I built a mobile flower delivery service that provides both pre-arranged and customized boutiques to busy flower lovers.

Timeline: 14 days

Tasks: User research, interaction design and visual design

Tools: Balsamiq, Sketch, InVision

Overview

The flower market currently depends on local floral stores. Even though it's a great way to get flowers, a lot of busy people cannot find time for a flower run. In addition, the market is lacking a way to get flowers for special occasions in a short amount of time. The design case study attempts to find a solution in 14 days.

User Research

Qualitative survey

Quantitative user research was conducted in the form of a survey. I asked 24 people of different ages to answers questions regarding their flower buying habit and use of delivery services. The questions were open-ended, allowing participants to reveal their pain points with the current flower buying system.

Research insights

79.2% of respondents said they have bought flowers before. This illustrated the market’s demand.

Inconvenience

60% of respondents said inconvenience was a huge factor in their flower buying habit. People would forget important occasions or just don't have time to go to flower shop. This provided a pain point for FloraGo to solve.

Target users

As it was a two-week sprint, I iterated quickly and scoped down to specific target users. The users were busy people aged 18 - 40, who used their phones on a daily basis and loved native app.

User stories

I created user stories to help me focus on the important users and their journeys. I followed the format: “the user who wants ___ and needs ___” and an end goal for them, then filled the needed steps in between. From the surveys, there are 2 types of users that appear to be common:

• Users who need flowers delivered instantly to their loved ones on special occasions.
• Users who prefer to arrange flowers by themselves but don’t have time to go to local stores.

Sitemap

Interaction Design

Usability Testing

Testing process

Using the wireframe above, I created a low-fidelity prototype from Balsamiq. I chose 5 random participants at a coffee shop to participate in my moderated usability test. I had them interact with the prototype on my laptop while engaging in 2 scenarios. Below is the 2 scenerios that I wrote:

Scenario 1

It’s mother’s day. You want to purchase flowers and have them delivered to your mom as soon as possible (because you forgot the date). You want pre-arranged flowers that are ready to be shipped. 

Scenario 2

It’s your anniversary and you want to give your lover a nice bouquet. You use FloraGogo app to customize the flower arrangements to include 10 white lilies and a vase and put them in your cart.

Lesson learned

An interactive prototype was created to test on 5 users. In general, the participants find the whole process from browsing flowers to checking out was intuitive. However, the biggest concern was that they didn’t want to sign up/ log in before checking the flowers, given that it’s not worth to sign up for an app they barely knew about. Thus, I updated the flow to allow users sign up after they paid for the flowers.

Visual Design

Design principles

Based on previous user research, I picked a set of usability heuristics for UI design according to Jakob Nielsen. I wanted to tailor my design to the busy target audience.

1. Consistency and standards

Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. I made sure labeling was easy to understand and did not duplicate.

2. Aesthetic and minimalist design

The app design is minimal with no unnecessary actions or items. In terms of aesthetic, the design should aligns with the floral vibe.  Thus, I chose to use the green pastel as the primary color.

3. Flexibility and efficiency of use

Actions in the app are self-explanatory and suitable for both experienced and inexperienced users. The app remembers users' browsing of bouquets, thus creates customized feed for each user.

Features

Final prototype

After the usability test, I made changes accordingly to the flow and applied visual design to this prototype. 

Reflection

In overall, this was a great project to work on. In two weeks, I was able to follow the whole UX process and delivered an actual app with 15 screens. Due to the short time frame, I didn't have enough time to better understand users and their responses to the app. If I had more time, I would iterate another round of usability test on my high fidelity design. 

Another problem I found was that I did not created the best flow for FloraGo. I focused my competitive analysis on Uber Eats where people would deliver food to mostly the same addresses (home, work, school etc.). However, many people would only buy flowers on special occasions, which led to the flowers being sent to different locations at different time. To fix this issue, I would dive into how users schedule delivery and optimize the flow.