Garden Blooms
Designing a Customizable Florist Experience
Role:
Designer
As part of the Coursera x Google UX Designer Professional Certificate, this was the project that I worked on throughout the course. I chose to create a mobile app that gives customers the joy and flexibility of designing their own floral arrangements and then conveniently picking them up. This case study walks through my entire UX design journey, showing how I used empathy, definition, ideation, prototyping, and testing to bring this vision to life.
The Problem
Consumers often faced a barrier to personalizing flower bouquets: the need to physically be at the florist. I recognized this gap where the desire for a unique creation clashed with the inconvenience of in-person ordering. The challenge was clear: how could we allow users to custom-design and order their ideal bouquet with the flexibility of a digital experience and convenience of local pickup? It was about streamlining personalization.
Challenges
As a first-time app designer it was a challenge figuring out how everything should fit together. I spent a lot of time sketching out different ways users could navigate the app to customize their bouquets and place orders. Similarly, creating the app's visual identity was a process. I wanted it to be both beautiful and reflective of a florist's style, so experimenting with colors and fonts was important. I developed four distinct mood boards and gathered user preferences through a simple vote, which ultimately led me to select a soft pastel scheme with sage greens and light pinks.
Research
My floral app research began with the "Emily Martin" persona and user story, a busy Boston teacher needing personalized online flower delivery. Her key pain points were lack of visual control and generic options. Market research further validated the demand for online personalization flower ordering. I then looked for inspiration of customizable product experiences. Surprisingly, I found relevant models for a "build-your-own" bouquet experience by exploring food apps such as Chipotle, Chick-fil-A, and McDonald's. The way these apps allow users to construct their meals step-by-step offered ideas for the flow. I also browsed Dribble to understand design patterns of existing flower shops.
Process
I began with rapid ideation through crazy eights, progressing to paper and digital wireframes, and then a low-fidelity prototype. Usability testing with five individuals gave me valuable insights. Positive feedback highlighted the value of the bouquet preview, the inspiration bouquets, the logical flow of payment, and the ability to review. Negative feedback revealed users wanted the inspiration bouquets to easily be added to their cart. and single scrollable page for all customization options was preferred for a smoother experience. These direct user insights were key in refining the low-fidelity designs into the high-fidelity prototypes.
Design Solution
Based on user feedback, I refined key areas of the floral app. The customization experience is now more intuitive with all options on a single, scrollable page. The 'Inspiration Bouquet' feature now includes a distinct 'Add to Cart' button. Additionally, the profile section has a cleaner design with easy editing capabilities. To ensure a seamless user experience and prevent accidental data loss, clear confirmation popups now appear when changes are saved or when navigating away from unsaved progress.
The overarching goal was to create a clear and intuitive app experience for users. By directly addressing feedback from usability studies, the focus shifted towards creating a seamless flow throughout the application, ensuring users could effortlessly customize, edit, order, pay for, and review their selections.
Outcomes
The design enhancements improved user experience by simplifying customization, inspiration bouquet options to buy, and clarifying key interactions. Users reported feeling the app was significantly easier, supporting business goals of increased conversions and user satisfaction.
What I learned
A key learning from this case study is the critical importance of iterative design, particularly through a user-centric approach. The process showed that design is not a linear progression but rather a cycle of continuous improvement. Seeing how much the app improved just by getting feedback – both from watching people try it out and from talking it through with other designers – was a real eye-opener. It made it super clear that keeping the user front and center isn't just a nice idea, it's the whole point. Every tweak and change I made was about making things smoother and more intuitive for them.
