Google UX Certification | 2024
Bloom is a business management platform aimed help florists find balance between art and commerce. This project is a conceptual product created to earn my Google UX certificate.
If you were to step into my grandmother's flower shop, you would find the original, ~ 50 year old cash register. Guam, a tiny island in the Pacific, always seemed to be a few years behind the rest of the mainland, or in Nana's case - decades behind. Tech wasn't what brought people into the shop, she built her business through her love and dedication to her customers who never stopped coming back. But how can we preserve this legacy for the next generation to come? Modernizing her workflow can bridge the gap between the past and the future. The first step in doing so is to identify which aspects can be improved with the use of technology.
Nana's biggest flex is that many of her customers call her 'Mom". She knows almost every customer's name, family, and struggles. Naturally, she's the one they go to for special occasions. Some are planned, like holidays and events, where others, like funerals, happen suddenly. Being able to ride the ebbs and flows of an unpredictable market is the difference between a successful business and a struggling one. The unique challenge uncovered during interviews was managing perishable stock, unpredictable demand, high price point, and maintaining diversity. So even for someone in this business for almost 50 years, the toughest (and most expensive) issue is navigating how to manage inventory.
Uncover current pain points when managing a flower shop that can be improved with the use of technology.
Evaluate the current landscape for managing inventory and identify the challenges within.
Design a flexible inventory function to empower users to efficiently and quickly manage ever-changing demands.
Through user interviews and competitive analysis, there was an absence of an integrated inventory management tool in the floral industry. In response, I designed flexible features to streamline inventory tracking, empower users to quickly adapt to changing trends, and optimize revenue by reducing waste.
Diving into the painpoints of inventory management, the following challenges were identified:
Lack of documented processes for inventory tracking makes hand off impossible.
No visibility into past orders or customer data limits future opportunities for forecasting and marketing.
A variety of colors and species is essential for catering to customer requests & events.
Budget created in the moment by someone with extensive industry experience, unable to handed off to anyone else.
Research activities such as interviews, empathy mapping, SWOT analysis, and wireframing helped prioritize ideas and features to make better informed design decisions.
A florists world is filled with color so I wanted to incorporate a palette that spoke to that. Rather than vibrant pinks and purples typically associated with spring florals, I opted for a scheme that better reflects the ' end of day' tranquility with burnt orange, burgundy, and teal.
As I further developed my skillset as a UX designer, I found myself thinking back to this project and how I could make it better. A review of initial research and a few more conversations with targeted users further validated that the first prototype needed a revisit.
The side navigation lacks labels to clarify menu items. Labels provide clarity and ensures the user knows where they are navigating to.
This widget is cluttered and broad. "Total Sales and "Today's Shift" lack precision resulting in uninformative data.
These widgets don't show relevant and important data. Essentially, misused real estate.
Enhance navigation menu for more clarity and efficiency.
While icons can simplify the appearance of a product, in this use case, they cannot be differentiated enough to have a clear purpose alone. Industry research consistently points to the importance of text labels to improve accessibility and usability. Particularly in providing clarity, reducing cognitive load, and reducing user errors.
Break up data into cards and improve graphics with clear headings.
Graphs can be a great way to draw in interest and appear informative. The ones used don't give precise metrics and leave the user unsure of what they mean. Validating their purpose and explore options that best display data in an insightful and purposeful way can provide accurate visibility into key performance metrics.
Improve acuity by empathizing with the user.
By intentionally selecting which information to display on the dashboard by referencing data collected in interviews, functionality and overall experience will be improved.
A wide side navigation provides a clear indication of where the user is going.
Inventory Snapshot offers visibility into key metrics for optimizing inventory.
Intentional and functional cards that provide insightful and informative content with clear labels.
Strengthen functionality by including features for budgeting.
The current filters offer limited options and lack flexibility resulting in no clear direction or purpose. Through a second round of interviews, it become clear how budgeting is an integral part of ordering inventory and pricing arrangements. Providing financial information will help streamline the ordering process and strengthen functionality.
Break up stagnant information and provide clear buttons for improved flexibility.
There were previously no CTA or buttons to customize data and labels were redundant. One key objective that was missed in this first iteration was the importance of flexibility.
Visibility of financial information ensures accuracy and improves functionality
Maintaining the Inventory Snapshot from the Dashboard improves familiarity and cohesiveness.
Customizable fields to create flexibile inventory management
The inspiration behind Bloom is to provide a seamless way to pass down my grandmother's legacy from generation to generation. Bloom would give florists a holistic and unique tool to manage their entire business. The next step would be to build out flows for the remainder screens. "Employees" would house employee schedules and integrate with payroll, "Customers" would document customer data for marketing campaigns, and "Orders" would function as an online ordering platform. I would love to see this vision through in its entirety, although further development of this project would require a collaborative assessment for feasibility before dedicating the time and effort to give Bloom what it deserves.
Designing for such a unique niche enabled industry specific features to come to life. I recognized how my experiences growing up in my grandmother’s flower shop added a layer of empathy this unique vertical. My aim was to design a tool that not only addressed the practical challenges of running a flower shop but also enhanced the overall experience for those who, like my grandmother, are deeply invested in their work. Through the many phases of this project, I've learned to detach from the outcome, consistently reframe my mindset to step into the shoes of my users, and dive deeper into the "why" as opposed to the "what".