Product Design

Alberta Cannabis
Ecommerce Website

OVERVIEW

One stop shop for cannabis.

As Canadians approached the historic legalization of recreational cannabis in 2018, my team and I designed an engaging ecommerce platform for Alberta Cannabis. We addressed the perceptions, apprehensions and needs of all levels of Alberta’s cannabis users in order to create a brand that understands and values superior user experience by prioritizing what’s most important to customers like service, price, quality, education and security.

Role

Product Designer. I worked on designing the PDP pages, the checkout flow and worked with the engineering team to understand the technical constraints of the inventory management system.

DURATION

22 Weeks

CHALLENGE

How might we create a cannabis platform that would not only sell cannabis but also educate customers and establish the brand as a trusted source of the product?

Outcome

The largest cannabis ecommerce website with the second largest repository on public health information relating to cannabis in Alberta.

On launch day, the website received over 60,000 users in the first hour and continues to be Alberta's largest cannabis ecommerce website.

View Website

Product Preview

Design Process

Understanding the problem space.

In order to gather how Albertans felt towards the brand we were creating, my team and I worked in various locations across Alberta to conduct interviews with 31 Albertans that aligned with three personas we identified. The personas were developed based on the user-based segments we received from the client. The main locations were Edmonton, Red Deer, Calgary and Medicine Hat. By having the team in three different locations, we were able to go through quick iteration cycles.

My team and I tested the prototype and brand across several locations in Alberta to account for regional variations in perceptions.

Personas

Figuring out our users.

My team and I designed the proposition around the needs, aspirations, and expectations of three design targets.

  • Everyday Evan, 28

  • The craft connoisseur

Evan smokes Cannabis on a daily basis, he is highly knowledgeable and discerning. He seeks a curated service and is always on the look out for new offerings. Price is important to Evan, as small savings can stack up.

  • Sporadic Spohie, 32

  • A social cannabis user

Sophie is most likely to participate with friends, but she rarely buys cannabis for herself. She has a very basic understanding of products, strains etc., but a lots of questions.

  • Newbie Neville, 65

  • New to cannabis

Legality has been a barrier to use for Neville, he likes to live on the right side of the law. He is curious about cannabis, but wants to be re-assured of the risks and merits before he will consider purchasing.

People’s shopping behaviours.

My team and I started by studying key drivers that affected people's shopping behaviour. Once we conducted the research, I found 5 overarching categories.

First Category

Service.

Customers are seeking a curated, professional, & convenient shopping experience.

Importance by persona.

Second Category

Price.

Price is a significant driver for many customers, they will seek the cheapest prices and look for promotions.

Importance by persona.

Third Category

Range.

Quality: flavour profiles and the ‘high’ experience. Absence of impurities Range: format and strain availability for use in different occasions

Importance by persona.

Fourth Category

Education.

Consumers are looking for information but are shy about asking. They’re looking for an open dialogue and around risks and merits of cannabis.

Importance by persona.

Fifth Category

Safety and Security.

This is a primary concern about buying online.

Importance by persona.

Branding And Wesbite

Defining the brand.

As we were working on understanding customer shopping behaviours, I also worked on creating a brand and website for Alberta Cannabis.

I conducted hour long interviews with 31 individuals across our three personas. I did this to solicit feedback on the prototype, brand and to gain insights around attitudes, experiences and general context as a rationale for our design decisions. Here are some of things I heard:

Alberta is a province of rugged individualists; we’re straight shooters
Everyone in Alberta has their own spot of paradise, the province is wild and uncommercialized
Cannabis and mountains share the same sentiments for me: they’re about nature and escapism
Discretion is important: I don’t want to be seen leaving a dispensary or looking at weed on my phone. This isn’t Vancouver

Name and logo.

Taking inspiration from the geography that defines the province, the logo presents a clear, contemporary, and confident cannabis proposition to all Albertans.

Stand-alone logo

Used in key customer facing material

Brand guidelines.

In addition to the logo, typography, colours, and imagery have all been considered. These elements form the basis of the new brand.

Imagery

  • Colour Palette

  • Typography

Wireframes

Research to design.

I used this information to create the wireframes for the site. Once the wireframes were designed, I tested these with users. Any feedback I received was incorporated into the design process.

Constraints

Understanding the technical constraints of our solutions.

The development team wanted to use an out of the box solution for the website. They did this to expedite the build and launch of the website but still work with the AGLC’s current systems. This meant that I had to follow a lot of the user experience principles from the out of box kit.

All this research was followed by a series of design and development sprints. This led to the final website which took nearly a year to build and launch.​​​​​​​ The initial customer research was conducted Deloitte’s Market Gravity team and the final designs were built by Kael Cruz, Piyush Bandyopadhyay, Brian Ross, Chris Page and myself.

Key Learnings.

One of the most intriguing parts of this experience was seeing the discrepancy between people’s responses to the design of the prototype and the design of the live website. I discovered the best way to get people sharing was by asking questions that were open to interpretation, allowing interviewees to lead the conversation. I found them more inclined to share personal stories which allowed me to constantly follow up with “why”.

For example, one of the comments about the landing page was: “I don’t want to see mountains. I’m here to buy cannabis.” Before this project, I would find myself overlooking similar comments but now, I am more inclined to probe deeper. I want to know what makes a customer say something like that and what we can do to make their journey better.

Another interesting experience was presenting and explaining design decisions to clients that did not have a background in design or tech. The client had not worked with designers that conducted this level of research in the past. Therefore, my team and I faced the challenge of explaining the value in a comprehensive research process to design. In addition, the design decisions that made sense to us as didn’t necessarily make sense to the business-minded executives we presented to. I often found myself stepping in to explain why and how I came upon various conclusions.

Recent Works