Project Definition

This project centers around an AI-enhanced eCommerce platform that specializes in customizable floral arrangements tailored to each user’s specific needs. By blending technology, nature, and creativity, Petalize offers a personalized shopping experience where users can take a short quiz through a chatbot to find the perfect arrangement.

The platform also features an interactive bot that provides helpful information about flower types and care instructions, making the experience both informative and engaging. With a focus on uniqueness and thoughtful gifting, each arrangement is designed to be as special as the person receiving it—delivered straight to the customer’s door.

Problem Definition

Traditional flower shops often lack innovation and unique personalization. Many platforms offer limited customization where customers struggle to understand which arrangement best suits the occasion for their recipient. Customers may face fatigue when shopping for floral arrangements due to the overwhelming selection of bouquets and lack of expertise for care.

Key Issues:

Providing accuracy for AI recommendations and answers, understanding emotional contexts

• User trust and adoption of AI features
• Standing out in the competitive floral market by implementing effective communication using AI

The Goal

Revolutionize the floral shopping experience by integrating AI-powered personalization, smart gifting automation. Recommends the perfect bouquet based on customer preferences, special occasions, and recipient personality while also offering a seamless, sustainable, and visually interactive shopping experience.

The Objectives:

• Enhance personalization with AI by using a system that suggests bouquets based on Customer Preferences, Occasions, and Moods
• Improve customer convenience by implementing a gift automation and reminder system so they never miss an important event. Provide real-time tracking and delivery options. Info about allergies and types.
• Promote sustainable and ethical sourcing, such as using flowers from local farmers

Competitive Research

In order to fully understand floral arrangement websites and the customer’s experience, I analyzed and researched six floral arrangement website competitors. The questions ranged from items listed and offered to the technologies and software within the platforms. Overall, the best designed websites are UrbanStems, The Bouqs, and Farmgirl Flowers. However, none of the competitors had an AI feature to enhance the user experience's search and browsing. 

User Research

The project began with a survey, asking users a range of questions about floral arrangements and their shopping habits. Eight individuals, ranging from 20 to 50 years old, were asked about their opinions and personal shopping experiences.

Q1. What are the primary challenges you face when searching for floral arrangements?

Based on the primary challenges customers face when searching for floral arrangements, I found customers struggle with matching flowers to specific occasions, price transparency, and ensuring freshness upon arrival. Some struggle with website navigation and finding personalized or unique options, like customizable arrangements or eco-friendly choices. Delivery can also be seen as unreliable or flowers arriving in poor condition. Additionally, allergies can also play a part and being unsure of what flower causes allergies.

Q2. What features do you believe would be most helpful when searching for floral arrangements?

Participants frequently mentioned an easy-to-use website with clear and simple navigation. High-quality images and detailed descriptions of arrangements were also of importance to customers, such as including size and color options. Customer reviews, a reliable delivery system, and filter options for freshness based off season would improve the shopping experience.

Q3. How do you go about finding floral arrangements to purchase online?

When finding floral arrangements to purchase online, participants typically chose locally to ensure freshness of flower. Or participants chose from well-known websites like 1-800-Flowers for reliable and more options. Many focus on filtering their search either by occasion or delivery date. Some value Etsy for handcrafted bouquets oe eco-friendly and sustainable choices.

Q4. What are your main frustrations when searching for floral arrangements?

The main frustrations when searching for floral arrangements that were mainly listed by the participants were unclear images and descriptions, which made it difficult to know what customers were looking at or purchasing. Some felt options listed on many floral platforms lack uniqueness and do not offer customization. Hidden fees and high shipping cost can turn customers away, as well as websites that are hard to navigate and too overwhelming with disorganized information. Lack of search options when looking for arrangements like specific themes or occasions make it frustrating for some users.

Q5. Do you prefer browsing curated collections or browsing specifically for personalized preferences?

Some prefer curated collections for offering quick inspiration and helpful for limited time or being undecided on what to choose. Others prefer browsing based on personal preference, control over types of flowers, colors, and customization for a more unique selection. While both options are useful to some participants, it is preferred to have curated collections and specific personalized preferences based on their specific need at the time.

User Personas

With the information received from the survey, I designed two personas to represent the primary user group. These personas represent the users’ preferences and behaviors for the floral arrangement website.

Project Goals

Once completing my personas, I mapped out the project goals based on Business, User, and Technical Considerations. The business goals are my marketing aspirations for the project such as increasing sales and customer retention.

User Flow Diagram

The flow diagram showcase the story from the user’s journey. The user begins on the home page of the website with a plan in mind to search for birthday blue birthday flowers (later changed to yellow). The user uses the chat bot function to search for flowers or they use the advanced search engine to search for flowers. Both provide the same result. The end results in the user at the checkout section and going through the checkout process.

Low-Fidelity Wireframes

The lo-fi wireframes are a visual representation of the user-flow diagram above. The wireframes below consist of the Home, Shop, Product, Chat Bot, Check-Out options, and Check-Out page. 

Style Guide

The design of the website is based on comforting and nature tones. The website represents freshness and calming themes, guaranteeing fresh flowers for the user and a calm shopping experience.

Color Palette

The color palette consists of grays and greens. The muted shades of green represent nature and calmness. The grays are undertones of the greens and hold a cooler tone of color.

Typography

Playfair Display is an elegant serif font used as the header of the website. DM Sans is a san serif font used for the body. Combined, the two fonts provide an elegant and sophisticated appearance while maintaining their readability across multiple platforms.

High-Fidelity Wireframes

After designing the brand for Petalize, I put all the pieces together from the lo-fi wireframes and the style guide to create the high-fidelity wireframes.

Classic Search

The video below demonstrates a classic search. The user would search for a specific request in the search engine by typing. Then, they would be lead to that request through the browse page.

Chat Bot Search

The video below demonstrates a search through the chat bot. The users tells the chat bot what exactly they want and the chat bot can either: redirect the user to a browse page OR the chat bot can provide recommendations for the user based on the user's request. 

Mobile App

The mobile application is a responsive version of the website. It is designed in the same way as the website but for more simplicity regarding accessibility to a mobile device. Users have the same function on the website and mobile application.

The project opened an opportunity to create an ordinary platform but excel through the features and implementations of modern day technology. There are many floral arrangement ordering websites, but not many include AI as a feature to enhance the user experience. The use of AI does not take away from the company or brand but instead improve and simplify the navigational experience for their users.

Overall, the user experience as the main focus allowed the AI implementation to guide the user through the website through the chat bot and search engine.