OVERVIEW
The Bloom Bunch App
The Bloom Bunch app is for a Toronto-based florist shop that offers delivery services throughout southern Ontario. The storefront app aims to offer floral arrangements for occasions of all kinds, including weddings, anniversaries and corporate events.
My Role
UI/UX Designer
Project
Personal
Timeline
July - October 2023
Tools Used
Figma, Adobe Photoshop
Responsibilities
Conducting interviews, paper and digital wireframing, low and high-fidelity prototyping, conducting a usability study, accounting for accessibility and iterating on designs.
The Problem
People want to order and have floral arrangements delivered but lack the time or knowledge to get started.
The Goal
An extensive app with smooth navigation, and custom order options and allows for order and pick up/delivery options throughout southern Ontario.
Design Process
PROBLEM
Busy people and those with short notice struggle to order floral arrangements due to a lack of time and knowledge.
THE SOLUTION(S)
Browse through categories to find pre-made, ready-to-go florals!
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Browse and filter through florals by colour, size, occasion etc.
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Pre-made florals take the guesswork out of the decision process
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Update new categories according to the season and holidays
Customize your own floral arrangements.
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Flowers can be selected and unselected to one's liking
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Add on your vase
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Multiple bouquets can be added to the cart
Pick-up and delivery options to fit busy schedules.
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Bouquets can be delivered right to the recipient
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Schedule and track florals from the app
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Set and forget repeat deliveries to always have fresh flowers at hand.
USER RESEARCH
To kickstart the research, I went looking for florist businesses to see what services and products offered. I wanted to see how they categorized, filtered and presented florals, as well as how and what options for delivery are provided.
Research Goals
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Discover what thought processes that people go through to create or select the right bouquet.
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Analyze the challenges people go through in ordering a bouquet under time constraints
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Identify what frustrations people experience when ordering bouquets on a mobile app
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Identify the strengths/potential of any current system
Target Users
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Event businesses, wedding planners/party's, city/ town folk, once in a while buyers, flower lovers
Research Methods
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Online survey (Google form)
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In-person interviews
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Online Research
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
The competition isn't presenting all the information needed and is inaccessible.
FINDINGS
Creating empathy maps and conducting interviews allowed me to understand users' wants and needs concerning visual design, products and services. A primary user group I identified through my research was business owners looking for online delivery services for floral arrangements.
I didn't think about those who would potentially want to have repeating deliveries. Researching through using and browsing reviews, I found users wanted more custom bouquet options, subscription/ repeating delivery services and smooth navigation to browse through a shop's catalogue, all in one app.
USER INTERVIEW
I conducted 2 usability studies with 5 user interviews of bouquet buyers to discuss their goals and pain points when shopping for florals. The interview went through the entire user journey of buying a product so that interviewees could ask questions and discuss their struggles.
Properly labelled and described visuals are crucial for helping users understand and complete tasks.
Research questions:
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How long does it take for a user to find the right arrangement?
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How often are users creating a custom bouquet over selecting a pre-made arrangement?
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What can we learn from the process users went through to order florals?
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Is the payment process easy and simple to use?
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Are there any parts of the process to order an arrangement where users get stuck?
Users had a lot to say:
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"It's hard to tell if I pressed any of the flower buttons"​
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"I like pictures over words. I would like to see more info on the flowers too."
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"Wish there was a way to go to cart from the item page, it's just an extra step."
With the research, I synthesized the information into two behavioural archetypes (a bridal store owner and a young adult looking to gift away from home) and an empathy map. To figure out what direction to take The Bloom Bunch, I asked a few "How Might We" questions.
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How might we offer a substantial enough custom floral arrangement service?
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How might we organize and categorize pre-made arrangements?
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How can we effectively communicate and display all our available delivery options, particularly to our repeat customers?
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How might we present large sections of information?
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How can we provide a seamless user experience and ensure users can easily navigate our platform?
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How can we improve the user experience to make it less overwhelming?
THE MAIN INSIGHT
Seamless navigation is essential for all users, whether they're new to florals or not, to easily access all the app's products and services.
After conducting affinity mapping on all the feedback, I discovered that users wanted to easily access their destinations (cart, wishlist, etc.), needed more visual and textual cues, and the sizes and spacing of elements to be adjusted.
PAIN POINTS
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Navigation
It's challenging for users to navigate through apps when they refer back to multiple pages.
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Information
Breaking large information into smaller chunks for better manageability and to be less overwhelming.
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Legibility
Establishing a clear hierarchy between text, images, and buttons.
STARTING THE DESIGN: PAPER WIREFRAMES
I created paper wireframes to plan out all the screens and figure out the user journey. I prioritized simplicity to let the info shine.
DIGITAL WIREFRAMES
I first polished and improved my concepts, and them into digital wireframes. I prioritized the navigation of different user journeys and ensured the information was organized and presentable.
USABILITY FINDINGS
I designed a high-fidelity prototype after conducting a usability study using the low-fidelity prototype with 5 users. To ensure a solid final prototype, I gathered and assessed feedback from the usability study. The aim was to evaluate the user experience while navigating pre-made florals, customizing arrangements, adding items to the wishlist and cart, and completing purchases.
Revised the flowers button to be more prominent when selected.
Made flower names more prominent with bigger font for longer names.
Adjusted spacing around selections accordingly.
The font sizes and formats (all caps vs capitalized) in buttons are now uniform, which also makes it more legible.
Adjusted the text sizes to be more consistent and larger.
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Increased the spacing around the elements.
THE FINAL PROTOTYPE
CONCLUSION + WHAT I LEARNED
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Ideas are allowed to be fluid - Starting with a solid base and an open mind is important. What you end with could be a million times better than what you started with.
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Starting is sometimes the hardest part - Although it was helpful, I was overwhelmed by the amount of other UX work I consumed. There are so many different styles, I had to remind myself to slow down and start with the basics as design trends come and go.
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Testing isn't that scary - This project marks the start of my UX journey, and what I've learned is that to serve users you need to be talking to them. Conducting usability studies during each design iteration makes the whole process less intimidating and more beneficial.