkout process and
1) find out my bouquet isn't available and
2) have a bunch of hidden fees."
--Sarah, mother of 3 who has family in other states
"I want to purchase high-end beautifully designed bouquets that are different than the run of the mill flower bouquets."
--Hannah, a director of a marketing company
"During important holidays I want to be able to send various bouquets to multiple recipients to save time and be fair."
--Mary, busy professional who sends
floral gifts several times a year
Ideate
User Journey and Emotional Map
The user flow helps to understand the user navigation through the application and how to achieve specific goals. The flow begins at one entry point and establishes the various steps and actions a user needs to take to complete the specific task.
User Flow
One of the main user flows that one takes is between the select flowers and back to browse categories/occasion/flowers. When you are looking for flowers you are viewing many different options to find the one that is just right so this flow is performed many times.
Items being added to the cart will be a repetitive flow until one is ready for checkout. Once all the items are in the cart, it needs to be determined if there is one or more recipients, ensure the delivery date and location are correct, the type of message to accompany the gift, any add-ons, and then select/ input billing and payment information and pay.
Style Guide
The concept for the color palette was to incorporate a natural/plant based color scheme. The greens chosen span the spectrum between winter evergreens and spring green tones. The logo concept was five stars, for a five star rating, the best possible rating, and the frangipani flower was used for its five petal star-like appearance. Cinzel Decorative is the accent typeface and Avenir Medium and Heavy were used as body and text typefaces.
Typography
Cc
Cinzel Decorative
Avenir Medium
Avenir Heavy
Cinzel Decorative
Mood Board
Primary Colors
#EAFFC4
Secondary Colors
#AEE291
#61AA7B
#0F6A5F
Icon and Button Style
Five Star Flora online shopping app focused on creating a clean, elegant, and simple user experience that offered high-end designer floral options that can be purchased and sent nationwide. Online floral sales are increasing but users felt that either the experience was less than satisfactory with nice floral products or nice floral products could only be purchased in person and not online. We wanted to offer both.
Low-Fidelity Prototype
The low fidelity prototyping focused on: 1) easy searching for various floral items, 2) creating an easy checkout process, 3) allow the user to send items to multiple recipients, 4) increase user confidence with online companies.
High-Fidelity Prototype
The high fidelity prototype converted the usability study feedback into a much improved user experience. Vertical and horizontal scrolling begins at the landing page to allow the user to easily search through categories and the various options. Like and add buttons were included to easily create lists while one is searching through the selections. The checkout process was simplified, actions were made available without scrolling, buttons were refined, and the profiled page was reorganized to increase ease of use and optimize the user experience.
DEsign
Order high end designer beautiful bouquets
Have the big company online experience with boutique floral options
Send to multiple recipients in one order
Have a variety of floral options: wreaths, dried flowers, plants, and add ons
Offer monthly floral subscriptions
Bookends: Entry-Exit
Selection Process
Checkout Process
Landing Page Structure
Variety of Floral Options
Selection and Check Flow
Test
1
Clear Identifiable Options
Users need clearly defined options and precise language so they know what they can select and what exactly they are selecting.
Few Step Purchase Process
Users want as few steps as possible to purchase an item. They do not want redundant pages as that confuses
the user.
Little Data Input
They want to input in as little data as possible on their phone. They want to be able to use previously “stored/saved” data
Buttons Make Sense
The buttons need to be consistent and have correct actions. This will help reduce confusion and frustration.
What was said?
Participant 1
banking manager, age 54
I was unsure what the option for 2x and 3x was. It seems like I want 2 bouquets or 3 bouquets like the one pictured.
I want convenience and few clicks. I would never input this amount of information on a phone. I would do it on a desktop. I want to do everything with one thumb: swipe, scroll, use stored addresses, payments, etc.
It is redundant to add cards. I want to just do it immediately on first page and continue from there.
I like the categories. I like when I can scroll across through images and down through the various categories.
Participant 3
graphic designer, age 25
Participant 4
lawyer, age 54
Participant 2
global director, age 45
1
2
3
4
Takeaways and Looking Forward
Impact
Five Star Flora app has received nearly 3500 orders in the first quarter it was used. There has been a 25% increase in floral subscriptions since the inception of Five Star Flora.
Looking Forward
The floral industry has to remain agile and flexible due to the constant flux in plant availability, supply chains, and climate change.
More and more consumers want to know where their products are being grown. They also want to ensure fair trade and equity and fair pay for employees. They will pay more to ensure their purchases support the common good of all.
Impact
In customer surveys there has been a 65% increase in confidence and customer satisfaction with the delivery and photo notifications and 15% of the customer base are return users.
