Bloomnation
UX Research for
During Fall of 2018, I worked as a UX Research Intern for BloomNation, a B2B platform and an online floral marketplace offering florists a platform for running their business as well as connecting local florists and consumers. With an upcoming redesign and transformation of their Point of Sale system, they needed help figuring out what the needs of florists were as well as gathering feedback to inform their design strategy.
For this project, I utilized qualitative research methods including site visits, user interviews, A/B testing, and surveys to accomplish this goal. I also took part in script writing and recruiting participants for research.
Gather insight on how local florists operate their shop, including how they utilize their point of sale system
Highlight needs or pain points that florists have with current POS
Continuously propose solutions and share feedback with team to reinforce or inform design strategies
SURVEYS
With the help of the sales team, I conducted phone surveys with 60 florists to further discover how florists operate in their shop. We conducted these surveys with smaller florists in different states across the U.S due to the fact that there was not enough outreach conducted with them. This helped us discover their daily routines and uses or needs with the POS, along with allowing us to compare /contrast feedback between smaller florists and larger florists later on.
SITE VISIT/CONTEXTUAL INQUIRY
I visited four local florists in Los Angeles to observe the way that florists operate their shop, their usage and familiarity with various devices, and utilization of the POS system. Through observation and brief interviews, I gained insight on common pain points that florists encounter on a day-to-day basis along with discovering their daily operations.
USER INTERVIEWS AND A/B TESTING
Although we did not have a functional prototype of the new POS system to test with florists, I was able to conduct interviews with 10 florists and conduct A/B tests utilizing photos of our prototype. In total, 10 florists were recruited to participate in feedback sessions. Interviews were done over the phone, where I reached out to larger florists on the platform to ask about their use of the POS along with shop operation questions. A/B tests were done through screen sharing and over the phone, with all sessions being recorded.
AFFINITY MAPPING
To help sort my findings from my research and actively share with the team, I used affinity mapping to organize my research results and responses using sticky notes and different platforms.
PRESENTATION
I had two final presentations with the Engineering team and CEO, which summarized my findings and results from my research. I also continuously met with product team (consisting of the project manager and UX designer) every week to share my findings. This helped further inform our strategy or reinforce our decisions. As there are many florists on the platform who are all very diverse and have unique needs or challenges that are not always heard, it was important to continuously tell their story to the rest of the team.
Overcoming Challenges
The challenges I faced allowed me to implement creative and innovative methods to engage with a diverse set of users (florists who were not as tech-savvy, hectic schedules, local vs well known florists). This vastly improved the feedback I received as well as the relationship that I developed with users in the process, which I will definitely keep in mind for future projects.
CHALLENGES
Many of the florists were older and not as tech-savvy, which led to additional planning on how to communicate and engage them when recruiting or conducting interviews and tests.
Many florists generally had hectic schedules and were located in various different states in different timezones, which led to longer times to recruit them for research and consistently reduced the length of interviews or tests.
Larger and smaller florists sometimes had very contrasting needs, which could not always be met in our design solutions.
REFLECTION
Reflecting on this project, I enjoyed working independently as the only UX Researcher on this team but I also highly appreciated the constant collaboration between my team members and I. I enjoyed being able to directly open the communication lines between the user and the developers in a way that was never done before.
