background
Urban Poppy is a famous botanical product retailer located in the historical district in Savannah, GA. Recently, it opened a new store in a quiet neighborhood far awar from downtwon Savannah following the sucess of its first store.
I led a team of 2 service designers to overhaul Urban Poppy's digital presence and physical store layout of the new store. Viewing the store as a system, interior plan, shopping experience, website, and brand are redesgined.
research
Understanding Stakeholders' Context → Users' Experience → Analysis
Stakeholder Map
By considering all the main roles involved in the business, I was clear about waht kind of information to collect and decided to focus on local residents and neighbor.
SEO Analytics - How people find the website?
I delved into how people typically find Urban Poppy’s website. By running SEO analytics, I discovered that most visitors access the site via links on partner platforms, such as perfume and local flower delivery websites, and they usually land directly on the product pages. In terms of website navigation, this reveals that the product page is crucial, as few visitors start their journey from the homepage.
Business Analysis
Advantage 1:
Providing a wide range of service and products in both stores
The stores sells fragrances, jewelry, baby toys, clothes and many other kinds of botanical products. It also has flower bar that make bouquet for cusotmers, as well as a same-day flower pick up service.
Advantage 2:
Offering flower arrangement workshop in the new store
In the back of the new store, there is a large space left for shop owner to hold the workshop.
Disadvantage 1:
The website fails to capture the brand's aesthetic appeal
Despite the store owner's careful attention to product displays, interior design, and overall ambiance within the physical store, the website's design remains plain and unattractive.
Disadvantage 2:
The flower workshop has low visibility
The workshop, located at the back of the store, is not visible to pedestrians passing by, making it difficult for them to notice that an event is taking place.
Understanding Stakeholders' Context → Users' Experience → Analysis
Downtown Store and New Store
The business owner has different visions for the two stores. The excellent location of the downtown store ensures a steady flow of customers, including both visitors and local residents. In contrast, the new store stocks fewer products and experiences lower foot traffic. However, its unique selling point is the flower arrangement workshop.
Persona
While Caleb and Joanna are both local residents, they live in different areas and visit the store for different reasons. Despite their varied purposes, both have had frustrating experiences with the website.
Case 1: Downtown Store
Caleb Mitchell
23 / Male
Background
He lives in downtown Savannah and has a passion for perfumes and flowers. Urban Poppy is his go-to store; he loves everything from the products to the store's atmosphere.
Consumption Habits
He visits the store every time he walks his dog and passes by. He finds it relaxing to be there, sometimes picking up an item or two, or just grabbing a bouquet.
Unsatisfied Experiences
He once tried to order a bouquet online when he couldn't visit the store in person. However, the website's confusing layout and unusual product names made the process a nightmare, and he eventually gave up.
Case 2: New Store
Joanna Sanders
34 / Female
Background
Joanna was born and raised in Savannah, One of her hobby is to discover the neighboorhood.
Consumption Habits
She noticed the store when she's exploring the neighbourhood, and she singed up for the workshop and came every month.
Unsatisfied Experiences
She need to call the business owner every time if she need inquiry of the workshop and has change of plan. She cannot find a dedicated web page that has all the appointment information.
Service Blueprint
Understanding Stakeholders' Context → Users' Experience → Analysis
design
Storyboard
A/B Testing
We developed two versions of the homepage and product page with distinct goals: the homepage was designed to test different UX writing styles, while the product page focused on evaluating layout and information architecture. To determine which version performed better, we conducted A/B testing, measuring key metrics like time spent on the page, click-through rates, and ultimately, conversion rates.
For this testing, we recruited a diverse group of 10 participants. Below are some of the tasks we assigned and the results obtained:
Design detials:
UX Writing details:
REFLECTION
Given the constraints of our timeline, our engagement was primarily limited to interactions with essential stakeholders, such as the business owner and a select group of customers. This focused approach, while beneficial for initial insights, underscored the importance of broadening our stakeholder engagement in future phases. Expanding our outreach to include a wider array of stakeholders will be crucial.
The initial testing phase of our prototype involved the business owner and a handful of customers. While this provided valuable initial feedback, the limited scope of our user testing highlighted a significant gap in our research process. To move forward effectively, it's imperative that we extend our user testing to encompass a broader and more diverse participant pool.