Role

UX, Visual Designer, Illustrator

Duration

6 months (2021)

Tools

Adobe Suite, Figma, Shopify, Klaviyo

the problem

Gift giving can be an overwhelming task when all you want to do is provide a unique sentiment. The goal of 5am Lemon is to fill a gap in the market for affordable and unique personalized gifting.

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Throughout the course of 6 months, I illustrated and designed products for an e-commerce website, from ideation to launch, working in an agile environment.

View Product

Define

As the Visual Designer on a small team of two developers, a strategist, and a photographer, I have led many design tasks to help bring this concept to reality.

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Being in a startup enviroment presented daunting challenges that I had to adapt to. My role was to conduct research and design products for the final Shopify website. I kept the user experience, target market and brand voice in mind for my iterations.

user journey

The experience of creating a greeting card box starts and ends with personalization. As a niche gifting company, nailing the user persona significantly impacted the final product.

Ideate

Originally, I researched and designed desktop-first for our soft launch (XMPie).
After the first round of rapid testing, I learned how crucial it is to design mobile-first as most people shop on their phones or tablets.
I collaborated closely with the developers on our second version of 5am Lemon using a Shopify theme and realized there were frustrations with the original XMPie product.
After developing our targeted persona, I began exploring flows and key focus points.

Instead of guiding testers through the entire site, I carried out testing with a focus on the two most important flows (configurator and landing page). After my research findings, I was able to simplify decision points even further.

The focus of the experience is the configurator as it emphasizes personalization and is a part of the end-to-end product.
Understanding the decision points and keeping the constraints of the user and our builder in mind, we started with simple solutions.
In my sketches, I ideated desktop flows first but adapted usability testing data and switched to mobile-first in my lo-fi wireframes.

From the 5 user interviews I conducted, I found:

Shipping to recipient info needs to be more clear.
Side panels page is complex, missing confirmation at decision points.
Hesitation at adding gifts function as the limit on gifts feature is not intuitive.
Found the personalization features in the configurator not intuitive.

Redefining pain points:

Configurator details
Consider two personas
Checkout details

With the soft launch, it was clear we had to shift focus towards simplifying features and designing with two personas in mind. Our research showed us that users were losing focus at key decision points.

1. Ordering a greeting card box

Personalization features are key to this flow.
The user starts with choosing their card box, writing out their message, choosing side panels and a special message for the bottom of their box.
Once the design is complete, the user selects the gifts that will go inside their box. After reviewing their card box details, they will navigate to the checkout process.

2. Gifts and gift sets

The gift sets feature was created for users who need an easy and fast solution.
Feedback from our soft launch revealed that by the time users complete their box design, they don’t want to spend time selecting multiple gifts.
For users with busy schedules, the giftsets feature is a great way to finalize their box design.

3. Landing page

An inviting landing page that describes the concept of 5am Lemon is what we aimed to achieve.
Important CTAs and highlight on upcoming holidays, this landing page delivers the voice of 5am Lemon.

4. How it Works

After switching to our theme on Shopify, we realized users were still failing to grasp the concept of 5am Lemon.
Therefore, we dedicated a page to explain "How it Works" and reiterate the 5 steps from the landing page.
I illustrated the icons to represent the steps.

Design System 🎨

5am Lemon is anything but boring - its vision of being refreshing, optimistic and fun should be reflected through the UI application.

I started with colour, shape and primary UI elements to experiment with aesthetics and the brand's imagery.

Takeaways

Each feature has to serve a purpose and relate to the site’s overall functionality.
Illustrating and designing products through the process of presenting designs and applying feedback numerous times is crucial to building the products.
Collaborating with a small team presented its challenges but also provided opportunities for growth, skills and insights to improve my design thinking.

Business Impact

Expanded exposure from B2C site to internal corporate clients in industries including luxury auto, banking, tech and digital media and education.
Gained 1k+ followers since launch.
Featured in marketing and GTA small business magazines.
Brought a new budget-friendly solution to the personalized box market.

5am Lemon