Assess whether users can easily navigate the website.
Determine how effectively users can find, understand, and purchase products (e.g., seeds, pesticides, tools).
Evaluate the clarity of product information, particularly for novice users.
Identify usability issues, especially on mobile devices, which account for 80% of traffic.
- Add new futures for better website navigation journey
E-commerce UX&UI
Project type: Online store UX/UI + branding
Role: UX/UI designer & Marketing manager
Industry: Horticulture, Home & Garden
Tools used: Figma, Google Sheets, Google Analitics, Illustrator, Photoshop.
Duration: 4 weeks
Horticola.ro is an e-commerce platform dedicated to providing professional-grade gardening products, including seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and gardening tools. The website aims to serve both professional growers and gardening enthusiasts by offering a comprehensive range of products. The platform exemplifies effective e-commerce UX/UI design by focusing on user needs, providing detailed product information, and ensuring a responsive and accessible shopping experience. The design choices made contribute to a professional and user-friendly platform for gardening products.
Problem Statement
- 80% of users accessed the site from mobile devices, but experienced lag and usability issues
- new users found product pages dense and technical, leading to hesitation or cart abandonment
- the popular products are hard to find
- customers feedbacks and reviews are missing
- checkout is not so easy
- the structure of the menu is not friendly with hobby and garden enthusiast
- the website is not very mobile user-friendly for the customer journey
Proposed Solution
Mobile-First Approach: Ensured the platform is fully responsive, providing a seamless experience on smartphones and tablets.
- user-centered redesign
- improve product discoverability
streamline the purchasing process, and deliver a seamless shopping experience across all devices
Intuitive Navigation: Implemented a clear, hierarchical menu structure with well-defined categories and filters to navigate.
Enhanced Product Pages: Simplified product descriptions, added high-quality images, and included user-friendly specifications.
Streamlined Checkout Process: Reduced the number of steps in the checkout flow to minimize cart abandonment.
Add popular categories and keywords: Use analytics report & keyword research to define and highlight products of interest.
Target Audience
- Age: 25–65 years
- Profile:
- Professional growers (horticulture, agriculture)
- Gardening hobbyists with a small garden
- Users may or may not be tech-savvy
- Heavy mobile users
- Small to mid-scale agricultural entrepreneur
The Approach
My Role
Project Timeline
Emphatize Phase
To address the identified problem statement on the website, my user experience research heavily relied on a data-driven approach. I leveraged Google Analytics data, focusing on organic keywords and the most frequently accessed pages within the platform. Furthermore, I utilized various statistics from Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and Google Ads to gain a comprehensive understanding of user behavior on the site. Through this data collection, I was also able to identify the best-selling products and those with low popularity.
To deepen my insights, I created relevant tags in Google Tag Manager, which significantly improved my ability to understand user interactions with the website. Additionally, I observed real-time user sessions through Hotjar. These sessions revealed specific points of friction and raised questions about existing functionalities. This led to the conclusion that certain features required improvement to enhance the purchasing experience, ultimately increasing ROI, ROAS, and the overall popularity of the Horticola brand.
Competitive Analysis
Define Phase
- User persona
I had choose 4 fictional representation of the ideal customer that have a lot of differences regarding the lifestyle, jobs and relationship status.
- Empathy Maps
Information Achitecture
Typography & Colors
- Font Used
Roboto is a sans-serif typeface designed by Google, known for its versatility and readability on screens of all sizes. It features a dual nature with geometric letterforms and friendly, open curves. Roboto is the default font on Android and is widely used in various Google products and services.
Visual Design
- Home & Product Page
After
Before
- Hero Banner – The main banner sets the visual and thematic tone of the homepage. It is used to highlight seasonal messages, key promotions, or brand campaigns in a visually impactful way.
- Benefits Strip – Just above the hero banner, we’ve included a concise horizontal strip that clearly outlines key advantages of shopping with Horticola, such as fix delivery cost, expert support or secure payment. This element builds immediate trust and reinforces the brand’s value proposition at first glance.
- Offers – A dedicated section for special offers grabs attention and encourages purchases through active promotions and limited-time deals, creating a sense of urgency.
- Fidelity Program – Highlighting the loyalty program early, helps increase customer retention. It introduces users to long-term benefits and rewards from their first interaction with the brand.
- Domain Activity – This section establishes Horticola’s credibility by showcasing the brand’s field of expertise and real-world activity in the gardening and agricultural sector.
- Seasonal Kits & Bundles – Ready-made seasonal kits and product bundles offer practical solutions, especially for users seeking quick, pre-curated combinations tailored to specific needs or times of the year.
- Testimonials – Including real testimonials builds trust and adds a human touch, showing authentic feedback from satisfied customers.
- Blog Articles – The blog section provides valuable educational content, positioning Horticola as a knowledgeable and supportive presence in the industry while also driving organic traffic.
- Newsletter Signup – The page concludes with a subtle but effective call-to-action for newsletter sign-up, encouraging ongoing communication, community building, and brand loyalty.
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