The Plant Drip
Drive customer conversion by increasing customer trust with brand redesign and enhanced shopping experience.
The Challenge
The Plant Drip faces significant challenges with its product sales. Adding to the challenge, The Plant Drip has chosen not to invest resources in marketing, creating a need for a cost-effective strategy to increase direct sales.
Meanwhile, plant care enthusiasts, the brandās target audience, have expressed a preference for shopping in person for plant care products, as it allows them to make quick, last-minute purchases, assess product quality and validate a businessās reputability.
Empathize
What do plant enthusiasts need?
To begin addressing my client's concerns, I first had to understand how plant enthusiasts generally approached plant care, their shopping habits and preferences. These discussions revealed 3 core user needs:
01
Plant owners value quality and reliability, and typically turn to brick and mortar stores when a need arises.
I don't shop online for plant care stuff because I want to be able to see and feel the quality in person, or find myself needing things last-minute.
02
Plant owners value plant community and education and feel these create better shopping experiences for them.
I prefer to shop small businesses because the shop owners are really nice and are always available to answer questions.
03
Plant owners value trust and transparency and therefore look for signals that a business is trustworthy before patronizing.
I always check for customer reviews and social media presence before making a purchase from an unfamiliar business.
Competitors helped highlight gaps in the current user experience on The Plant Drip website
In my review of three direct competitors, I uncovered two key opportunities for my client to better appeal to our user base.
Professional look & feel
Competitor websites featured strong hero sections, high contrast color palettes and device-appropriate, responsive navigation structure
Customer trust is earned
Competitors websites feature product reviews, social media feeds, and information about the business to establish reputability.
In summary, the research suggests thatā¦
plant enthusiasts need quick access to high quality plant care products and the reassurance that they are purchasing products from reputable businesses.
Define
Who are our target users?
Using the data points gathered from my research, I created a user persona to describe what our target user would look like to ensure our solution would remain aligned with user needs as we step into the definition stage.
Navigating through contradicting needs
I was presented with two clear, contradicting needsāmy client had a goal to boost their online sales, yet the research suggested that plant owners preferred doing their shopping in-person. This begged the question: How might we connect plant enthusiasts with The Plant Drip's products online, as well as offline?
How might we connect plant enthusiasts with The Plant Drip's products onlineā as well as offline?
Ideate
Features to prioritize for maximum impact
Balancing insights uncovered between user interviews and competitive analysis with client needs, I created an effort-impact matrix to brainstorm potential features. The winning features would be the high pact, low effort features on the top left quadrant.
Refresh the overall look & feel
A light rebrand to update the logo and color palette will address accessibility concerns, improve customer trust and establish the company as a reputable business.
An optimized sitemap will improve the user experience, help users find what they're looking for more easily, and as a result, increase engagement.
Improve the shopping experience
Improve product pages and wholesale ordering experience to decrease the number of clicks it takes for users to access important product information and photos.
Add a store locator feature
Upgrade the store list to an engaging and dynamic store locator feature that users can use to search for brick and mortar stores that carry The Plant Drip products, ultimately making it easier for users to find TPD products in-store.
Updating the user journey
To visualize these features, I proposed an updated site map and user flows to map out a user's journey through the website. These flows helped identify which screens I would need to design to support the proposed features.
Current Sitemap
Current sitemap lacks clear organization and structure. The current information architecture may cause frustration while shopping.
Proposed sitemap
Proposal made based off a card sorting activity. Elements highlighted in green indicate an update and/or new screen.
Develop
Validating designs with low-fidelity user testing
With concepts in place, I spend some time sketching solutions and translated my favorite sketches into a low-fidelity prototype to gather user feedback. Conducting low fidelity testing allowed me to validate user understanding of the updated website structure, navigation, and key elements such as the store locator experience. My goal was to make sure that users felt the website represented a reputable business theyād feel comfortable purchasing from.
Testing revealed the importance of trust-building elements
Two out of five testers (40%) expressed hesitation about making a purchase, despite the professional look & feel, due to limited trust signals, citing a need for more transparency and social proof. This revealed the importance of fostering trust with users.
A brand that's accessible and approachable
Managing expectations during the rebrand came with some challenges, particularly due to my client's specific constraints. For example, my client preferred not to retake product photos, yet requested a vibrant color palette. I communicated the trade-off: a bold palette could clash with the existing photo tones, potentially impacting brand cohesion. Through a few iterations, we ultimately crafted a look that honored my clientās vision, values, and constraints, achieving a cohesive brand identity.
How effective are these trust-building elements?
Based on feedback from the low-fidelity testing, I added new sections to include my client's social media feed as well as customer testimonials to updated wireframes, as well as applied branding. I then conducted another round of user testing with an additional 5 participants.
The addition of trust-building elements resulted in a +20% increase in likelihood to purchase!
Four out of five testing participants (80%) indicated that they would be likely to purchase from this website, validating the impact of these trust building elements in fostering trust with customers.
Final outcome
The final solution addresses the need for added business credibility for The Plant Drip website with a homepage redesign and optimized shopping experience. In addition, we've enhanced the wholesale offering and added a new store locator experience, with the intentions of helping connect users to The Plant Drip products in-person at brick & mortar stores.
Mini rebrand to refresh look & feel
Before
Low contrast color palette raises accessibility concerns. Information architecture and navigation lacks clarity and structure.
After
High contrast color palette addresses accessibility concerns. Fixed information architecture and navigation concerns for an enhanced shopping experience. Added trust building elements like customer reviews and social feed.
Optimized shopping experience
Before
Wholesale ordering page lacks branding or CTA. It's difficult to view product offerings, photos and details on the product page.
After
Applied branding to wholesale ordering page along with a clearer CTA. Updated structure of product pages to enable users to view product photos and information more easily.
Store Locator Feature
Before
The link to locations is hidden deep in the navigation menu and could be hard to find. Locations page is a simple list of locations, which may be cumbersome for users to sift through.
After
Added a Store Locator link to the navigation menu, which takes the user to an interactive map and list where they can search via their Zip Code. Also added a CTA for users to send locations of plant businesses near them to gather opportunities to grow the business.
Next steps
I presented the final prototype to my client and Iām happy to say that she was extremely pleased with the outcome. I have since handed over all assets to her and although she does not have the resources to implement the solution at the moment, she will be sure to update me if and when that happens.
Takeaways
Reflecting on this project, I'm incredibly grateful for the trust my client placed in me and for the valuable learning experiences that contributed to my growth as a UX designer.
Effective communication
Working with a client provided numerous opportunities to hone my communication skills, particularly in explaining and defending design decisions in a way that was clear and accessible to someone without a design background.
Be flexible
It's important to be flexible because user research might uncover that your expectations aren't the reality. Maintaining a flexible mindset is key to pushing through to key core user needs and keeping solutions user-centered.