Sinflora
Who is Sinflora?
Sinflora is a local plant nursery based in Singapore. They pride themselves to be a business that is part of a family-friendly community that provides good quality products. The business model is based on customer service and keeping it local. They source from a variety of suppliers so we're able to offer our customers the best range of products at the most competitive prices.
Challenge
A while ago, Sinflora saw an opportunity to support the local community by allowing people to order some products online. They built their own website but were not pleased with the results.
Through an improved eCommerce website, Sinflora wants to showcase our products while maintaining our brand image: “small shop” appeal and great customer service.
Role
- Planned and conducted desk research alongside competitive/comparative analysis
- Facilitated open card sorting
- Created sketches and designed wireframes
- Iterated the design to produce high-fidelity wireframes
Solution
1. Rebrand Visual Identity to show feelings of warmth and cleanliness
2. Clean and minimal UI design on the homepage with a filter bar feature, providing a perfect balance between presenting essential information and ensuring easy navigation.
3. A new layout of the product detail page with a clear presentation of the information on the product and an emphasis on photos so users can see how the products would be able to look like in a home setting.
4. A step-by-step checkout flow to give customers a clear idea of where they are at in the checkout process.
Research Goals
To get a better understanding of Sinflora and to discover hidden opportunities that can be addressed at the solution phase I wanted to find out:
- Expectations from shopping from plant stores online
- Context of going to a nursery website
- Feelings on buying plants or gardening tools online
Insights
All users seek out these 4 qualities when purchasing plants online:
- Convenience
- Reliability
- Clear information
- Credibility
Specific categories are used when searching for plants:
Furthermore, they were also very vocal about the certain categories or aspects of plants they want to be able to use when filtering their search for plants.
Clear idea of what they want:
Users have a good idea of what they want and they just want to be able to search and acquire what they want from the get go.
Delivery options are considered:
Participants also care about how their plants will be delivered to their doorstep.
Problem statement
Poppy needs to find an easy and reliable way to buy specific plants online but she gets frustrated because she doesn't have the time to buy it in person.
How Might We Statement
How might we help Poppy search and purchase the plant she wants without any issues?
Develop
It was clear from the research that our solution had to encapsulate the following:
Simplicity: Make searching and navigating for the user easy
Clarity: Communicating what is expected from the user at each stage
Control: Letting the user have ownership of their journey
Features
The features that was included was also was pulled from what participants would like to see during the user interviews
- Filter search bar
- Customer review section
- Easy picture viewer
- Clear and informative checkout flow
Mood Board
Colour Pallette & Typography
Final Designs
High fidelity prototype can be accesse here.
Home page redesign:
New more impactful layout that gets you to all available products straight away. Additionally, a filter sidebar was included to search for the users desired plants based on their own prerequisites (since most users mostly have an idea of what they want before they shop)
Product detail page redesign:
A new layout of the product detail page with a clear presentation of the information on the product and an emphasis on photos so users can see how the products would be able to look like in a home setting.
Customer review module was included, users liked that they were others to socially validate their choice.
Finally a recommended product module was included as well to improve shopping experience.
Check out flow:
A step by step check out flow to give customers a clear idea of where they are at in the check out process. Visual design and typography was emphasized so as to display the information with clear hierarchy.
Next steps
Desirability test.
Conducting a desirability test after creating the hi-fi prototype will definitely provide more feedback to iterate on considering I only did 1 usability test.
Home page doesn't feel like a homage
Due to the direct entry into the product list on the initial landing page, the website's first impression lacked the inviting atmosphere commonly found on other websites that employ a clear homepage layout. To remedy this, it might be beneficial to consider incorporating a hero section.
Indoor vs outdoor
Singapore is a country with a permanent tropical climate. With that in mind it was hard to make a clear distinction between an indoor plant and an outdoor plant. Additional consultation with a plant expert and some research and testing would be useful to see if this aspect would be sought after for Sinflora
Add info section 101
I would like to include a section that provides basic knowledge of plant care to new plant buyers so they would have the confidence to keep them alive after purchase.