02 | Context
If you were to step into my grandmother's flower shop, you would find a cash register that has stood the test of time for nearly 50 years. Guam, a tiny island in the Pacific, embodies a spirit that often feels a few years behind the mainland. However tech isn't what brings people through the door, she built her business through her love and dedication to her customers who never stopped coming back. But as we look to the future, we face an important question: How can we preserve this legacy for the next generation to come? By modernizing her workflow, we can bridge the gap between the past and possibilities of the future. The first step in doing so is to identify which aspects can be enhanced through technology.
03 | Problem
Nana's greatest success lies in her relationships with her customers, many of which affectionately refer to her as 'Mom'. She knows their names, families, and struggles. Naturally, she's the one they go to for special occasions - whether planned, like holidays and events, or unexpected, like funerals. Being able to ride the ebbs and flows of an unpredictable market is the difference between a successful business and a struggling one. The unique challenge uncovered during interviews was managing perishable stock, flunctuating demand, high price point, and product diversity. So even for someone in this business for almost 50 years, the toughest and most costly issue is navigating how to manage inventory.
Obectives
Uncover current pain points when managing a flower shop that can be improved with the use of technology.
Evaluate the current landscape for managing inventory and identify the challenges within.
Design a flexible inventory function to empower users to efficiently and quickly manage ever-changing demands.
Opportunity
Through user interviews and competitive analysis, there was an absence of an integrated inventory management tool that addresses the unique challenges in the floral industry. In response, I designed flexible features to streamline inventory tracking, empower users to quickly adapt to changing trends, and optimize revenue by reducing waste.
How might we create an efficient and flexible way to track inventory to enable florists to optimize stock and mitigate waste?
04 | Research & Discovery
Diving into the painpoints of inventory management, the following challenges were identified:
Manual Inventory Management
Lack of standardized inventory tracking, create knowledge silos which prevents smooth handoffs between staff members.
Limited Data Visibility
Without digital access to historical and customer data, there is limited opportunity for forecasting and marketing strategies, hindering growth potential.
Inconsistent Product Availability
Maintaining a diverse selection of colors and products is essential for catering to customer requests & events, but lack a systematic approach to ensure consistent availability and avoid lost revenue.
Undocumented Budget Processes
Financial planning relies exclusively on tacit knowledge of one experienced team member, with decisions made instinctually rather than strategically. This creates a single point of failure and prevents delegating budget responsibilities to other team members.
Research activities such as interviews, empathy mapping, SWOT analysis, and wireframing helped prioritize ideas and features to make better informed design decisions.
05 | Design
Creating the brand
A florists world is filled with color so I aimed to incorporate a palette that spoke to that. Rather than vibrant pinks and purples typically associated with spring florals, I opted for a scheme that better reflects the ' end of day' tranquility with burnt orange, burgundy, and teal.
Iterations
Revisiting this project after developing my UX skillset revealed a pivotal growth moment. I had prioritized mastering design tools over deeply understanding users needs. This realization prompted me to re-examine my original research and conduct additional interviews, which confirmed my intuition - the initial prototype required fundamental rethinking with user priorities at its core, focusing on Dashboard & Inventory.
Insight 1
Unlabeled sidebar navigation employs iconography without textual reinforcement. This increases cognitive load, violating recognition-over-recall principles.
Insight 2
Dashboard visualizations prioritize aesthetic appeal over information density, leading to ambiguous metrics that leave the user unsure of what they mean.
Insight 3
Display filters offer limited filtering capabilities and disconnection from financial contexts, compromising the utility of this product to improve core workflows.
Recomendations
Enhance navigation architecture to improve clarity and efficiency.
Industry research consistently demonstrates text-icon labels improve accessibility and usability, reducing navigational errors by 23%. While iconography can simplify the appearance of a product, including textual reinforcement would significantly improve the navigation.
Optimize Data Visualization
Visualizations of the dashboard prioritize aesthetic appeal over information density, leading to ambiguous metrics that leave the user unsure of what they mean. Alternatively, we can transform decorative charts into actionable performance indicators that promote efficient workflow.
Integrate Financial Context
The current filters offer limited filtering capabilities and disconnection from financial contexts compromise the utility of this product to improve core workflows. Second-round of interviews revealed budgeting as a critical element in inventory management decisions and day-to-day pricing practices. Incorporating financial information will take the current interface from an isolated display to an integrated decision support tool.
06 | Next Steps
Success Metrics
To measure how well this product addresses the users pain points, success would be measured through three key metrics: Revenue Growth, Time-on-Task, and Inventory Flexibility. While Revenue Growth offers clear quantitative opportunities, limited historical data for operational metrics present a challenge. My solution would be to combine pre-implementation observational data and structured interviews to establish qualitative benchmarks, transitioning to quantitative as implementation data accumulates. A mixed-methods approach ensures I capture both the tangible performance improvements and the equally important shifts in staff confidence and operational resilience.
- Establish 6 month baseline of pre-implementation revenue data
- Track data across identical time periods post-implementation
- Target: 5-7% increase in first quarter
- Observe staff completing various workflow assignments pre-implementation.
- Compare workflow completetion durations post-implementation.
- Track feature usage frequency for inputing and editing supply orders
- Collect qualitative feedback on staff confidence when handling unexpected orders through survey scales
07 | Reflection
Designing for such a unique niche enabled industry specific features to come to life. I recognized how my experiences growing up in my grandmother’s flower shop added a layer of empathy in this unique vertical. My aim was to design a tool that not only addressed the practical challenges of running a flower shop but also enhanced the overall experience for those who, like my grandmother, are deeply invested in their work. Through the many phases of this project, I've learned to detach from the outcome, consistently reframe my mindset to step into the shoes of my users, and dive deeper into the "why" as opposed to the "what".