Background

The global legal marijuana market size was valued at USD 9.1 billion in 2018 and was expected to expand. One of the major factors fueling the US market growth is the expanding demand for legal marijuana owing to the growing number of legal cannabis countries.

As new legislation begins to allow a growing market opportunity around cannabis, it is increasingly important to provide seamless, transparent, and educational experiences for consumers. My team and I tackled this opportunity.

I was the sole designer on the team alongside 1 business analyst and 1 researcher. I was responsible for the product design and UX/UI experience.

Key achievements:

• Applied design sprints to inform our process. We were able to effectively apply the design sprints process to identify the problem, ideate on the solution, and prototype the final product. 

• Juggled many different hats. I dedicated weeknights and weekends conducting research, sketching, testing, and designing the product alongside coordinating user interviews, writing interview scripts, and creating pitch decks.

• Completed the Bootcamp. It's worth noting that the best designs are not a result of the designer on the team. Each person was able to contribute to the solution, which resulted in a very collaborative result.

Understanding the problem

We conducted user interviews to uncover pain points felt by cannabis consumers. Then we created personas to illustrate our users' needs, behaviours and goals.

We interviewed 14 consumers with a variety of experiences using cannabis. Half were recreational, half were medicinal, and our group ranged from 21 to 47 years old. We had a very diverse experience pool. Check out the responses.

It was revealed that:

• Consumers were wary about the products they buy on the black market. They’re unsure of where it’s from, what’s in it, and its validity.

• Consumers were afraid of exposing their usage. They fear the social stigma and how it may affect them (I.e job loss, jail time).

• Consumers would feel more comfortable if the experience matched today’s convenience, personalization, and security (i.e Amazon, Uber Eats, Airbnb).

Product vision and solution

From these findings, we created personas and identified goals.

As a starting point, we each did some market research on competitors to investigate the current offerings in the market and take inspiration from features that we liked about each app.

After studying the market we conducted 15-minute sketching sessions to encourage each team member to draw out their initial concepts and visions.

Defining the MVP

Through our sketching sessions, it was revealed that there were commonalities in the product vision. We identified three key user stories:

• I want to view products and menus to compare, learn, and understand what I'm consuming. I want to know where it’s from and what’s in it.

• I want to personalize my experience so I can get recommendations and discover products that serve my specific needs. (i.e medical vs rec, edibles vs plant,) 

• I need to ensure my consumption is private to avoid social stigma.

I mocked up the main screens based on the team’s sketches:

• Login/Signup

• Personalize

• Shop

• Learn

• Article

• Payment

Hi-fi Prototyping

I designed mockups of the basic user journey before going over them with high-fidelity styling. I opted for a refreshing gradient look and a contemporary design for the UI. Then we created a clickable prototype in Invision.