The Company
LB Greenroom is a dispensary located in Long Beach, CA. They provide both medicinal and adult recreational use marijuana from their brick and mortar storefront.
The Challenge
The current website was outdated and their online ordering system was confusing and even misleading. New customers often had to wait 24 to 48 hours for their accounts to be approved before completing an order. Users were leaving the site frustrated, looking for an easier, more seamless experience. I was asked to create a low/mid-fidelity clickable prototype to solve these problems.
The Solution
During my initial review of the site, I assumed a redesign including delivery options and credit card processing would solve the problems and give the users what they needed. After my research, interviews, and a brief review of state and federal cannabis laws, I realized my initial assumptions were wrong and focused on a redesign simplifying the order process and customer in-store pick-up. I simplified the entire process, resolved the search issues, created cleaner product and product detail pages, streamlined the order process, and reduced the time for new customers to complete an order from over 24 hours to a few minutes.
LB Greenroom
Project: E-commerce Website Redesign
Client: LB Greenroom
Tools: Sketch, InVision, Photoshop, RealTime Board, Whimsical, Whiteboard, Pen and Paper
My Role: UX/UI Designer, UX Researcher
RESEARCH User Interviews Heuristic Evaluation C and C Analysis User Persona User Flow Flow Chart
User Interviews
I started by conducting surveys, user interviews, and user testing of the existing website. I discovered users were using marijuana for a variety of reasons from recreational to severe medical purposes. The majority of users I spoke with were skeptical about buying marijuana and concerned about both privacy and the legality of ordering online. I was surprised to find that users were not interested in delivery and did not want anyone coming to their house. I also learned that since marijuana is still illegal at the federal level, credit card processing is extremely difficult for a small business like LB Greenroom.
Heuristic Evaluation
I started by doing a Heuristic Evaluation to determine the main issues with the current website. I found that the site was difficult to navigate and the search feature was difficult to find. The product pages also had problems. Most of the product images were low quality or not available. The product descriptions were incomplete or missing and random banners would often appear over images or text.
Competitive and Comparative Analysis: E-Commerce Features
I preformed a C and C Analysis to compare the current site’s features with several area competitors to determine what features users expected and how other businesses dealt with confirming users age and identification.
User Persona
I created a user persona to determine the needs, goals, and frustrations of the target user. I conducted interviews and users test to create the persona of Robert. The users I interviewed were very consistent in their concerns about purchasing cannabis online and privacy. They were all busy professionals who had experience visiting a dispensary, but most had not been comfortable buying online.
Original User Flow
The original user flow shows the difficulty in both finding a specific product as well as the confusion caused by the age and ID verification and check out process
Original Site Map
The original site map lead to a lot of confusion, especially when users were looking for a specific product. Several of the links went to pages that either didn’t exist or were incorrect.
Design Sketches
I began working out the search, product description, and order flow issues, by sketching very rough low-fidelity page layouts in a sketchbook. I conducted A/B testing on several different designs before deciding which ones I would continue working on towards a clickable prototype.
DELIVER Revised User Flow Revised Flow Chart Mid-Fidelity Wireframes and Prototype
Revised User Flow
The new user flow simplified the entire process. I wanted to make it easier to search for specific products as well as browse by category. Since delivery wasn’t a current option and most of the users I interviewed were not interested in receiving deliveries at their home or place of business, I focused on the fact that users were going to be picking up their order in person. Because the user would be at the store, there was no longer a need to verify their sensitive information online. A new customer could simply provide the required documentation while picking up their order. I found this method was preferred by users not only for privacy concerns but because it took up to 48 hours to verify this information online.
Revised Site Map
I wanted to eliminate the unnecessary pages and dead links from the original site. During my user interviews and testing, I realized most users were not familiar with some of the terms being used for products on the site. Instead of seven product categories, I reduced it to four. Users were also confused and even concerned by the security of the links that took them to other sites. The “Get Rec Online” link was especially confusing. Users were unsure if they needed a doctor's recommendation before ordering (they did not) and were surprised when the link took them to another site asking for personal information and payment.
Wireframes
I created mid-fidelity wireframes and a clickable prototype to show the new user flow and simplified checkout process. The user interviews and user tests conducted on the original site, A/B testing of mock-up wireframes and user flows, as well as analysis of industry standards directed my design decisions as I completed the final prototype for this project.
Clickable Prototype
Please click the link below to visit the InVision clickable prototype.