C360 Supply
Improving the design of Store & Checkout pages to create brand trust.
CHALLENGE
The client’s biggest issue was that customers visiting their website did not understand how their business model worked and therefore were unable to complete an order. Our UX challenge therefore was to modify the existing bulk order checkout process in order to guide users to complete their purchase.
APPROACH & KEY INSIGHTS
User interviews revealed the following insight:
Users want a trustworthy, clear and affordable way to purchase CBD oil.
SOLUTION
We believe that by using a clean design, adding extra product information, and progressive disclosure and separating the checkout process into steps, we will build trust and allow users to understand how to join in on a bulk order and to complete the purchase.
“Justyna Austin was part of a team of four that redesigned C360’s online marketplace. Their contributions were huge and we immediately noticed a higher level of user engagement and overall satisfaction with the user experience.
Justyna was clearly a very organized and driven designer, whose work ethic was quite impressive. She was able to organize creative sessions and activities for her and the other designers when they were stuck and got over some large challenges by doing so. The sky is the limit as far as Justyna’s talent goes, and I am excited to see what she will create in the future.
Justyna would thrive in a collaborative environment, and I would highly recommend her to any company looking to add a new member to their UI/UX team!”
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Duration: 3 weeks
Role: I worked with 3 designers. We shared responsibility for all steps of the design process.
Toolkit: client interviews, user interviews, competitive and comparative analysis, personas, user flows, wireframes, prototypes, usability testing
Deliverables: InVision prototype, documentation describing all stages of our design process, final client presentation
UNDERSTAND
During the first meeting with the client we learned that C360 Supply is an intermediary and provides access to wholesale prices of CBD oil to individuals and small businesses by letting clients reserve a portion of a bulk order. If a whole order gets reserved, it is then fulfilled and shipped to clients.
The founders shared that their customers didn’t understand the business model and were the most confused during the checkout process. We needed to analyze it, find the points of friction, and improve that process to ensure customers are able to successfully complete transactions.
The company is a very early stage startup. They needed a better design of their website in order to get more traction and to pitch their idea to investors.
RESEARCH
COMPETITIVE & COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
We compared other businesses in the Cannabis and CBD space as well as more direct competitors, who focus on delivering products directly to customers.
USER INTERVIEWS
We interviewed CBD users, small business owners making products that use CBD oil and a budtender at a local dispensary. There were several trends that we discovered:
Trust was extremely important in the industry and building trust in the website, in the quality of products and in sources of ingredients was the top priority in order to drive traffic. That translated into the need to create a clean design that would show professionalism and high quality.
Since CBD oil is used as a medication by a variety of people, some of whom are new to it, it’s necessary to give them information about the product and the source to alleviate any possible concern.
Prices of CBD oil have been going up, which made it harder to afford for people who need it regularly.
PERSONAS
Based on our research we developed 3 personas. The first one, a small business owner who uses CBD oil to make products, would be the primary persona and would be more likely to purchase the oil on regular basis. The two remaining personas would be occasional buyers.
DESIGN
MARKETPLACE
The first problem we focused on was how to display information for each available batch in a clear, trustworthy way using clean design. We conducted a design studio, where we each whiteboarded several iterations of design for the batch information card and product marketplace page layout to replace the current page that was confusing to users.
The image on the left is the existing design; the image on the right is the suggested new design of the main Store page.
Key Design Decisions:
Info for each available batch is displayed on cards instead of using a list format.
We substituted product pictures with an icon of a jar showing the amount available to reserve in a batch, since the company is in early stages and the packaging of products has not yet been decided.
We changed some of the copy, e.g. instead of “Buy Now” the CTA button says “Reserve”, since users are not able to actually purchase their individual order until the entire wholesale amount is claimed by a collection of individual buyers.
CHECKOUT
We then focused on simplifying the complex process of reserving a desired quantity of CBD oil.
Key Design Decisions:
We used progressive disclosure to break the checkout process down into easy to follow steps.
Page is divided into three panels, with the left panel displaying product information, the right panel displaying process information, and the central panel taking users through the reservation steps.
TEST
We conducted 3 rounds of usability testing and updated the design before proceeding to the next round. We used a clickable InVsion Prototype and asked users to walk us through a scenario of reserving 1g of Isolate.
Key Takeaways:
Overall the checkout process is intuitive and quick and the users were able to complete the reservation task quickly.
Users took time to read all the text on each page, which confirmed their need for trustworthy information.
Some verbiage needed clarification during the test, e.g. “C360 is not a store”.
Several users were expecting to receive more information about the product once they reserved the quantity they need.
We advised the client that they should continue to carefully write the copy and test each iteration to ensure their customers get the right amount and type of information needed to complete each action on the website.