Ami Fleuri
User experience case study
Challenge: Conceptualize, research, and design a floral arrangement preview app for a local florist.
Solution: Ami Fleuri is an intuitive mobile application where users can create their arrangements from scratch and view their creations as they are designing them for easy customization as well as seek help through AI for ideas, inspiration, and addressing roadblocks.
Preliminary Research
For the user research phase of designing the floral arrangement preview app, I conducted a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods to gain a comprehensive understanding of user needs and preferences. Initially, I assumed that users would primarily seek a tool for simple and quick floral arrangement previews, focusing on functionality over aesthetics. However, through user interviews and surveys with target demographics—including young professionals and event planners—I discovered that users placed significant value on an engaging and visually appealing experience. Many expressed a desire for interactive features that allowed for customization and personalization, indicating that aesthetics and user engagement were just as crucial as functionality. This shift in understanding led to a redesign that incorporated more interactive elements and personalized options, ensuring that the app not only previews arrangements but also provides a delightful, immersive experience.
Pain Points
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Users want to create unique and personalized floral arrangements. The design will focus on expanding customization features, including more flower types, arrangement styles, and color schemes, to better cater to individual preferences and enhance user satisfaction.
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Flower previews do not accurately reflect the final appearance of the floral arrangements, leading to uncertainty and dissatisfaction. The app will provide a more realistic and immersive preview experience.
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Users aren’t completely aware of flower names, styles, or colors and thus have difficulty placing orders or place incorrect orders. The app will include educational resources, such as flower guides, arrangement tips, and tutorials, to enrich the user experience and empower users with floral knowledge.
Research user needs
Understand their perspective
Competitive research
Personas
User journeysEmpathize
The human-centered design process
State user needs
Prioritization
Business goals
Problem - Solution
Define
Brainstorm
Challenge assumptions
User flows
WireframesIdeate
Low-fidelity mockups
High-fidelity mockups
Transitions and flows
Solutions - Experiments
Prototype
Usability Studies
Iterate
Test
Research
Goals
Increase education and knowledge of flowers, arrangements, and bouquets in an easily digestible way.
What are the difficulties that users encounter when trying to complete core tasks of ordering a flower arrangement?
Increase conversion rates and task completion among users.
Personas
Research Methodologies
Competitor
Research
Research Questions
-How long does it take for a user to create and order a bouquet?
-What can we learn from the steps users took to order a bouquet?
-Where are users getting stuck in the bouquet-previewing or ordering process?
-How helpful is the AI pop-up when users want help or guidance?
-How does the app’s design impact users’ abilities to complete the tasks? What are your thoughts on the navigation of the app?
-What features/functions do users suggest would improve their experience so they can complete these tasks?
User Testing
Participants
5 Participants
Participants are anyone who enjoys giving gifts, event planners, floral enthusiasts.
Participants can reside anywhere.
Participants are over 18 years old.
Participants include a fairly even distribution of genders across the spectrum and people with different abilities including: assistive technologies, visual impairment, auditory impairment, English as a second language.
3 females, 2 males
Methodology
Time: 20 minutes
Location: remote; USA
Format: Unmoderated usability study
High level procedure: Users were asked to perform tasks in a low-fidelity prototype
Journey Mapping
User Flow
Wireframes
Design your custom bouquet through a step-by-step process
Home page and
Menu
Profile Creation
Order checkout and confirmation
Receive help from with the integration of our friendly AI
Usability Study #1 Findings
Low-Fidelity Prototype Testing
Users want to preview their customization options immediately
Users want the app to save/pre-fill their data so they’re not entering it multiple times
Users want obvious clues and guides to access help
Prototype
High-fidelity implementation and iterations
The prototype was modified to provide a live preview of each option selected.
Immediate assistance is always available from the “Help” icon in the navigation bar where the AI assistant will pop up and offer suggestions and guidance.
Conclusion
Usability Study #2 Findings
Users appreciated the live preview and commented on how this is a feature that is missing from most floral arrangement services. Visualizing their exact bouquet is the optimal way to place an order.
Receiving help at any step with an expandable chat function was appreciated.
Next Steps and Future Improvements
This is not a complete functioning prototype and due to time constraints, some features were not completely implemented.
Creating a full profile feature will make more sense when integrating the pre-filled fields in the “Checkout” function.
A walkthrough tutorial would still be helpful for first-time users, such as immediately after they create a profile, to introduce them to the process of creating their own bouquet.
Users in the second usability study noticed that there were not any prices listed during the designing process, which is another feature I sacrificed for the sake of time and prototyping purposes to focus on the essential functions of the application. This would be an addition in the next iteration.
As the app and its inventory grows, it would also be beneficial to include a search bar to make it easier for guests to find what they need.
Reflection
This was my first case study and it was a fundamental learning experience. I learned how to conduct thorough research from a usability and user experience perspective.
I learned many key components of UX research and design, mainly in the defining and ideating processes, such as affinity mapping. I also gained exposure and introductions to things like design systems and sticker sheets, in order to conceptualize an organized design for stakeholders.
It was challenging to iterate through the designs and constantly improve them, while also prioritizing certain features and components over others as someone who is extremely detail-oriented and tends to fixate on each attribute.
Given more time, I would have enjoyed building out the design to its fullest potential and create a complete functioning prototype. I plan to return to this project in the future.
Feedback and critiques are welcome! Please email me at ayiriaz@gmail.com or use the form submission available here!