Four Twenty
OVERVIEW ↓
Transform the entire in-store dispensary experience online.
With the legalization of marijuana across the United States and Canada, more people are getting out of their comfort zones and trying cannabis products to help with anxiety, depression, or even just boost their mood and creativity. I spent weeks to ideate, research, test, and design an app that moves the entire in-store dispensary experience online. Users can take the quiz and get personal recommendations to find the right cannabis. Four Twenty is designed for newcomers to learn and discover, and offers experienced users a platform to explore different varieties of cannabis.
PROBLEM ↓
Existing and potential cannabis users think discovering a product that matches their taste is challenging.
Cannabis is gaining its popularity, a booming industry that creates more jobs, demands and attracting more potential customers. However, marijuana was not fully legal in the United States a few decades ago, now customers are having difficulties finding a new product that matches what they are looking for.
APPROACH ↓
Interview
To identify what problem I’m solving, I need to figure out people’s experiences with cannabis. So, I started my research by conducting interviews on 6 different users with different backgrounds and locations to better understand their relationship with cannabis.
Synthesis
After conducting the interviews, I have collected all the information either in audio recording or on the interview guide. Then I used affinity mapping to make information more organized.
Insight
Then I generated 6 insights based on the interview. These insights gave me different directions and opportunity areas I could go for, but I located the two areas that I wanted to address the most.
Lo-fi Prototype
Then, I built the lo-fi prototype to find out if my idea is clear and effective enough, and what features I should be building for this application.
System Map
A solid house need a strong foundation, to have a better understanding of the flow and the information structure of the product I’m building, I made the system map so that I could understand what features I should be adding and canceling.
Mid-fi Prototype
Then I designed the mid-fi prototype based on the system map; followed by interviewing, collecting feedback, and iterating the process to make sure the layout and features make sense to the potential users.
Branding
Establishing the visual territory of this product is interesting. Since the already existed visual identity around the cannabis culture is interpreted as a bit chaotic and aggressive, users might get intimidated. So, I located the core feelings of the app to create a new visual identity that embraces, welcomes the newcomers with less intimidating visuals.
To finalize the visual direction, I made 6 iterations of one set of screens of the most complicated interface of the product. Then I narrowed them down and started constructing a UI kit based on this approach.
OUTCOME ↓
Quiz - Basics
The quiz is helping users to understand what cannabis products they need. It only takes a few minutes to finish. In the basics section of the quiz, it asks your name, confirm your age and location.
Quiz - Experience
The experience section is to optimize the list of products we are recommending to the user and defining if the user is a newcomer or an experienced user. It asks questions like their history with cannabis, goals, and effects they are looking for, etc.
Quiz - Summary
The system generates a list of recommendation that is tailored for the user based on the answers to the quiz. ↖ For newcomers, we recommend the users to choose from a comprehensive collection of kits and bundles, so users don’t have to choose from individual products since they are not familiar with cannabis. ↘ For experienced users, we recommend individual products, since they are familiar with the terminology and the products, so this would be a part for them to discover, order new products and their favorites.
