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Kush Tests

Roles: Product designer, Researcher

Methods: Interviews, Wireframes, Prototype

Tools: Adobe XD, Wix

Company: TakeOnDesign
(https://www.takeondesign.com)
 

The cannabis industry in South Africa is still relatively new and there is still a lot of stigma surrounding cannabis. We wanted to find out how we could broaden this thinking. 

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Currently, websites that sell cannabis give no information on where the cannabis has been tested or what the results are.


I started working with an early stage startup on this project and it is currently in development.


The stakeholders have communicated and articulated their vision to me and following the design process, this is the approach I have taken.

takeon_design_logo.jpg

Goals

Company objective
The aim is to create a cannabis online market underpinned by lab tested results that are independently verified so that the public has a safe space to access all types of cannabis.

Project Goal
Improve cannabis education of users at all levels and to re-frame the negative stigma surrounding cannabis through creating a non-judgemental and educational data base.

Research - Survey

Goals:

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  • Investigate the public's perception and understanding of cannabis, their desire to purchase cannabis products and what informs their purchase
     

  • Is the public is aware/are interested that cannabis products are supposed to be tested
     

56

Participants

6

Questions

Insights

95%

of participants didn't know they can ask for the lab results of cannabis

79%

of participants trusts word or mouth/recommendations for products

73%

of participants identify cannabis as recreational

68%

of participants mistrust pharmaceutical companies/scientists

Opportunity Areas Based on Findings

1. Centre for cannabis education that can develop and grow to become a valuable source of knowledge, testing, investigation of products and potentially mediating and bringing together of cannabis start-up companies and investors

 

2. An e-commerce platform where customers are able to review certain cannabis products (similar to the concept of an AirBnB) and users are able to purchase products through this site. A certain percentage from the sale will go towards profit for the company.

 

3. Creating a product

The conclusion was to move forward with a hybrid solution - to create a platform for cannabis education as well as to work on an e-commerce website, similar to the concept of Airbnb.

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The focus will be to create the cannabis educational website first in order to gain the public's trust and legitimacy.

Decision

Desktop Research

  • Research was done into websites and apps that are similar to what Kush Test wants to achieve

  • Research was done into the following: Leafly, Tokr, Weedmaps, AirBnB, UberEats and Yelp

  • Took note of landing page design, user flow and features

Things Consumers Care About...

  • Transparency about what they are consuming - eg. types of cannabis, etc.

  • The reviews and experiences of other customers

  • Review and legitimacy of a shop/product

  • Lab verification/brands who have gone the extra mile

  • Information that is easily accessible and transparent (eg. the information is right there and they don't have to do separate searches down strange rabbit holes)

Questions To Keep In Mind

  • How might we build trust/trustworthy brand with people?

  • How might we gain credibility & loyalty?

  • How might we build a platform that brings together sellers and buyers?

  • How might we educate consumers on cannabis (other than social media) ?

  • How might we change the way people view cannabis?

  • How might we create an interest in cannabis based products?

  • How might we grow interest in this niche space/market?

  • How might we present all the information in a transparent, easy to identify manner?

Brainstorming Ideas - Crazy 8

Did 3 rounds of crazy 8s to generate ideas.

Conclusion was to include the following in the low-fidelity mock-ups:

  • Landing page

  • Search bar with a drop down menu but with a filter and checkbox option

  • Different categories for articles - articles linked to user's level of understanding around cannabis but also have ability to move between different categories - something to keep in mind is that the categories should not make any user feel inferior about their knowledge

  • Quiz option

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Low Fidelity Mock Ups

Low fidelity wireframe for landing page

vs

Feedback:

  • Removal of search bar (this feature isn't 100% necessary at this point seeing as there is not a lot of content on the website at the moment. This includes the drop down arrow)

  • Change the quizz button to feel more integrated

  • There needs to be more of an established hierarchy on the page

High Fidelity (Round 1)

Feedback:

  • Users new to cannabis who are seeking this information out might feel overwhelmed by all the articles and information

  • There isn't a welcome feeling to it

  • Users have too many options and choices and might not know where to begin

  • Our goal is to build trust therefore it's okay if users have to do an extra click

High Fidelity (Round 2)

  • Blue was chosen as the main colour for the website. This is because blue conveys a sense of trust and responsibility - traits we wanted to convey to users from their interaction with the site
     

  • My team and I discussed the adjectives that we would use to split users into beginner and advance and we wanted to ensure these wouldn't make users feel bad/left out if they weren't as informed about cannabis

Success

Due to the nature of Kush Tests being a startup, it's still in the development phase.
These are the metrics I will be using in the future to measure the success of Kush Tests:
 

  • Assess the amount of tickets issued by users

  • Assess the interaction users have with the articles

  • Gather information as to which articles users are interacting with the most

Future ideas...

  • Adding a comments section for the articles - how will this function? Rating of the articles?

  • Adding 'search' button

  • How will users/writers be able to submit articles to be reviewed?

  • Expanding the website to include products/businesses that can be reviewed and verified

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