A scented candle that smells just right to you?
In the mood for a relaxing night?
How do you choose from all the scents out there?
Soothing Flames simplifies it for you
Receive free scent samples & decide
which scents appeals to you
Purchase the full-sized scented candle from our app knowing you will enjoy it!
Scented Candle e-commerce app
Design Problem
Scent preference varies from person to person and consumers want to smell the candles before making a purchase
Hence, there is little confidence to make a purchase through an app unless the consumer has smelled the scent before
Design Goal
The goal of the project is to allow consumers to smell the candles without having to go down to a physical shop, hence giving consumers greater confidence to purchase through the app
Preview of Final Designs
Scent Quiz to aid users in finding their preferred scents
Free sample scents packs
List of different candles in one of the sample scent packs (scrollable)
Beginning:
User Research
User Interview
Method: User Interview through video calls
Interviewees: Females ranging from 19 - 58 years old
Questions were asked about their:
1) General shopping habits (physical, online websites, apps)
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Sought to understand the rationale and emotions behind their habits to better understand their motivations
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Enquired about their frustrations, which together with their motivations, would help create an app with a more pleasant user journey
2) Experiences with purchasing scented candles
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Priorities about choosing and purchasing scented candles to find out what truly matters to them
Pain Points
(about general shopping on apps & scent-specific shopping)
#1
Overwhelming information presented on apps
#2
Scents are personal and apps do not allow for smelling:
#3
Fire hazard from the open flames of candles
#4
Health hazard as customers worry about inhaling toxic fumes
Persona
Abigail
Age: 23
Education: BA (Economics)
Hometown: Singapore
Family: Single
Occupation: Data Analyst
A working lady who has more free time on weekdays after work and on weekends. Enjoys retail therapy. Her phone is often nearby and therefore she more often shops using apps out of convenience and also because apps save past purchase histories.
Wants to physically smell the candles before buying since smell preference is very personal. Uses candles to improve her mood (to be relaxed/happy).If she is able to smell the scents of candles through samples of scented strips, it would greatly diminish the need to go down to a physical shop.
Goals
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Improve mood (relaxation/happiness) through candles
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Physically smell candles before buying because smell is very personal
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Smooth shopping experience on apps where she is able to find what she wants easily
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Gain happiness through retail therapy
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Purchase items at a cheap/ promotional price
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Return items for free if its unsuitable
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Being able to pay using different payment modes (earn points/convenience)
Frustrations
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Overwhelming when confronted with too many options on apps
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Advertisements that clutter up the screen and distracts on apps
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Complicated user journey that takes too much time and effort (finding item return page/ navigating the complexity of the item shipping process)
Future-state user journey
(includes what users would like to experience since they do not currently purchase scented candles online)
Browse e-commerce apps such as Shopee & our app
Type keywords such as “floral”
Understand the types of candles available
Take note of famous brands with good descriptions of candles
Tasks
Select scents she thinks she will like
Key in address for shipping
Pay a small fee
Waits for promotional dates such as 11.11
Stay up late to grab online vouchers
Bulk buy with friends or families for discounts
Checks that order is correct
Light and smell the candle
Find a location to place the candle
Source for candles through apps
Compare prices and quality across different suppliers
Request for sample scents
Purchase candles at the cheapest price
Receive candles at home
Shopping to relieve boredom
Excited to search for scented candles
Annoyed to get irrelevant results
Shocked at the price
Impressed by the assortment of scents offered
Curious about how the scents would smell
Annoyed at the amount of information needed to be keyed in
Cautious about keying in credit card detail
Excited to receive scents
Patient yet eager for prices to drop
Happy to be chatting with friends about purchasing candles together
Satisfied and pleased to be saving money from discounts.
Emotions
Happy that the smell is to her liking
Upset that the smell is not what she expected
Pleased with herself because the candle improves the aesthetics of the location.
Lo-fi Paper Wireframes
Chosen Paper Wireframe for Homepage
Obvious button to guide users to free candle scents samples
Brainstormed wireframes (5 samples)
Lo-fi Digital Wireframes
Homepage
Assistive questionnaire prompt + sample scents packs
Candle Customisation
Usability study & design improvements
Moderated usability study was conducted with 5 persons over Zoom where users were told to carry out tasks based on prompts without any guidance on a lo-fi digital prototype of the app.
Subsequently, another usability study was conducted on a hi-fi digital prototype.
Design improvements based on feedback from usability study were made as shown below:
Scent Quiz Page
Before Usability Study
After Usability Study
Reduced the amount of words while highlighting the important adjectives for quicker understanding (thereby also creating space for one extra question)
Added circular page symbols to let users know they are on page 1 of 2, so they know where they are at and how little there is left to complete
Made the design cleaner and reduced the visual weight of borders
Added the top navigation bar for users to better know where they are at & to quickly jump to another page if they want to
Sample Scents Packs Page
Before Usability Study
After Usability Study
Removed the dark outline around each sample scents packs to make the design cleaner and to create negative space at the sides for a sense of spaciousness
Added the word ‘Free’ to better inform users.
Reduced the font size of ‘5ml/candle’ because it is not so essential
Finale: Takeaways from this project
Impact:
Users were intrigued and amazed about receiving candle scents samples because that would solve a major pain point of not being able to smell candles when browsing through a digital medium like an app
What I learnt:
Listening to understand without interrupting to correct the user is a skill to be honed since I can feel compelled to do otherwise.
Checking back to the overarching design problem and solution at key stages is important to ensure that the design process is fruitful and does solve the design problem