Background
Designing a floral app as part of my Google UX course held a lot of importance to me. Not only did this project mark the beginning of independently pursuing a career in UX design, I was able to incorporate my late grandfather's passion for gardening and flowers into my design.
Overview
Purchasing flowers whether for yourself, someone special, or for an occasion, has been a tradition that all generations have taken part in. A simple gesture that you are thinking of someone or "just because" does not have to be complicated by going to a florist shop and having to decide between an excess of options. Just like every other service that has become accessible online, purchasing florals should not be excluded.
Goal
Design a florist app that will allow users to subscribe to deliveries, customize arrangements, and pick from hand curated bouquets. I want to provide an easy way to find a floral arrangement perfect for each customer while making the process accessible to everyone.
Understanding the user
I created a research plan and sent out questionnaires to a recruited group of participants. My user group consisted of 4 females and 2 males between the ages of 20 and 40 who occasionally to regularly purchase flowers. The user group confirmed my initial assumptions about floral customers, but research revealed additional important pain points to focus on. I also performed secondary research on consumer trends and a competitive audit.
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Brainstorm
After my research, I created a user journey map, storyboards, and sketched the first iteration of wireframes. An important aspect to finalizing my goals and direction of this design was writing "How might we" statements.
How might we…simplify the process of ordering flowers by offering pre-curated arrangements and trending bouquets?
How might we…allow users to seamlessly have flowers delivered to their homes without having to re-order each month?
I then transformed my ideas into digital wireframes using Figma.
Usability testing
Once my low-fidelity wireframes were complete, I shared my designs with a group of five users to perform an unmoderated usability study. They were asked to navigate through the app and complete four tasks, rate the ease of use, and then make any comments on the experience.
Study findings
1
Users had difficulty understanding how to exit the filters page.
Proposed solution: Alter the exit icon to clearly indicate that the filters are being saved as they leave the page.
2
Users weren't sure if they scrolled or clicked the arrow to leave the home page.
Proposed solution: Allow both manual scrolling and clicking the down arrow to navigate
users to the explore page.
3
Users liked the "trending" section and found it useful.
Mockups
After I evaluated the user feedback I received, I iterated upon my design and transformed the digital wireframes to mockups, or high-fidelity prototypes. My main focus was to make an enjoyable experience for the user while anticipating how they may interact with each new page. I used Figma to create the mockups and Marvel to showcase the interactions.
Takeaways
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Seek and iterate upon constructive criticism from end-to-end
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Prioritize user-centric design and empathy
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Diligently following a process will lead to success, focus on design thinking
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Always put the user first, but still incorporate your own style and innovative ideas into your work