Ethical Blooms Mobile App
Ethically sourced flowers and more, delivered to your door!
Project Overview
The problem:
Consumers want to support local florist who sell ethical plants, but most businesses are not transparent with their sourcing.
The product:
Ethical Blooms is an app that collaborates with local florists that source ethically. Customers can order plants for delivery or pickup.
My role:
UX designer leading the app from conception to delivery.
Responsibilities:
Conducting interviews/usability studies, paper/digital wireframing, low and high-fidelity prototyping, accounting for accessibility, and iterating on designs.
The goal:
Design an app for customers to order plants from ethical/local florists.
Project duration
3 weeks.
Understanding the User
I conducted interviews to understand the users' needs. The primary user group identified through research were working adults who care about supporting businesses that have a positive impact on the environment.
Research also revealed that most people don't know how to keep the plants alive. By providing plant care instructions along with each purchase encourages sales.
Persona
User journey map
I created a user journey map to help identify possible pain points and improvement opportunities.
Affinity Map
Affinity mapping helped me find out which additional features consumers want on a plant ordering app.
Paper wireframes
Drafting paper wireframes helped me to efficiently jot down multiple ideas and choose which designs would translate best to a digital platform that addresses user pain points.
Digital wireframes
By creating digital wireframes, I was able to see how features/information would fit on a screen.
Usability study findings
I created a low-fidelity prototype to collect user feedback. This prototype was used in an unmoderated usability study with 5 participants.
I chose to conduct unmoderated usability study because I find it similar to real-life situations where people download apps and explore the features without assistance. It helped me gain insight on what needed to be made clearer or easier, so the customers can have a pleasant and smooth experience.
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Here are the main findings uncovered by the usability study:
1. Order efficiently
Customers wanted a faster route to the catalog and ordering page.
2. Recommendations
The customers expressed that they like having flowers in their home or to give as gifts, but don't know what to purchase.
3. Remove Chat & Share
Although the customers liked the idea of connecting with other people, they didn't feel like this feature was essential enough to motivate them to use the app.
4. Save payment
Customers want a saved payment option for convenience.
Refining the Designs
Mockups
Style sheet
Accessibility considerations
1. Headings
I used headings with different sized texts for hierarchy.
2. WebAIM
All colors pass WebAIM standards.
Validation
I conducted validation testing of the mobile prototype with 5 customers. Below is a summary of the findings:
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5/5 Find the app easy to navigate
5/5 Completed the ordering flow efficiently without assistance
4/5 Are more willing to make purchases when they are provided with plant care information
4/5 Customers who regularly shop in-store are eager to shop via Ethical Blooms
Going Forward
What I learned
This was the first project I made while taking the Google UX Design Certificate. I enjoyed learning about accessibility and I love Google's approach on designing equitable products.
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I learned a lot from user feedback. It helped me to get out of my own head and see the app from a fresh perspective. It was also very helpful to study the layout and user flow of famous companies/apps such as Grubhub and Airbnb, which inspired many of Ethical Blooms' screen designs.
Next steps
I would like to add an archive feature for users to save favorited shops and plants.
