Case Study :

Flowers Forever App Design

 Project Overview:

The Problem

Busy and adult workers lack the time or ability to go and bring flowers in person and many don’t like to make choices from limited available flowers 

The Goal

Design a flowers app for a florist in Vienna

The Product

Flowers Forever is a regional flowers app which strives to deliver fresh flowers. They offer a wide spectrum of flowers with competitive pricing. Flowers Forever targets customers like busy workers, senior citizens who lack the time or ability to bring flowers in person and who don’t like to make choices from limited available flowers

My Role

UX designer designing an app for Flowers Forever from conception to delivery

My Responsibilities

Conducting interviews, paper and digital wireframing, low and high-fidelity prototyping, conducting usability studies, accounting for accessibility, and iterating on designs 

Project Duration

March 2021 to May 2021 

Understanding the users :

I conducted interviews and created empathy maps to understand the users I’m designing for and their needs. A primary user group identified through research was working adults like employees who does WFH like IT professionals, teachers, lecturers or engineers, bankers who don’t have time to buy flowers by going physically in a market and who don’t like to make choices from limited available flowers.

User Pain Points :

Time


Working adults are too busy to get time to bring flowers in person



Accessibility

Platforms to order flowers are not equipped with helpful assistive technologies 

IA

Text-heavy menus in apps are often difficult to read and order from 


Persona & Problem Statement :

Sara is a busy event organizer who needs an easy way to order fresh flowers because they have to plan and organize events in strict timelines. 

User Journey Map :

Persona: Sara

Goal: Order fresh flowers urgently and get deliver to the required place on time. 

Starting the design work :

Paper Wireframes

Digital Wireframes 

As the initial design phase continued, I made sure to base screen designs on feedback and findings from the user research and reformed earlier wireframes as per user needs. 

Usability Study Findings

I conducted two rounds of usability studies. Findings from the first study helped guide the designs from wireframes to mockups. The second study used a high-fidelity prototype and revealed what aspects of the mockups needed refining. 

Round 1 Findings :

Round 2 Findings :


Refining the designs:

Mockups

Early designs allowed for searching flowers and placing order, but after the usability studies, I added additional options to search flowers according to categories. I also revised the design so users see all the needed options easily like Urgent Delivery, Fresh Flowers of the Day when they first land on the screen. 

Before Usability Study 

After Usability Study

The second usability study revealed frustration with the checkout flow. To streamline this flow, I consolidated the “Place order” and “Checkout screens” to one “Preview Order” screen. Also added more options on  “Delivery Details” page to select “Delivery Type”, “Delivery Date”, “Delivery Time”.

Refined Designs:

Key Mockups

Accessibility Considerations :

Provided access to users who are vision impaired through adding alt text to images for screen readers

2. Icons

Used icons to

help make

navigation easier



3. Images

Used detailed

imagery for flowers to

help all users

better understand

the designs



High-Fidelity Prototype :

The final high-fidelity prototype presented cleaner user flows for ordering flowers and checkout. It also meet user needs to get more choices for delivery options like selecting needed Delivery Type, Delivery Time and other details. 

Takeaways:

Impact

The app makes users feel like Flowers Forever really thinks about how to meet their needs. 


One quote from peer feedback:

“The app made it so easy and smooth to check and order required flowers! I would definitely use this app to order flowers for home decorations, for festivals”

What I learned

While designing the Flowers Forever app, I learned that the first ideas for the app are only the beginning of the process. Usability studies and peer feedback influenced each iteration of the app’s designs 

Going Forward:

Conduct another round of usability studies to validate whether the pain points users experienced have been effectively addressed 

2. User Research

Conduct more user research to determine any new areas of need